It is widely known that Mr. Ford (aka me) is a brilliant “Wood Butcher” (cutter downer of trees). In actuality I have been able to drop trees in the actual spot that I had planned. I learned on a 60 foot tall Cotton Wood back in Missouri. That tree was behind my house and I decided to cut it down. Our neighbor Casper Miller (must have been in his 80s) came over and advised me as to where to cut first, second and third. Without his supervision there is no telling where the tree would have fallen.
In Missouri we lived a little ways outside the city limits. Casper’s house was just down the road from ours. Cap (most people call him Cap) had lived in that area all his life. Cap had farmed using mules and horses. He knew about anything that had to do with gardens, yards, trees or anything else that I needed to know.
I had bought a new tiller and was going to put in a big garden next to our house. I tilled the garden twice so the dirt was soft and easy to work. I laid out some rows and I believe I was going to plant some sweet corn. Cap came over to see what I was doing then he offered some advice; “Don’t plant the corn”. He said it was the wrong sign of the moon and if I plant it the birds and chickens will eat the seed and very little will come up. I don’t know if he was right or not, I did not plant the corn that day. He told me of the things I could plant and I did.
A year or so later I had decided to plant some popcorn instead of sweet corn. I like popcorn so I decided to grow my own. I remember I planted several rows of the popcorn, wanting to have enough to last me all winter. Being the “advanced gardener” that I then was I decided to also try to grow Indian corn. Do you know what Indian corn is? Well it is corn that can be any color and is often used in fall displays. Donna had a couple ears so I took one ear and shelled the corn off the ear and planted a row of Indian corn. Cap was not there to see what I was doing; I made my own decision since I was an “advanced gardener”.
Have you ever planted Bell peppers and Jalapeno peppers next to each other? If you haven’t I will explain, the peppers can cross pollenate and the bell peppers can be hot like the jalapeno.
Back to my popcorn, don’t get ahead of me, I am telling this story. Popcorn has small ears and small kernels. Did you know that Indian corn will cross pollenate with any other corn including popcorn. At harvest time most of my popcorn was colored, many different colors. Yep I had many ears of popcorn (enough to last through the winter) and they were for the most part multi colored. The colored popcorn popped just like the yellow popcorn, the cross pollination did not hurt anything. Several people thought they might try it in their gardens. I did not try it with sweet corn so I don’t know if it would change the taste or not. I understand, you want to know if it popped in color. No it was white when it popped.
Cap wasn’t always correct in the things he said. He commented that he has seen a woolly worm and it was a very dark color which meant there would be a cold bad winter. The next day I saw one that was a very light color, but I did not tell Cap.
Ok back to the original thought cutting down trees. The big cotton wood tree needed to come down and Cap told me where to make the first cut. The reason for the first cut was that was the direction the tree would fall. Because of the way the tree leaned I needed to make a second cut. The second cut was the way the tree would start to fall and as it leaned into the second cut, which was on a slant, the tree would be directed toward the first cut and the final direction of the trees fall. I made both cut per Caps instructions then I went to the other side of the tree to make the final cut. I should note that the final cut is just as important as the first cut, done incorrectly the first two cuts don’t count. As I made the final cut that big ole tree started to move and it did what Cap said it would it first moved to the slanted cut the fell in the direction of the first cut.
This is the end of chapter one. There will be additional chapters to this story.
From the vivid Wood Butcher mind of Don Ford
All rights reserved, any reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.
No comments:
Post a Comment