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Shades of Tom Sawyer

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Joined
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Don’t work don’t eat. That was the rule of welfare systems since civilization began, and no doubt before. The truely needy, crippled or elderly got help, but able bodied you best do something for your bowl of gruel.
The poor house used to be a part of most towns. The destitute were fed, but given nasty jobs as incentive to get real employment.
Ships of old made of wood boards liked to leak. To fill the gaps between the boards oakem was stuffed in. Old hemp ropes were picked apart to fluff.
Back of old tow, unspun linen, was forced in to a variety of little gun jobs. Wads to cleaning to fire stat could all be done from this stuff.
Tows been hard to find of late. So for some time I’ve been, like many others making tow from hemp cord…. Oakem umph.
Day off today I’ve had a present afternoon picking fluff, thinking about fort charters, deer woods, an upcoming gun buy I plan, and so on
A pleasant afternoon making oakem ‘tow’
Those poor houses with the unpleasant jobs? Well in England picking oakem for ships from old rope, that was the unpleasant job thrown on the destitute.
In the back of my head I hear Tom Sawyer telling me how much fun it is to white wash a fence
 
When I was a boy I was made to whitewash the bottom 4’ of the Pecan trees on our property each spring. Hated it and never did know what the purpose was, looks I suppose. But I wouldn’t mind making a pile of Tow.
They white washed (painted) the fruit and nut trees about five feet from the ground up. It helps protect the trees from bugs and boring beetles. On young saplings, it keeps the bark from splitting. My great uncle in Prattville, Alabama, always had his fruit, pecan, and walnut trees painted.
 
They white washed (painted) the fruit and nut trees about five feet from the ground up. It helps protect the trees from bugs and boring beetles. On young saplings, it keeps the bark from splitting. My great uncle in Prattville, Alabama, always had his fruit, pecan, and walnut trees painted.
Well, it was a pain in the neck to do, we had a bunch of Pecan trees!
 
Well, it was a pain in the neck to do, we had a bunch of Pecan trees!
I imagine so, I didn't have to do it because I was too young, but I remember the folks saying he had a hundred and fifty or so trees. Enough to where he had one of those shakers that they hooked to a tractor. He had about a dozen sharecroppers who worked for him on the farm. He was a commercial hog farmer and had I don't know how many acres in corn and cotton, but enough to where he had several machines to do the picking.
 
I imagine so, I didn't have to do it because I was too young, but I remember the folks saying he had a hundred and fifty or so trees. Enough to where he had one of those shakers that they hooked to a tractor. He had about a dozen sharecroppers who worked for him on the farm. He was a commercial hog farmer and had I don't know how many acres in corn and cotton, but enough to where he had several machines to do the picking.
We didn’t have that many, maybe 20-24, seemed like a 1,000 back then. And I had to pick the pecans too, but they were very tasty. Haven’t seen a whitewashed tree in many, many years. I remember using whitewash on our horse barn too. Never again.
 
. So for some time I’ve been, like many others making tow from hemp cord…. Oakem umph.
Easiest way I've found to do that is to find 50' of thicker hemp cord/rope, and wrap it around a fence wire in some back 40 in the spring, the whole 50'.
Then wait a year,,
 
I use jute twine to tie tomato plants to stakes. At the end of the season, some of it is still good enough to re-use, but some isn't. Any of it that is too deteriorated to use again gets thoroughly dried in the sun, and then picked apart to make tinder. It works very well for that purpose. I've found jute fiber ignites a lot more easily than flax tow. It's easier to get, also.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob
 
No pecan trees, but when I was about 14 my Dad built a 2-car garage out of cinder blocks. I had the task of painting those porous blocks. I hated that. I also hated pulling weeds from my Mother's flower beds.

However, earlier when I was around 10 or 12 I had read both Tom Sawyer as well as Huckleberry Finn. I went down to the woods beside the creek and spent about 3 days chopping down a tall, straight tree with my little hatchet. Then, it took me another 3 or 4 days to cut that log into even sections. I dragged it all over to the creek bank, tied the logs together to make a raft and shoved it into the creek.
I was all set to be Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer; to run away and go down the creek. I didn't know that rafts should be made of dry logs. The green living tree that I had cut down barely floated. When I stepped onto it, it sank!
Well, so much for that adventure. ):~(
 
They white washed (painted) the fruit and nut trees about five feet from the ground up. It helps protect the trees from bugs and boring beetles. On young saplings, it keeps the bark from splitting. My great uncle in Prattville, Alabama, always had his fruit, pecan, and walnut trees painted.
Who was your great uncle in Prattville? My great great great, grandfather moved to Prattville in 1840s for work at the gin shop.
 
Lawrence Edward Rogers 1908 - 1977
Find a Grave/Lawrence Edward Rogers
I grew up not far from his home place, worked on several farms "for fun" when I was a kid in that area. Did not know him but my granddad did. He always referred to his farm as Roger's Place. Those Pecan trees, al least some of them are still there. I picked up quite a few buckets of pecans around some of those trees when I was young. My grandmother would make pies and candies from them around the holidays.
 
I grew up not far from his home place, worked on several farms "for fun" when I was a kid in that area. Did not know him but my granddad did. He always referred to his farm as Roger's Place. Those Pecan trees, al least some of them are still there. I picked up quite a few buckets of pecans around some of those trees when I was young. My grandmother would make pies and candies from them around the holidays.
Uncle Ed's son Larry still owns and lives in the old home place the last time I talked to him about 10 years ago when my Mom died. I need to drive down and see him as none of us are getting any younger. It was funny, I remember back in the late 60s, Uncle Ed and Aunt Lillian would come up to Birmingham for the Alabama/Auburn game at Legion Field, and they would stay over a day and visit. We lived about 25 miles NE of Birmingham. I asked Uncle Ed why they didn't come up more often, he said, "Son, where I'm from, I consider folks North of Clanton Yankees" 😁 He said that he had never lost anything in Birmingham, except when Auburn lost to Alabama, he was an Auburn alumni and contributed to the Ag Dept at the University. Lots of memories of Summers at the farm, sitting on the bank of one of his ponds fishing with a cane pole and bobber.
 
One of my top movies is Then Came Bronson. He tells the girl over and over again. No work, no food. She gets it after a few days

Here is washingrad they say over 40% of the folks are not working.
Yet they are eating so much they are obese.
Ha, I haven't thought of that TV show in decades! Michael Parks and Bonnie Bedelia, and you're right she finally started to work when hunger pangs hit home!
How about the movie "Hombre" when John Russell says to the bankers wife "you'd eat dog lady... you'd fight over the bones"!!!
 
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