MTFCA Forum

Many years ago I made a road down the west side of my wood lot for hauling yard waste to the brush pile. Then I added to it to make the loop shown in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ffajnp21w

A few years ago I extended it down to the south end of the place with a turn-around at the south end. Then about a week and a half ago I decided it was time to extend it across the south end and back up the east side to make another, bigger loop. At the family reunion some of the young cousins who aren't yet licensed for public driving will have a private road for a bit of low-pedal T driving.
Most of the trees I had to remove were little ones, but this larger one was in a spot where it had to go.

140 years ago this was prairie, and my great grandfather took a wagon over a hundred miles down into it to the Cimarron River to get cedar seedlings for the new cemetery. Now they're taking over, and there are companies that work full time removing cedars.

The other main vegetation I have to deal with is Osage orange, also known as bois d'arc, or just hedge. It's mighty hard stuff, and I had to sharpen my saw more than once. There were also a lot of little trees that were small enough for the clippers. The bottle is Tordon to kill the stumps.

I could have taken those hedge branches down with just two cuts. But I decided it would be prudent to take them down in a lot of small pieces so they wouldn't bring me down with them.

Steve, I have a friend who is a wood turner. he makes lots of accessories for handspinners of wool, and buttons, scarf pins, Celtic buckles etc. He'd be most upset to see Osage orange being treated as a nuisance timber. The few pieces available here are sold as specialty craftwoods, and command a heavy premium price. I looked at bringing some in fro him with a trunk full of T parts, but quarantine restrictions put paid to that idea.
We have some similar tracks in the mallee scrub on our farm. The remnant scrub is largely confined to the sand hills on the property, and clearing any more is contrary to our efforts to protect the remainder.

Allan from down under.

Steve, Osage orange is a favored material for mauls used by wood sculptors. These look sort of like old fashioned potato masters and come in various sizes and weights. They are easier on wood handled chisels than metal hammers, and last because the wood is so hard. You might be able to sell lengths of the wood on artist forums, or turn finished mauls for sale if you have a lathe. Takes away from T time, though. Cheers, Bill

Around here, most of us call Osage Orange, Hedge Apple. It is a nuisance plant dropping its softball sized seed balls all over.

We have found 3 uses.
1: fence rows
2: fire wood. Burns VERY hot. Eats chainsaw chains!!!
3: seed balls are a fine rodent deterrent

I love carving out new trails like this....there's something very satisfying about it.

That's great that you're purposefully making a low gear Model T "track". The youngsters will love it.

Be careful working out there by yourself. Hopefully you have a cell phone on you just in case.

Yep, I do carry a phone.

I don't know about hedge apples being a rodent deterrent. Squirrels eat the seeds.

When I was a kiddo there were a lot more hedge rows around here than there are now. The first settlers arrived before there was barbed wire, and they planted thorny hedges to keep the cows in (or out).

I put them in the crawl space to keep mice out. They do not have a pleasant odor.

Here again, a know it all telling me that I am full of crap! My last post ever on this forum. Thanks for proving my point!

Well, .... at least you won’t have modern traffic to contend with Steve. Or fear of getting rear ended...

Here again, a know it all telling me that I am full of crap! My last post ever on this forum.

Here again, somebody with a chip on his shoulder going ballistic over a trifle. I don't know it all. I don't even know half of it. I don't know what effect hedge apples have on all rodents. I do know that squirrels eat the seeds. I'm sorry if that is upsetting news.

Steve Jelf wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2019 1:12 pm

I don't know it all. I don't even know half of it.

I used to know half of it....then I forgot 25% that. Then learned 20% of the half that I didn't know and remembered 10% of the quarter that I forgot.

Then my three kids became teenagers and I forgot 85% of everything learned and remembered.

I figured I'd use my high school algebra to calculate how much I now know, but algebra is part of the 25% that I forgot...plus I can't remember where I put my high school algebra book.

Steve, the post that got you tagged as a know-it-all began with the words "I don't know." Go figure....

Well I do know this, I was told that one in each corner would be a natural roach repellent. I don't know about the roaches, but they were a breeding and hatching ground for all kinds of bugs. And super nasty.

I never have found a good use for them.

I think the thorns are tipped with poison, not good to work with. I believe they would pop a tire.

The wood is hard, strong, and beautiful. I have heard that indians made bows from the wood.

Tom, the timber certainly can be beautiful. In my collection of wooden fruits I have a turned lemon in Osage orange timber. When light plays on it, certain areas seem to glow like amber. It is this quality which makes it so desirable to my mate when he creates wooden jewellery pieces. The changing light really alters the appearance of the finished articles.

Allan from down under.

Steve, an old 'billie woman here told me that Hedge Apples were a great for keeping spiders out of the house. Put 'em on a paper plate and stash in corners and by doors. Throw out when they get Mushy.
Haven't tried it myself. Congratulations on your new section of road.

THIS much I know, ...

1. more people go around looking for insults/to have their "feelings" hurt these days than ever before.

2. some like 'em skinny. some like 'em fat.

3. the sun WILL come up tomorrow

Probably a couple other things I know too. Just can't think of them right now.

I love that you carry on a close-to-the-land tradition, Steve.

Well I'm sure i know something... about some of it
But what really p*##es me off is that not a single person tried to hurt my feelings yet
I feel left out, would someone please step on my toes, just the once.... please..

