Relative Something

The dead maple tree is gone from the center of the labyrinth. My new Silky SUGOI pruning saw arrived on Monday afternoon, and I put it to work immediately, trimming tree branches. In the case of the dead maple, I cut off the top branches and then rocked the trunk back and forth to snap the roots, allowing me to pull it right out of the ground.

It dramatically changes the visual of the labyrinth. Without that feature in the center ring, the focus returns to the boulders, but they have shifted significantly over the years and lack the artistic flair they originally featured.

Our whole experience with creating and maintaining this labyrinth has vividly revealed how fluid the “solid ground” actually is. I wish there were a time-lapse recording of the last 13 years to show how much all the rocks move throughout the freezing and thawing, and the soaking and drying.

April 2013

At least the smaller rocks defining the pathway can be lifted out of the mud and reset. Those boulders are pretty much doomed to sink and tilt with little hope of being reoriented. I used the loader bucket on the big tractor to stand them up when we started creating the labyrinth and didn’t have the rings of rocks in place yet.

If I wanted to use the big tractor again, we’d need to move enough pathway rocks to make a lane for the tractor to reach the center. We would also need to wait until the ground was frozen enough to keep the wheels from sinking into the soft turf. The reason I was able to pull the trunk of the maple tree is that it is so squishy down there right now.

I’m undecided about immediately replacing it with another tree. Looking at the sinking/leaning boulders, the thought occurred to me that I could just keep adding other big rocks and turn it into more of a pile. The center circle isn’t very big. The rocks take up most of the space anyway. It would be nice if they were more conducive to being climbed on in order to sit on them.

I need to think about it. Preferably on a warm sunny day, while I am right there in the center circle, gazing at them.

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