Rituals

For everything there is a season, and the Art Farm autumn rituals are shelling pole beans and splitting and stacking firewood.

For 10 years we have been growing up to eight varieties of heirloom beans, brought to us by the Mother Tree. The slow meditative process of shelling beans is as soothing as they are protein rich.

Slow to order firewood, I needed to purchase one cord of seasoned, not green, firewood. The demand is great this year and the price was $450, the highest I have ever paid. But we are set for the cold weather to come. My son stacked the entire cord himself, enjoying the soothing repetition. Everything was cleaned up, and rock dust laid down for the wet days to come.

Last winter, the Professor gave a lesson in hydraulics and small engines, showing my son how to rebuild a log splitter. Last weekend the young lad used that splitter to process a large pile of ash trees and split logs into firewood.

The summer chain saw class paid dividends when the young lad felled an 80′ ash tree, free hand (no ropes, no winches, just the Pythagorean theorem, clear thinking and confidence). The Emerald Ash Borer has invaded Maine, where 99% of an estimated 511 Million ash trees are expected to be infected and die. He dropped an infected tree that needed to be removed.

And finally, he used the sharpening stone and oil to whip the maul into shape, and then split wood, the old fashioned way!