Interesting morning, Friday. One small incident led to another and another.
Driving down a back dirt road here in America’s Third World County. Heifer jumped out of a draw right in front of Ye Olde Saturn. I could see, on a little closer look, the fence break she’d come through was where the draw had undercut the fence. Meanwhile, she was wandering back and forth across the road. Now, I didn’t exactly want Ye Olde Saturn to be kicked or sprayed with projectile “fright feces,” so I took it slow, edging up to her, this way and that, using Ye Olde Saturn to chivvy her on toward the house up the road that was obviously a part of the property she’d wandered off from, then gently, slowly, herding her on and back toward the back lot, where she finally went and stood next to a fence where others of her ilk were standing next to a feeding spot.
So, it wasn’t as much fun as doing it from horseback, but it was at least some fun. When I approached the farm house, the owner opened the door and thanked me for being relatively gentle about herding her back, since as hot as it was it’d be easy to really “Het her up.”
Fun.
On down the road, I stopped and picked up a couple of hedgeapples–fruit of the Osage Orange trees left over from early settlers’ use of the tree in building a living fence, one that still effectively “fenced” the property on down the road better than the “devil’s wire” fence that had let Bossie run free.
(Oh, the pic? Not my hand. The hedgeapple does look like the ones I picked up, though.)
I think I’ll cultivate some to replace our chain link fence…
So, do hedgeapples really keep roaches and company out of basements? I heard such during my youth and put a couple down in a basement once, but I didn’t go down there much after that and I didn’t really know if there was a bug problem to begin with… 🙂
I don’t know about that, Nicole, but the bark, roots and rest of the tree/”hedge” all have uses, and the wood itself is one of the densest and most rot-resistant woods around.
I’ve been looking for some hedgeapples. They are supposed to be a bug repellent, too, Nicole.
Mel, just drive country roads. If the Osage Orange trees haven’t been rooted out entirely by idiots who think that “devil wire” is better, you ought to be able to run into some.