I have a 30 acre property, at least 2/3 of which is forested mostly with various Evergreen species along with lots of Birch, some Maple, and others.

I have a long term plan which involves taking down a small fraction of these Evergreens to open up some new space for a variety of reasons.

I go about the task once in awhile when I’m in the mood. The quick part is felling a given tree with either my Stihl or battery operated 40-volt Oregon (a fantastic chainsaw!).

The pain in the ar$$ part is bucking the tree, chipping all those branches with my wood chipper (powered from the PTO on my tractor), cutting the main trunk into manageable logs and then stacking them somewhere.

It seems like I will never reach my goals because there are so many, they’re densely populated, and it takes a fair amount of time to process just a single tree.

In any event, I digress. Let me get closer to the point of this post…

Sometimes I will fell a tree or two, process one, and leave the other for another time. Sometimes weather gets in the way. Other projects too…

Anyway, I’ve been working in a particular area on the property and will use the tractor to drag the trees over there – where I process them. I usually have several trees lying around which I eventually process.

Well, there’s this one tree which I had dragged over and was kind of on the perimeter of the processing area. I kept ignoring it and would do other trees instead.

The other day I had decided to get to that tree and get it done. It wasn’t that big of a tree. I hooked up a tow rope to my ATV and the other end wrapped around the tree trunk so I could pull it over to where the tractor and chipper was.

I put the ATV in 4-wheel, set the gear shift to Low, and proceeded to pull the tree. NOT! That tree wasn’t budging.

I backed up the ATV and tried again. This time accelerating until the slack of the tow rope snapped tight. Problem was the ATV still didn’t budge it as I jolted to a stop!

I’m sitting there looking at this relatively small tree saying to myself that the ATV should be able to easily move it. I got off, walked over to the tree.

Upon examining the situation, I realized the problem…

The tree had been lying there long enough so that the grass had grown and intertwined around all the branches that were on the ground. Amazingly the grass was holding the tree in place like cement!!

It was incredible really. When you think about it, each tiny little blade of grass is so small, weak, inconsequential. But you get enough of them wrapped around something and together they become very strong and can hold that ‘thing’ down! In this case a tree!

So where am I going with this?

Do you know what I thought about right after I realized what was happening?

I thought about how it’s a great example of how we as a people can be held down (from growth/success or whatever) when so many seemingly “little things” add up.

You could use the analogy for so many things. Over-regulation, taxes, rules/laws, agencies, bureaucracies, govt, you name it… Maybe each thing on their own could be dealt with. But as they continue to add up, to pile up, it becomes exceedingly difficult to move.

Here’s another thought:

Lets throw some politics into the equation. What about the constant drone of the so called mainstream news media with their relentless chipping away at the thought perceptions of the masses. One blade of grass at a time as they begin to grip the mind…

How about the anti-g u n crowd, their lobby, their politicians, their corporate partners… all chipping away at our rights a little at a time. You might view each little chip as though it’s not a real big deal. But next thing you know…

Kind of like the tiny Lilliputian’s of Gulliver’s Travels…

Gulliver lies down on the grass to rest, and soon he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he finds that his arms, legs, and long hair have been tied to the ground with pieces of thread. He can’t move. He feels something move across his leg and over his chest. He looks down and sees, to his surprise, a six-inch-tall human. Then 40 more climb onto his body…

I could go on with analogies. But I thought I would share this with you because I found it interesting how tiny little blades of grass can seize up the works.

Don’t fall asleep when and where lots of tiny threads may be cast over you.
Enough of them and you will be ‘pinned to the ground’.

By the way, how did I move the tree?

I got a ‘bigger stick’. I used the tractor 😉