Ash Tree

When I was growing up on a small farm in rural Alabama we had a lot of small Ash trees growing on our property along the wet lowland areas. My dad loved these trees and he often told me of the many uses for the wood, he wanted me to remember this important tree. If we broke a handle for a hammer or an ax, then Dad would cut a small tree, or a branch off of a larger tree and make a new handle out of it. I remember he told me that Ash was good for furniture also, but we never tried to get that deep into woodworking, we had too many other irons in the fire. Dad also told me that you could bend this wood into shapes while it was still green and limber and when it dried it would keep that shape and be very durable. The Ash tree wood was not any good for things like fence posts or any other project that would be outside in the weather or in contact with the ground because it was a favorite of wood-eating insects and it would not last long for those type purposes.

The number one use for the Ash tree was for a part that we were constantly replacing on our pull behind Sickle Mower. This machine took the rotating motion from the wheels and turned it into the linear motion of the reciprocating blades of the mower. The mower had a wooden bar that connected the sliding metal bar with all of the blades attached to the reciprocator mechanism. They used wood so that if a blade got jammed on something and the forward momentum was strong enough to damage the entire machine, then the wooden arm would break allowing the gears and reciprocator to spin freely thus saving the more expensive parts. The wood then was a sacrificial component like a fuse. Since Sickle Mowers had gone out of common use with the advent of Bush Hogs, these wood bars became hard to find and expensive. We couldn't afford a bush hog and our old Farmall tractor didn't have a Power Take Off (PTO) or a hydraulic lift in order to use one anyway, Dad just decided to make his own part out of Ash. The wood was perfect for this purpose because it is hard, doesn't splinter easy and it is great for absorbing shock, that is why it is used for hockey sticks to this day. We usually ended up making one or two of these bars every year, so many that Dad kept a blank so that he had a pattern to go by while making them. I couldn't find a Free to use Photo but I did find some great photos of almost the exact mowing machine connected to a tractor almost just like the one that we used at this web site;

Farmall Tractor with Sickle Mower Attached to the Draw Bar

In the photo, you can actually see the wooden bar that I'm talking about down close to ground level under the tongue piece that is connected to the tractor's drawbar. If you will notice, the mower has a seat with some levers that can be utilized. It was my job to ride on that seat and watch for obstacles like rocks or stumps, if I saw anything that might catch the blade then I would push down on a lever and the blade would momentarily lift up and glide over the object. This was one of the more fun jobs for a kid on the farm, I would sit back there and let my imagination run wild about giant alien machines eliminating mankind, or I placed myself in the position of the plants and insects with the giant machine bearing down on them. We destroyed a lot of Ant cities and obliterated hordes of bitterweed armies.

My Dad is gone now along with the men of his era that made do with what they had and learned to improvise and build their own tools and replacement parts. I don't see much of that going on today and I sometimes wonder what would happen if hard times return and the general public had to improvise and make do with the things that they have or that they can afford. We live in a throwaway generation and many of the things that we use every day and depend on are neither made to last or made to be worked on and repaired. Can we learn to make-do without those things? Or will we learn to build a replacement for them? For my part, I hope that we never have to find out because I'm very afraid that if people are forced into a situation like that again without the basic knowledge of how to make do or do without, then things could get ugly. Will people one day be killed for a working electronic device or kitchen gadget? How about a battery for a portable power tool? Think about all of the things that when it breaks you just throw away and go get the newest version. What would life be like for you if a new version was not available or was too expensive, could you do without or find something else that you could make to do the same job? Something to think about.

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**Disclaimer: I often use the freewrite prompt to tell a story instead of doing a pure freewrite, so they sometimes take longer than 5 minutes and usually have some editing. But I try to do my story straight through at one sitting without any unnecessary breaks.
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Ash Tree Photo by pxhere

Over 20 Club Graphic by the ever so talented @fireawaymarmot and personalized for me by @snook
Old' Steem by the most wonderful @snook
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Prompt: ash

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