Old Juniper Tree

This is an old juniper tree that I have been watching out on the desert to the north of my home for about 25 years. This tree looked like this when I first found it then. Juniper trees on our desert grow very, v e r y, v v e e r r y slowely. (Ok, enough play on words). But they do. And they are very hard. In fact so hard that I have heard it is very difficult to cut them up for firewood with a chainsaw. With our winds they become pitted, and imbedded with sand. The sand stays in the wood forever. This tree happens to be just off a dirt road that is well traveled by both trucks, ATV's and motorcycles. I am not sure if there are cows in there now or not. There were when I first saw it. The tree was old enough to be big enough to entice the cows to stand under it for shade. The cows would rub on the lower branches to get into the shade better or to scratch their thick hides. Every one in a while a lower branch would break. The cows would keep rubbing making the branch ends knarled and mis-shaped. In effect they would polish the old, hard stump of the branch. You can't see it to well in this shot but the wood looks like it has been polished by a human with a machine. Some beautiful colors in it. The shade was to heavy for it to show real well.