The Armenian, or as I call him Job.

It’s taken me a long time to speak up about this. I did not want to say anything because I hurt inside. I hurt so much that I had to just bottle it up and hide it inside me and forget it. I cannot forget. It took me a while to just come to the realization that this is what happened and why, it was always in the back of my mind. Many will disagree with me especially the Armenian Diaspora. However, I am the diaspora. I am the creation of the current and historical past of the Armenian experience.

It’s as if we can’t catch a break. Armenia and Armenians keep on getting hammered. Like Job in the Old Testament, when Satan tests Jobs piety and commitment to God, by betting with God himself. He’s faced with loss of all possessions, his children, and his health. Is God just trying to test us? To test our commitment to him? Its two steps forward three steps back. Just hammering that nail into the coffin while the wood splinters.

What is it you ask? It’s about the last one hundred plus years. The Genocide. The Genocide has now been engraved into our DNA. It is part of us, it does not leave us, and it is like a open bleeding wound that will continue to. Unless we rise up and move on from the past. It’s hard, yes, we have to, or we will continue to lose what is rightfully ours. Yes, a horrible, disgusting, unspeakable act was committed against us. There is no denying that.

However, we cannot continue to bleed, we need a scar, a scab. We cannot continue to live as if we are victims. Our ancestors, they are the victims, we cannot feel their pain but only know about it and remember it. Let it be known, but do not let it define us, forgive but never forget, a very Christian thought process.

I am a Baku Armenian. Just like the Armenians of Nakhichevan, we lost everything once, then a second time and with the final nail we almost lost all of Nagorno Karabakh. Why? Why did we lose? The answer is right in front of us. It was to get the official recognition of the genocide by another United Nations permanent security council member state. It was to get the United States recognition. Once it was done, would the diaspora be satisfied?

Here is the timeline:

  • US House recognizes the genocide on October 29th 2019.
  • Senate recognizes it a month and a half later on December 12, 2019. After this was done, even Armenians in Armenia thought, “oh hey we got support from the USA,” they recognized the genocide.
  • “We can do whatever we want.” 2020, Nikol Pashinyan announced plans to make Shushi/Shusha(I have always called it Shusha, because maybe its what my parents and grandparents have called it?), Artsakh’s new capital.
  • Arayik Aaratyunyan, announced the move in a September 19th 2020. The same day Azeri President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenia of preparing for another war, a “provocation.”
  • Days later, Azerbaijan with the help of Turkish military, strike at the heart of Artsakh and the 44 day war begins. Artsakh loses the war. Russia invades NKAO to establish peace.  

I ask Armenians? Why? Why would we move the capital of Artsakh for Stepanakert to Shusha? Why would we do this, if not only to provoke the hostility of our neighbors? To rub it in. Hubris? We won the first war, yes, be humble. However, we could in no way sustain the continued situation. Negotiate for peace and prosperity. Be a mensch.  If only we could see the downfall, hindsight is painful at times.

The hubris of our actions forced us to give up our commitment to Armenia to Artsakh. There is no Armenia without Artsakh, and there is no Artsakh without Armenia. My parents had sacrificed their livelihood and changed our families lives dramatically. We become refugees from Baku so that Artsakh could be won. We left everything. All 350,000 Armenians that lived in Azerbaijan gave up everything so that 150,000 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians could have their independence and unification with Armenia.

However, the diaspora kept on pushing about the Genocide. Yes, it needs recognition, but the Armenian state should not be held captive by a bleeding diaspora and a new wound in Artsakh. We were all bleeding out slowly.  Armenia is blockaded by Turkey in the West. The South, Iran hit with sanctions. The North, Georgia in a frozen conflict with Russia. Did we expect Armenians in Armenia to just take it? 30 years of blockades? Just like Job losing his possessions. But let’s pivot to a different contribution to this attrition or situation.  

It brings delight to some ears of talk of democracy, free elections, stopping corruption. But you all forget. Every nation that is democratic has corruption. Every nation that has a dictatorship has corruption. Every nation has corruption, period. It is part of the human experience. We are corrupt, we are all sinners. American politicians, in one way or another have been or will be corrupt. British politicians can and have been corrupt, the list goes on. Europeans may want us to be democratic but in the end they only care about their security not the government system that Armenia has. They care about their influence and talk of how great their systems are. Are they that great if they bring the downfall of other nations for their security? If you can’t keep your house warm with democratic politics then why have them? If you don’t know how to use democracy as a system of governance, then maybe just maybe you need to rethink your principles and ideas of actual use of democracy?

Does the US or “democratic nations” care when they buy their oil from Saudi Arabia? Or are allied to a dictatorship in Egypt? Or the puppet governments created by western or eastern influence? Look at how the European union is now buying oil from Baku. Where is your democratic principles? They go out the door when you must heat your house. No? Will you freeze to death for an idea? No one wants to die for ideas, we have already tried that. The American experiment is unique, it is outside of the norms, it is also still an experiment. Armenia cannot be a sacrificial test of a system that is still being tested.

