Cut tree

Cool but a nice enough day that I decided to walk out and put out the furthest bird houses.  I'd gotten to Gorgeous Gorge when my neighbor Doug called to ask if it was me stopped on the road on the other side of the hill.  "No, I'm out for a walk." I said.  "Probably someone having car trouble." he mused.  "By the way, you'd better get the grapevine cuttings we marked last year.  John is cleaning out that area of his orchard."  I remembered the seedless Concord grapes that another neighbor managed to grow here in Zone 3.  He'd said Doug and I could mark potential cuttings last year but to wait until spring to actually get them.  I installed the bird houses on the far side of Gorgeous Gorge and tried to get Indy to go home or at least wait for me by the gorge while I walked down to the gravel pit to put up the other two.  However, she was having none of it and followed me down across the field.  Her back legs aren't strong anymore so on the walk back up the hillside I needed to help her up a couple of times and back track to urge her on.  Just as we got home I received another call from Doug.  "They cut down one of your trees." he said.  I got in my car and bopped down the road.  Sure enough.  A small balsam had been cut close to the ground and then the top taken off leaving just the middle section on the ground.   Doug took this picture.  It made no sense that someone  cut that  tree.  The ditch is deep right there so it's not easy to access the woods.  There are other trees closer to the road.  Why would these people want the top of an evergreen?  Doug said he thought they had tossed something in the ditch on the other side of the hill.  Drove that way and there was a discarded tree top but a long needled white pine and not the balsam.  Since I was already in the car I stopped off at John's and got my grapevine cuttings.  Once home I picked off the ticks I had acquired during my travels.   Whoever cut my tree probably picked up a few of the little buggers too.  Maybe there is such a thing as karma.