by Pa Mac | Feb 27, 2013 | Trees 'n' Wild Plants
First, the name. Bodark, or bois d’arc, or Osage orange, or hedge apple, or horse apple, or bowwood; take your pick. If you want to be fancy, call it Maclura pomifera. I’ll refer to it as my folks always did: bodark. One of the main uses for wood on the traditional...
by Pa Mac | Feb 18, 2013 | Country Ways
It use to be that trees felled on farm acreage rarely left that farm. They were used for everything from building the outhouses or fences to just being burnt for the cooking or washing. Wood always has been and probably always will be the most efficient, economical...
by Pa Mac | Jan 30, 2013 | Gardenin' n' Orchards
The Lunar Cycles Effects on Gardening In my last post called “Farming by the Moon Phases…Made Simple”, I mentioned many of the diverse aspects of farm life that are affected by the lunar phases. In this little monograph, I’ll be more detailed as to the moon’s...
by Pa Mac | Jan 30, 2013 | Country Ways
The Lunar Cycles Effects on Farming The moon is nice to look at; but not just nice to look at. It’s been useful ever since Adam figured out (or asked) what to do with it. The first chapter of Genesis spoke of this “lesser light” that’s to “govern” the night, as well...
by Pa Mac | Jan 7, 2013 | How'd They Use to Do That?
To cook my beans and keep me warm,I’ll mud and cat all dayBut if at night I hear the roar,I’ll kick the pole, then run away.- Clay Dobbins From a quarter of the year to almost half of it, most of us in the United States are trying to keep warm…somehow; always...
by Pa Mac | Dec 17, 2012 | Country Ways
My Mama loves Christmas; always has. And it will always be said by us kids that our Mama knows how to keep Christmas well, if anyone alive possesses the knowledge (borrowing language from Mr. Dickens). It cannot be undertaken in just a few words by me to explain why,...
by Pa Mac | Dec 10, 2012 | Trees 'n' Wild Plants
Black walnut wins my “Best Smelling Wood” award…even better than cedar. Not many would disagree that walnut is one of the most beautiful woods. It’s fine grained and so easily worked, and at the same time putting off the most gratifying aroma. We think of wood as...
by Pa Mac | Nov 21, 2012 | Country Ways
There’s a lot of work to be done on my embryonic farm and it all begins with taming a troublesome mess of briars, trees, and rocks. But a question occasionally comes to mind to anyone clearing land: How did our pioneer forefathers transform countless acres of...
by Pa Mac | Nov 12, 2012 | Buildin' or Makin'
Grow all year and let ‘em layThe frost will kill without decay,Once fixed up and hung real highThe renter eats that pesky fly—Burt Whatcher What’s the easiest way to build a birdhouse? Well I say let nature do it…or at least half of it. Dried gourds have long...
by Pa Mac | Nov 8, 2012 | Buildin' or Makin'
I actually love music beyond my ability to play it. That’s kind of a blessing and a curse, idn’t it? I had been contemplating my need for a mandolin earlier in the day, as I walked passed the chicken house one afternoon. After spying my crop of gourds hanging from the...
