Trees were never not meant to be chopped down. I have always had a thing with trees, respected them greatly, and since childhood have enjoyed climbing all over them. That is why I felt really bad cutting down the tree in our background. It had to be done because it was taking over our backyard and covering up the whole back of the house. I hated to do it, but it had to be done. The first cut was the worst and I apologized for causing any pain. Certainly this big healthy tree did not deserve such an end to life. Or was it so absolutely necessary? That question still occupies my mind. I always climbed trees, and often climbed so high that I risked my neck more than once, feeling emptiness in my stomach as I almost fell into oblivion. In Stockton, California we had these three glorious cherry trees in the backyard. I knew them by heart, the limbs and braches and the various climbing paths upward I could take depending on my mood. When the season was right I would collect cherries and put them into small brown paper bags. For a dime a bag, I would sell the cherries at the front of our driveway to passersby. There was this tables, and two fold up chairs, and I would sit there proud of my collection. More often I would escape up into a tree, the middle one which was the highest. People would call looking for me, and I would hide up there quiet as a tree squirrel. I watched the people searching in the backyard, walking just beneath me and then giving up they would continue their search elsewhere. I had a heck of a time holding my breath in order not to laugh. So here I was being so unrespectable to this other tree some forty odd years later. This time as an adult that I was (is). But it had to be done. Later, Maarten used the stump and few thicker branches that were left for the sake of honor as the basis for yet another fancy fort. He could climb a meter and stand on the top as a lookout tower. That made me happy, as even as things come to an end they can be used again for what is left of them. Even trees, which deserve it more than we humans do.