Sheri's Willow Tree.......

Everyone loves a good story...I like telling them...it's a good combination! This is the story of Sheri's Willow Tree:

About four years ago we bought a piece of property just above the town of Manson, in a development call Winesap Ridge. I took Sheri up there several years before, when it first came on the market, and she fell in love with it. As fate would have it, we could not afford it at the time, it was just out of reach for us....so the dream died, or did it? A few years passed and we were able to sell a home we had built. We happened to know the family who had bought the lot we fell in love with, so I contacted them to see what their plans were....they wanted to sell! So alas the dream of our Winesap property did come true after all, just a few years later then we thought. What drew us to the property in the first place was the amazing view, and all the trees....all kinds of trees. Firs, and pines, maple, apple, cherry, poplar, alder....and one mammoth willow tree, right at the entrance to the property. This was Sheri's favorite tree of all. Sheri envisioned a swing or a bench under her mighty flowing branched where you could whittle away a hot summer day in her shade, reading a good book with a glass of iced tea. We bought the lot just a few months before Sheri began her battle against cancer. Our plan is to build a home there for our family, but life and the economy have not allowed that to happen in our timing. Meanwhile Sheri's willow stood tall and proud at the entrance, waiting for us to join her.

The past few years have been tough on the willow tree. Many wind storms have ravished her once strong branches, ripping them from her one gale at a time. Finally this past fall, one last storm tore her final large branch from her massive trunk...her former glory was no more...or was it? We called in a professional tree trimmer to prune her back to almost nothing...not sure if she was coming back, or would be sent to the firewood pile. All winter she has stood, branch less and bare....until this spring. Hundreds of new sprouting limbs cover her trunk, with fresh budding leaves, already draping to the ground like glory days of old. Is she back? Time will tell. If this tree is anything like the owner that loves her, it's tough to keep her down for long. Maybe Sheri and her tree are more alike then we know.

Looking up,

Brett