Allegiance, loyalty, nationalism is all that matters to our nation. Democracy is great when it has been galvanized and the belief in the democratic principles are engraved in a nation. Are they in Armenia today? In my opinion, no they are not.

To conclude. Armenia and Diaspora need to have a united goal. The State local politics and foreign politics need to be in sidestep, marching like soldiers in perfect formation.

The diaspora rather than building a better relationship with Russia, it burned it down for American support, and or European “Democracy”. America is on the other side of the world. Armenia shares a border with an American ally, a NATO member, this ally has no intent to support Armenia, why would you think America would?

We need a strong Armenia. We need to unite under nationalism not individualistic democratic principles. We are too homogeneous to survive as an individual but only as a nation, a conglomeration of different Armenian backgrounds and take Armenia into the future. A future with children that can run and play, grow old and die on their land. Our children must inherit a strong nation. A nation that is proud but is also humble and understanding.  A nation that is growing. That is advancing. Relentless.

Yes, we must remember the past, and not forget it, but we must also not repeat our own mistakes, learn from them. Unify under one belief. Unify as Armenia, the four-thousand-year-old nation that will live on for another four thousand years.

Job refused to curse God, he held fast. Armenia must hold fast.

What is this for?

When I created Trees in the North it was just suppose to be about trees and how to grow healthy trees in a Northern environment. I think it can be more than just that. Please understand that I still will post about my trees. I just have other thoughts and honestly, I don’t want to just have multiple websites for my thoughts. I think it all can be here. My trees have been in a way a stability to my mind, I watch them grow, I care for them, they care for me in a different way. So understand I will post things that sometimes have nothing to do with trees.

Planting a Rowan Tree

More importantly, Boxing roots to stop girdling.

Rowan Tree

Its been a long time since I’ve seen these. My parents have one growing on the side of their yard however they didn’t plant it, some bird must have left a dropping with some seeds. However, in the area I live these are not common. Its a lot dryer out here as well as the soil is heavy clay. This stops some trees from getting populated. So I decided to plant one of these to show you guys how to box roots mostly. I am excited for this tree though, I think the berries make great jams.

The Rowan tree has many different names but they all mean the same tree; Rowan, Mountain Ash, Service Berry Tree.

They aren’t very well known in my area, but are well known in the northern eastern parts of the US. So this will be nice to have, especially during the winter, the berries are very attractive for decoration. Many people hate the fruit. Don’t blame them, they don’t taste good. Only time they do taste “good” when they freeze then thaw, and then something changes and they don’t taste so bitter. But the birds love them and eat them throughout winter. You can make it into a jam or preserves, very popular in eastern Europe. There are also many species. Some with larger tastier fruits than others.

So I found myself a “Russian Mountain Ash” as the nursery calls it. However its just a Sorbus aucuparia ‘Rossica’ is it a real Russian variety? No idea, but this specimen is good up to zone 2b which I’m in zone 4 so it should grow just fine.

Ready to go.

So lets go step by step. I have extreme clay soil so I do things a bit differently. Also I am a supporter of boxing the tree roots. You will see what I mean below.

Step 1. Lets dig a hole.

Ok ok, its going to be deeper than that.

Normally I dig a hole that is twice the size of the pot of the tree. However in this circumstance, I recently planted grass in this area and the soil is very loose. Also this is a small tree, and these guys grow like weeds once you get them some water. They don’t compete like other deciduous trees do with grass. The grass will not be a problem.

2. Get the tree ready. Get a basic wood saw. One or two handfuls of small rocks one inch or smaller should be fine, don’t go with pea gravel its too small.

You can see that the roots are starting to swirl around the outer most parts of the temporary pot. If left in this pot for a few years they will continue to swirl until they start chocking themselves and the tree will die.

3. Box the roots. So basically I take the saw and cut the root ball area into a box. Now this helps the roots by stopping any swirling growth that could in the future cause root girdling. We don’t want the tree to suffocate itself.

As you can see its not the perfect box but good enough, trust me the tree will thank you. It almost looks as if I am killing it when I was doing this.

4. At the bottom of the hole, put a few handful of rocks in there. If your soil is extreme clay, you can dig farther down and put more rocks into it. Some people overdo this step, they put enough rock in there that the tree cant grow its root system. You want the rocks to mix with the soil but also be loose enough for roots to grow through. Just a couple of handfuls will go a long way. This will help airflow for the roots so the clay doesn’t form an artificial pot and drown the roots. Sorry I didn’t have a photo of the rocks that I put in.

The soil in this spot is probably the best I’ve got in my yard except in my garden boxes.

5. Now fill it up to the top, but don’t go too deep, the graft or root flare should be seen above the soil. Now you can build a small outer dirt moat around the tree to help with water retention just go in a circle around the edge of the hole a few inches tall will be fine. But like I said, this is very loose soil in the spot where I planted so no need for that in my circumstance. There is also a sprinkler a few feet away that will douse this tree quite regularly.