Ha! Leo is taking a different road. Good on ya.
Someone may try tho.

Kaiser wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2019 11:44 am

I feel left out, would someone please step on my toes, just the once.... please..

Leo, I have a friend here in St. Louis who loves the Dutch expression about someone having long toes, and she wishes we had the same expression in English. It expresses so much about someone so efficiently.

Hey Kaiser,....you're supposed to end each sentence with a period! Sheesh! Are you too lazy to take the time to use proper punctuation? And the preposition "I" should be capitalized,...not lower case, which apparently is too much trouble for you! And as for your personal information, I would think you could at least take the time and trouble to get your name right! Couldn't you at least take the time and effort to press the "shift" key to type a capitol "V"? Apparently, if you ever took a class in English, you must have fallen asleep, or maybe had some kind of car magazine hidden inside your English textbook!

......so there! Feel better now Leo? (:^)

......hey,...you asked for it, right?

Osage Orange would make excellent Model T spokes....if you could find some 8/4 Osage O lumber. I made a few pens of the stuff and they are bautiful.

Speaking of Osage Orange, I have two solid Osage Orange cylinders that I bought for a project years ago but never used. Each cylinder is 5 inches in diameter and 3 inches high. They came to me coated with a protective wax that is still on them, see attached pic.

If anyone is interested in them, I will ship them to you for just the price of shipping via a medium USPS Priority flat rate box, $14.35.

Just PM me with your name and shipping address and I will respond with payment instructions. Thanks!

Osage Orange is tough wood. We have it all over our place and have tried to keep it in control for a lot of years. My Father and I cut down bunches of them to make fence posts around the place. We have lots of them along the creek in our bottom land. In some ways they are OK but in LOTS of ways they aren’t. If you let them go they will turn into a big mess.
If you ever cut one down you had better kill out the stump. If you don’t you can gurrentee them coming back and turning into a large stemy bushy tree with lots of trunks.

...at least take the time and effort to press the "shift" key to type a capitol "V"...

That should be capital V, Harold. Capitol is a building.

Now, don't get mad and quit.

Yeah,....that's one that I've never been able to get right Steve. It always seems to me that when there are two different ways to spell a word, they should be pronounced differently to help one remember which one to use! There are several commonly used words that I can never remember how to spell. When I was still working, I had a favorite and long used (by me) dictionary that was very easy for me to use, because it would almost automatically flop open to the right page, simply because I had looked up the same word so many times!

The American Indians preferred Orange Osage to all other for the bows. Any traditional bow shaper will gladly pay for a piece 7 foot long with no knots. I had learned this a few years ago when I was asked to make a “hot box” for friend of my coworker. The insulated box had 5 porcelain lamp holder for 100watt bulbs and I put them on a dimmer so the temperature could be controlled. He Frye’s the wood in that thing for two years then took a draw knife to it and shaped a bow out of it . He said the trick is to keep the knife “in one ring” from beginning to end. If you cut into the next ring the bow would snap at that point.He harvested the tendons that run down the back of a deer to make the string and also made his own arrows with the heads made of obsidian chipped rock. He still hunts with that set up today!

Craig, what is a coworker? Some kind of ranch hand?

Allan from down under.

RustyFords wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2019 1:21 pm

Steve Jelf wrote: ↑

Wed May 01, 2019 1:12 pm

I don't know it all. I don't even know half of it.

I used to know half of it....then I forgot 25% that. Then learned 20% of the half that I didn't know and remembered 10% of the quarter that I forgot.

Then my three kids became teenagers and I forgot 85% of everything learned and remembered.

I figured I'd use my high school algebra to calculate how much I now know, but algebra is part of the 25% that I forgot...plus I can't remember where I put my high school algebra book.

When I was a teenager, my father was a complete idiot. It seemed however the older I got, the smarter he got. Translation: Listen to your elders. They have a lifetime of knowledge and experience over what you've got.

Beautiful drive Steve! More kid drive space is a good thing. Just how many acres of woods do you own?
Up here we have to import hedge apples... We've used them for spider deterrent before.
Couldn't tell if they worked. So I really don't know much either.
Some dumb vines are trying to take over up here. Weren't here 30 years ago. Cut cut cut cut.
They reach out, climb up and will kill a tree. That's OK for a basswood.

Just how many acres of woods do you own?

I don't know exactly. That piece of land includes the wooded area and an open field. My guess is that the woods are about 10 to 12 acres of it. The woods are all volunteer trees in a former pasture that was never plowed. It still has a bison wallow that collects water when there's rain.

Nice Steve, I also watched the Independence day drive, Is that your regular parking spot at Orscheln's ?
Great stuff, Thanks for sharing.

Kim W., just because someone has had a different experience/opinion than you have had, is that any reason to leave the forum? If so, I would have been gone a long time ago. Keep around, you may just find some help here. JMHO Dave

I don't know half of it either, which is too bad because if I did, I could find someone who knew the other half, then we would be true know-it-alls.
As to the OP, the bride and yours truly are in the process of purchasing the 5.7 acres that adjoins our property here in SW Florida. The missus has asked me to chop a hiking trail through it. Your post just gave me the idea to make the trail a bit wider and I too will have a T road. Thanks for the post Steve!

Thanks everyone, i feel a lot beTTer now !

Oh by the way, Steve sorry for hijacking your thread