August 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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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
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