6. Add some mulch. You can also put the mulch farther out but this is a smaller tree. We will see how it does with this much and go from there next year. You can add more mulch depending on how much you got. I try to do 1 to 2 inches of mulch per base, but don’t overcrowd the root flare.

So there are two reasons for the mulch. One is to keep the roots moist. The second is more important in my climate. You do it so that in early spring before the temperature gets above freezing at night during the day the sun will increase the temperature of the soil and give the tree a false impression that it is summer. Some trees will start growing and then freeze at night, this harms some trees that cannot stand the temperature swings.

You can also paint your tree with some regular house paint, some cheap white paint will help reduce sun scalding. The sun will reflect during the winter off the snow and in a way burn the young bark. The white paint reflects the sun back so you don’t have to worry about it burning up.

Is it dead or dying? Your online tree order arrived.

You ordered your tree online vs going to the local tree nursery, you get it in the mail and it looks like its either dead or dying. What to do? The problem with new trees is not the tree itself but yourself. You look at it thinking this looks dead. Sometimes you get lucky when the tree arrives. You get it with leaves and just need water and its ready to go. Sometimes you get a twig. Its only got a few leaves coming out, leaves are small compared to your other trees. You start nitpicking it, trying to find out what is wrong with it. Well most likely its just fine. Patience is a virtue but most humans lack in both virtue and patience. What to look for if its actually not doing well? Well if you’re an expert you’ll know, but to an amateur arborist we start digging into information online, look at videos and dive into an incredible amount of information. We find diseases that our trees could get and we start panicking.

My Apricot Twig, first year that’s all it could do.

So here is my advice; don’t do anything after you planted it, well yes water the twig, but just let it relax. Give it time. Heck you can even play music for it if you think that’ll help. I heard Vivaldi makes plants relax and grow. Don’t fertilize, we’ll get to that later. I also hope you scratch tested it as well, if its green and not dried out, its fine, it might just be taking a long nap. In some cases you do get trees that are dead, but some trees you cant tell, so I say just plant it and give it a try.

I got a white oak twig in the mail once. I thought it was dead, I still planted it. Its doing pretty good, survived a hail storm, lost its leaves three times, once for shipping, then heat scorch and hail. It grew new leaves just recently.

Your tree will sometimes look pathetic. You might think its dead. You might want to send it back for replacement or do something like yell at customer service etc.. etc..

Northern Pin Oak from a local nursery, looks good doesn’t it, but its having a hard time adjusting.

My only recommendation is just to plant it and give it a try.. You might get a really strong tree out of it, it just needs a little more time. A year ago I purchased 3 northern purple plum bushes. They looked great when I planted them. The next winter two of them didn’t grow, I decided to replace them, which I did. However the other two, I did not toss. I put them it pots, cut them down to the root and voila, yes they are bushes and not trees. However, they can be pruned into tree shape if need be. Roughly 6 months later they started growing again. The tops just died because we had a really cold winter and they weren’t adjusted to the climate. Also there wasn’t any snow cover. All of them needed to acclimate, originally grown in Oregon, well it doesn’t get to -30 F in Oregon, up in the mountains but I doubt they grow the nursery stock there.

Also don’t forget, if you planted this in the fall, make sure to put some sort of rodent protection around your fruit trees. Rabbits in the wintertime like to eat the bark, then you end of having a dead tree in the spring.

Will write more on this. Will show you some apricot progress as well. I’m more worried about the plums.

Growing my apricot trees, an expedition.

Its an obsession of mine, a nostalgia, families history with apricots. They grew very well in the Armenian Plateau. At one time I lived at my great aunts house, I would climb on the backyard apricot trees all the time. My uncle would yell at me to get off because he didn’t want me to break the tree. I would try to hide in it to make it seem as though he cant see me. He just laughed and then yelled harder until I ran off mad at him for ruining my play.

The tree was well over 100 years old. It was quite strong, had a perfect shape to support extra weight of the fruit, and me as well. So fast forward three decades and now I want to grow them here, in the American Midwest, around 6000 miles from the tree I liked to climb. So lets see what we can do.

I purchased two quite fairly mature trees around 4 to 5 feet in height. One was planted about a year ago and one was planted this year. I wish I started this blog before I planted them but I wasn’t thinking about a blog at the time. One is doing fantastic and the other is just starting on its journey. I will post information on what I did to get it going as well as some supporting photos and information that helped it grow strong. I will also show you other trees we have been planting at my home, apples, plums, sugar maples, pin oaks, alders, etc As well as some trees I have been working with my home town to plant in the area.

I’ll let you in on a little secret, I grew a really nice apricot tree before but I had to move, it was 6 years old and the new owner of my previous home decided to cut it down, not sure why though. Made me a little sad.

The tree in this photo is the one that is doing fantastic. It is an astonishing specimen, it has grown tremendously this year. More to come. Growing from seed, is it worth it?