M. Lewis 1805

[ppine]

Grandpa,

I love your photo of the aspen carving (arborglyph). This is Basque country and we have lots of them just like you do in Idaho.

It is obvious though that this is someone's idea of a joke. The tree in your photo cannot be older than about 50 years even in a severe climate. Aspen trees are a short-lived species pioneer species that rarely live past about 100 years. Since 1805 was over 200 years ago the photo is a fake. I hate to be the bringer of bad news.

That said, I wish I had that photo on my wall. Keep up the good work.

[Grandpa]

Funny PPine, you're only the second to comment on that picture in over a year. Actually, those boys were never within 300 miles of where that tree is let alone the age difference. I thought it was a good enough conversation piece to capture on film. I also like to show the tree itself to the grandkids and see if they are alert enough to notice. So far, the girls seem to be more knowledgeable than the boys.

The other commenter also didn't pick up on the significance of the name right away. But both granddaughters caught that right away.

[ppine]

Pa,

Your grand daughters are being raised right. About 6 weeks ago after one of your great posts I took the liberty to look at some of your photos. I noticed the carved aspen then and wrote a long paragraph on why it couldn't be real. Then I erased it because I didn't want to spoil your fun.

Have you ever floated the upper Missouri River from Ft. Benton, MT?

[Grandpa]

No I havn't. In fact, I have camped very little in Montana. Beautiful country but what can I say other than I'm surrounded by Idaho.