HomeMy WebLinkAboutAugust 28, 1980 - Joy of Fence MendingSECOND SECTION August 28,
1980 Joy of Fence
Mending
I Nothing remains the same,
particularly an's work, and so it is with my
garden nce. This is especially true when
you ve an old horse who thoroughly
enjoys ing the fence to rub on. The fence has
a t to the north for just this reason and
the per rails have completely
collapsed cause of
it. And so Saturday was my day
for pairing the fence. It had served us
well. or some reason people and horses
always em to think the grass is greener on
the her side of the fence, and without a
fairly sturdy, rebuilt structure I'm afraid
our garden would soon have played host to
the
horse. When I surveyed the job I realized
how important fences were and how
laborious- ly our early settlers had labored to
create them. In many cases it was life or death
if their fences did not hold. I can imagine
the heartbreaks they would suffer should
they awaken some morning and find that
their animals had gotten into their
carefully worked gardens, their only source of
food, and destroyed the crops. To us today we'
d do a certain amount of cussing,
perhaps, but with the full knowledge that we
could usually rely on the supermarket to
replace our
loss. Those were rugged days indeed. I got
a bit of feeling for their labor when
I originally built the fence years ago. I'
d collected a lot of old, broken
telephone poles and cut them up into seven -
foot lengths and then proceeded to split
them into fours for fence posts. Here's where
I really started to appreciate the
energy that went into such an operation.
Wedges, sledges and ax worked for many an
hour before I had enough to go around
the garden. As a matter of fact my dreams of
a super large garden somehow became
a more modest one as time went
on. Nature Heals Man's
Abuse As I worked on the repair of
refencin the top rail that the animals had
destroyer I was amazed how life had "made it"
i that narrow, sheltered fence zone
whet the wire mesh met the ground. On one
sid the garden had been cultivated
an pruned, while oft the other side the
anima: did the trimming, But with all this
thet was a safety zone that had somehow
sti made it. Wild cherry, multiflora rose,
an a wide variety of asters and weeds
fille this area with vigorous
greenery. Once again I was reassured that, if
give a chance, nature could heal her wounds
i man's abuse. We see this persistence
fc
I life often more dramatically pictured
i concrete slab and black fop where a
plat literally has pushed up through a
crac and flourished. The brick walks around
th house are perfect examples of this,
whet grass and weeds are always poking
u between the
bricks. As I worked my way along I found
th old, rusty fence had not completely kept
a secure behind it. For some long -
necke chicken had found our ripest tomatoes
an feasted on them. Perhaps this is why
m wife is not at all squeamish about
prepai ing chicken salad from our surplus.
The there are always those ingenious ones
th€ will fly over the fence. And it's these
thz spell chicken salad
first. Gardening A Wonderful
Door Farther down the line I could reach
ove and pluck the warm, dead ripe
raspbei ries. Nothing has the aroma and
taste ( your own raspberries and never have
w ever had such a crop as this year. I
believ their roots must have just reached the
of compost I put beneath them years
ago. This picking and eating right from
the plant or tree is half the fun of
gardening. How rewarding it is to pull a carrot
and AUGUST 28,
1980
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2nd Lunch ...11:30 - 4 :
30 Dinner ...Served Friday, Saturday & Sunday through
October EARLY MORNING DEW -- Asparagus fern, protected by the
pasture fence, reaches its fulfillment in the
fall. enjoy its freshness, or pick a peach
dead ripe and juicy. Again to each his own,
but those who do miss out on gardening
have passed by a wonderful
door. Still farther down the fence I came to
the orchard where my beehives stood out
like white towers amongst the greenery.
The warm weather had aroused the
workers and they were extra busy filling
their larders for winter. One hive in
particular had over - zealous workers laden
with honey, and so intent were they on
getting back into the hive they would often
bump into me as I worked in front of
them. I now know where the saying "bee -
line" comes from, as these were surely bee -
lin- ing it for home. They will never sting
when they are so involved in their
work. Honey To Be Spun
Down Soon I'll be taking off our honey to
be spun down at Dr. Faulkner's. Here we
cut the top off the combs, put it into
his sparkling, stainless steel spinner and
whirl them around until the nectar of the
world pours out from them. In a later
operation Photo by Paul
Stoutenburgh we draw the honey off, bottling it
and stacking the spun frames for next
year. As an added reward for my toil in the
sun I came across a patch of pasture
mush- rooms, strewn in two gigantic fairy
rings. These rings of mushrooms are often
seen on our lawn and it's a sign of nature
doing her work of decomposing below ground.
I knew these gourmet delights from
the many lectures and field trips with
that great mycologist, Ady Schreiber. As
he would always tell everyone, "Never
eat any mushroom unless you are doubly
sure Of
it!" So it was mend a little, look a little until
I ran out of fence wood. The job is
not finished, but it's a good start, and like
so many jobs around the place it'll get
done
sometime. For now, the horses will have a
better rubbing post and the garden will be
saved. I had the joy of work and the satisfaction
of building part of my castle, along
with enjoying the spoils of the natural
world.
PAULSTOUTENBURGH J1 Every Wed. Night' 9pI`r)pEN
QyREixN_
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o LIVEDISCOtt
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