Dad, our talk, and hedge balls

I stopped by to talk with Dad yesterday and we
talked of many things. The recent drop in the
temperature and the leafs starting to litter his
back yard, family, the gas prices, how big Pharma
is too greedy, and hedge balls.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

It is the time of year that signals snow will be
here before we know it and it’s time to get the
chili fixings together to warm the body and soothe
the soul. And the time approaches when we go to the
polls to vote against the status quo but watch them
get re-elected anyway.

Then I mentioned that I remembered in the fall
we’d go out along the back roads looking for hedge
balls to put in the basement. You may know them
as hedge apples, horse apples, monkey balls, badock,
or osage oranges.

The picture above by Bruce Martin shows that of
which we speak. They grow on trees or large shrubs,
are sort of round, have bumps all over, are filled
with sticky goo, and are not oranges.

The reason we used to gather them in the fall is
because Dad swore they repelled spiders and said
spiders liked to find ways into basements during
the winter to stay warm.

So I told him that scientists now say they don’t
repel spiders but won’t hurt anything if you put
them around your basement. To which the Antique
Farmer replied “Bullshit!”. I had to laugh but
couldn’t argue his statement that we never had a
spider in the basement. I know when I’m licked.
Comments are always welcome.