For weeks I had been driving by a potential scrounge under some phone lines up a bank by a farmer's field (Lower Macungie Road for you local yokel lol!); I could see Cherry from the road but also recently noticed some more small-medium trunks laying down too so I stopped and talked to the nearest homeowner and he told me the farm was owned by the next neighbor up the street, a 96 year-old woman and he said "you may have to talk to the State about it". I called the Township and explained it and they referred me to call PenDot who did do the cutting and they gave me the okay to take it. I went out yesterday to get it and as usual I surveyed the whole scene before I got started and made a plan of action in my empty head, and upon checking it all out found that about 98% of it was Hickory! So a good scrounge turned great-none of it was huge but it was nice, clean straight Hickory in sizes that were easy to handle and carry out once they were cut to size. Man, I grabbed all that I could because it was becoming grown-in and will only get worse if left go. I left there with the Bronco filled with 18" rounds and took some "odd" sizes and branches to my friend at the local stoveshop. When I was done, I do what I usually do when done scrounging off-field; I stood there by the truck (I had driven into the field and drove down the "shoreline" to get as close to the area as possible even though I still had to hike the wood back-the field for some reason was not plowed and planted as the old stalks of corn and weeds were abundant), and I paused and appreciated the scrounge (although only guys like you would attempt it lol!) but I also thought about the 96 year-old woman and her family and their history here. Across the street I saw a sign advertising 54 acres for sale/development on the edge of a property that used to belong to a fellow that owned Farr's shoe store in Allentown-he passed away years ago, and years ago I remember stopping at the house of the now 96 year-old woman asking her about another tree and who owned it and she said it was Farr's property! I guess it just hit me that I was VERY fortunate to get this great wood and also thought about those people mentioned and how they had lived and one day I'll be older and then gone too....
I guess the moral of the story is to APPRECIATE and be THANKFUL not only for a good scrounge but for the land and the people who are and were associated with it....it all has history that needs to be acknowledged. :msp_thumbup:
I guess the moral of the story is to APPRECIATE and be THANKFUL not only for a good scrounge but for the land and the people who are and were associated with it....it all has history that needs to be acknowledged. :msp_thumbup:
