Other Books by Gene Logsdon
Fiction:
Pope Mary and the Church of Almighty Good Food
The Last of the Husbandmen
The Lords of Folly
Nonfiction:
Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind
Small-Scale Grain Raising
The Contrary Farmer’s Invitation to Gardening
The Pond Lovers
The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse
All Flesh Is Grass: The Pleasures and Promise of Pasture Farming
You Can Go Home Again: Adventures of a Contrary Life
Good Spirits: A New Look at Ol’ Demon Alcohol
Living at Nature’s Pace: Farming and the American Dream
The Contrary Farmer
The Low-Maintenance House
Gene Logsdon’s Practical Skills
Organic Orcharding: A Grove of Trees to Live In
Two-Acre Eden
Getting Food from Water: A Guide to Backyard Aquaculture
The Gardener’s Guide to Better Soil
Successful Berry Growing
Homesteading: How to Find New Independence on the Land
A Sanctuary of
Trees
Beechnuts, Birdsongs,
Baseball Bats, and Benedictions
Gene Logsdon
Chelsea Green Publishing
White River Junction, Vermont
Copyright © 2012 by Gene Logsdon
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
All photographs are by Gene Logsdon, unless otherwise credited.
Project Manager: Patricia Stone
Developmental Editor: Ben Watson
Copy Editor: Cannon Labrie
Proofreader: Eileen M. Clawson
Indexer: Linda Hallinger
Designer: Melissa Jacobson
Printed in the United States of America
First printing April 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 13 14 15 16
Our Commitment to Green Publishing
Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope you’ll agree that it’s worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. A Sanctuary of Trees was printed on FSC®-certified paper supplied by Thomson-Shore that contains at least 30% postconsumer recycled fiber.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Logsdon, Gene.
A sanctuary of trees : beechnuts, birdsongs, baseball bats, and benedictions / Gene Logsdon.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-60358-401-2 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-60358-402-9 (ebook)
1. Trees. 2. Trees—Utilization. 3. Trees—Ecology. 4. Trees—Folklore. 5. Nature in literature.
6. Philosophy of nature. 7. Human-plant relationships. 8. Human beings—Effect of environment on.
9. Country life. I. Title.
QK475.L64 2012
511’.52--dc23
2011052013
Chelsea Green Publishing
85 North Main Street, Suite 120
White River Junction, VT 05001
(802) 295-6300
Contents
3. Going to School in the Forest
5. Beginning a Life in the Woods
9. The Flowering of Our Woodlands
11. How Big a Woodlot for Fuel Independence?
12. The Dark Side of the Woods
13. Your Own Low-Cost Wood Products
14. The Living Architecture of a Tree
17. Starting a Grove from Scratch
18. Keeping the Sanctuary Lamps Burning
Acknowledgments
My thanks to publisher Margo Baldwin at Chelsea Green and all the folks there who have so enthusiastically and astutely turned my verbal meanderings into readable text, especially Ben Watson, Patricia Stone, and Cannon Labrie.
Also thanks to Dennis Barnes, Bryan Hoben, John Fichtner, and Max Roth for allowing me to use their sensitive and unusual photographs to show so well the many-sided blessings of a woodland culture.
Advice and information from Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, David Kline, Brad Roof, Brad Billock, Otto Binau, John Fichtner, John Watkins, John Gallman, Andy Reinhart, Jan Dawson, Danny Downs, Keith Downs, Morrison Downs, Donnie Downs, Jimmy Downs, and especially my siblings, Marilyn, Giles, Jenny, Berny, Rosy, Teresa and Gerry, has been especially helpful.
None of this would be possible without the love and close participation of my wife, Carol; our children, Jenny and spouse Joe Cartellone, Jerry and spouse Jill; and grandchildren Becca Cartellone and Evan and Alex Logsdon, all of whom have shared the work and joy of living in a sanctuary of trees.