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About This Film

This film includes footage from when we cleared a few acres of land in front of our home in 2006. Many of the images are sped up to emphasize the power of the machinery being used. The song "Spaz Medicine" by one of our favorite bands, moe., was chosen for the high-energy rock that they blend with the almost carnival-like interludes.

This film, apparently, is my most controversial. It receives many comments from people who blame me for deforestation. A few have damned me—and at least one person asked for God to have mercy on my soul after wishing all sorts of harm to my physical self.

I understand that the footage can be quite disturbing. It was hard to watch when it was happening. I don't attempt to explain the film on YouTube, but for those seeing the film here, I will offer that Sarah and I believe we are doing a better job of stewarding the land by clearing the white pines than by allowing them to continue to crowd out other, possibly, more beneficial, varieties.

White pines grow significantly faster than any of the trees competing for light nearby, and are very good at re-seeding after fires, so they are over-running other trees such as birch, maple, and beech. We cleared the land in order to farm it organically—and to get sunlight on our icy drive-way, truth be told—and have always planned to plant a diverse selection of hardwood trees at the perimeter of the fields. Our land is not ancient old-growth thousand-year-old redwoods.