A couple days can be a long time. I went off on a river trip last week for work after a few days of scurrying around, trying to cram five pounds of getting things done into the three-pound sack of how much time I had. It’s quite a chore to get around to all the chores that need getting to this time of year. There’s things you can’t put off, like standing there admiring golden tamarack needles. Then you’ve got to find time to go find tamarack with no needles on it for firewood. Buy your deer tag and then get too busy to go deer hunting. There’s cider to be pressed after you shoo the deer away from your apple trees.

It all just piles up like leaf piles if you had time to rake leaves. Meanwhile you know Old Man Winter is gassing up to head this way for an extended visit. Hope he likes cider because I don’t have any venison this year.

One thing I did get checked off the list before going on that steelhead float last week was talking with the power company tree people about the big ol’ leaning spruce on the corner of my place. We’d talked about taking it down before, but decided it had enough color in its cheeks to be granted a temporary stay. But since that discussion, a similar tree nearby tipped over in some wind and I’d decided to put the leaning spruce back on the chopping block list.

I’ve heard a theory that Johnny Spruce Tree, who may or may not have been a cousin to Mr. Apple, must have come through the Wallowa Valley planting all these Englemann spruces. They do seem to grow all right, up to a point. Then they start leaning away from that point.

The tree folks happened to be in the neighborhood pruning limbs back from the lines last week so I went out and asked about taking down the very tree they were in the process of giving a haircut. Ah, it’s fine, I was told. That tree’s in good shape. It’ll be there for a long time.

Two days can sure be a long time, because apparently things got a mite gusty up here while I was gone, that spruce tree got tired of standing and decided to lay down for a while on the power lines, across Virgil Street and rest its head against the corner of my neighbor Gene’s shop.

I’m not questioning the tree guy’s assessment. As the ol’ saying goes: It’s easy enough to diagnose rot in the center of an Engelmann Spruce down near the base once it’s fallen over and right there for the seeing. Not so easy when the bark’s on it and it’s still standing two days earlier.

The timing on that prediction was pretty spectacular, considering. And it was odd to read about one of my trees in the Chieftain’s “For the Record” last week. Lines down in rural Enterprise. Yikes.

Half of the tree is still there, and the tree guy might just be proven a little bit right about it being there for a long while before I get time to clean it up. Just consider it a sculpture in the meantime, will you neighbors? Minus the bears.

Jon Rombach is a local columnist for the Chieftain and aspiring chainsaw sculptor.