. . Blue Gums - the tree from Hell. They grow like a rocket to 40, 50 feet tall. A couple times a year they drop leaves by the cubic yard, toxic leaves (tannin and oils) that stunt the growth of other plants.

They'll stand up to 80 mph winds without losing a twig, then a month later drop drop a 400 pound branch just because they feel like it (not really dangerous 'cause they come down slow cushioned by a zillion small springy branches and the thick end stays attached until the rest is down).

They were brought to California from Australia to quickly grow railroad ties for the transcontinental railroad - but Eucalyptus grows in a spiral and twists as it dries - they soon realized those ties would rip up the tracks in short order.

Someone once told me of a friend of his who built his cabin in the woods out of Blue Gum lumber, then watched helplessly as it twisted itself to splinters.

Oh yeah, almost forgot - fire. Old dried up leaves don't burn real well, but freshly fallen - stand back! Green on the tree - rocket fuel! In cold weather I stuff a grocery bag of fresh raked blue gum leaves in the fireplace. When I get up in the morning I toss in a match - instant warmth!

Rows and rows of blue gums were planted in California as fast growing and durable windbreaks on the farms.

When I moved in here it was rare to see a blue gum leaf that anything had touched - but now the pests have finally made it from Australia and it's now rare to see one not munched along the edges.

The long horned bark beetles finally got here too. Cut a eucalyptus and pile up the logs, soon you'll hear loud munching sounds from under the bark - these are big beetles and they have big grubs. A former employee was afraid to go near the wood pile for all the noise.

NEVER buy a blue gum from a nursury, you grow them from seed. Nursery plants have balled roots and the roots don't escape the ball. They'll grow up about 40 feet and then fall over in a light wind crushing anything in their way. Seed grown trees are good for 120 mph plus at 100 feet and more.

. . leaf dropping, oily variety of eucalyptus that drops plenty of pointy seed capsules for you to step on if you go barefoot. White Gums, for instance are much better behaved. We probably have 100 varieties of eucalyptus in California, most smaller trees or even shrubs (eucalyptus are myrtles).

In several places a little north of here highways go between windbreaks of blue gums. Very attractive, but you can see that some of them have take high speed hits from vehicles - they have scratches on the bark. Hitting a 6 foot diameter hardwood at high speed will ruin you entire day but the tree'll just shrug it off.

When I moved in here one of the first things I did was install a fireplace - because my feeling is that a house without a fireplace is not a home.

I got this big cylindrical steel thing that was being remaindered by Sears because conical ones were "in". The triple wall stainless steel chimney cost me a whole of a lot more than the fireplace.

I lined it with rocks and concrete, and I built a platform for it and layered the top with reinforced concrete covered with ceramic tile. Fortunately the platform was movable because I later moved it from one wall to another.

Early on I was concerned about where I could get enough wood. Little did I know that this tiny suburban patch of land with 4 blue gums could produce more burnables than I really wanted to deal with.

Every morning I light a candle on the breakfast table and then a ritual fire in the fireplace (always with the same match). If I don't have corrigated boxes from Tech Data and another distributors or put in a Trader Joe's grocery bag full of eucalyptus debris.

I'm not buying so much hardware any more so I'm starting to gain, but this energy resource is still far from depleted - the debris is still almost a foot thick in some areas. I've got stacks of branches cut to 18" and more waiting to be cut.

And about once a year a giant red or lime green fire wagon pulls up out front and deploys a batalion of yellow clad and helmeted fire persons with axes who want to inspect my fireplace because some condo dwelling nincompoop smelled smoke.

Oh well, they need the exercise. Firepersons at the La Crescenta station are notorious for passing up promotions for fear they'll be transfered to some place where they'll actually have to go out and fight fires. It's like being in the Coast Guard and stationed at Newport Beach.