I don't know....

I can't seem to make a decision regarding this.... my hedge row. I read an article in Mother Earth News. Not from the magazine but one of the old articles from the web site. It was about living fences, which is something I am very much into. A living fence doesn't use up a bunch of environmentally "expensive" materials, it provides habitat and protection from the elements in the form of windbreaks. So, what's not to love?

Well, the plant either takes too long to grow, or if it steps up to the job then you have to make sure it doesn't get away from you. The latter is the case with the hedgeball tree. They are also called hedge, hedge apples, or I believe, the official name is the Osage Orange. No matter what you call them. They make some of the toughest fence post you'd ever want to find. They are long lived and they have thorns that rip the hide right off of you. That is a plus if you want to keep in cattle. Doesn't thrill me to death when you have to clean up. Yes, you will have to clean up! Because hedge suckers new growth off the roots so one hedge tree becomes a grove of hedge trees.

The instructions for creating a hedge ball fence were kind of cool. Collect a big bucket of hedge balls. I can do that! I have a big bucket and I have hedge balls out the wazoo. (figuratively speaking) Take your big bucket of hedge balls and set it outside for the winter. That's easy, I can do easy! Next spring, clear away the grass where you want your fence to go and create a small furrow. Okay, it's still easy. Take your bucket of disgusting looking hedge balls that seem the worst for wear from their winter ordeal. Add water. Mash them into a slurry. Pour the slurry in a thin line in the prepared furrow. Now how easy is that!!!

At the years end, you thin and bend the young trees over. Tying them down like hoops. The following year do the same, making the hoops go the opposite direction. It will take annual attention. Eventually, you will be harvesting fence posts off the growth as well. It's just too good to be true. I really want to try it. I am just really worried about the sucker growth going onto my neighbor's property.

I don't know.... maybe I'll go ahead and get a bucket of hedge balls and think about it over winter. It could work..... maybe.

Louie

Mother Earth News

I miss the old mother Earth News. I liked the way it was back in the seventies. Back when returning vets and hippies and Jesus freaks were fueling the back to the land movement. It was a hundred and one uses for baling twine and a guy in Hawaii building his home out of an old redwood water tank. All he had to do was take it down and move it up the side of a small mountain, sand down the wood and reconstruct it into a beautiful round house. It was fifty different ways to build a goat proof fence. It was a driving force behind bartering for services and a brand new version of the personal ad... (mountain man looking for like minded mountain man to share homesteading dreams and buffalo plaid shirts)

Now Mother is frighteningly mainstream. There might be an article on building a pole building that looks like any other pole building. Or how some guy in his McMansion put in a forty thousand dollar solar unit to be responsible for the environment. It isn't about scarcity or survival anymore. It's no longer "Popular Mechanics Meets Walden Pond" There is no grit, sweat or can-do anymore. It's really quite depressing, like watching another passing of yet another golden age.

So, here I sit trying to figure out how to build fence with nothing... trying to figure out how to build a small barn with nothing, and the best Mother can do is point me to some great deals. (10% off for subscribers if you order now, remember to say you read it in Mother's!) And I know that if the real spirit of Mother was alive and well, there would be an article about what new industrial byproduct was available and how it could be used to improve my homestead as not just a roofing material, but also in aiding water storage! Amazing! Not only that but they'll pay you to cart it away!

It leaves me feeling like the one thing this country needs is more underground newspapers.... and possibly more tie dyed tee shirts...and a methane powered willys jeep adapted to do numerous homestead chores. THAT'S the good life!

louie