It was a beautiful day today. I got my inside chores done and we had to go outside and enjoy it. Jordan and Jesse found a bocci ball set in the barn so they went up into the side meadow and played for some time. Granny, Peyton, and I went on a walk through our woods.

There are two paths I’ve mowed so that we have a clear way to walk through our woods. One goes along the fence that we share with a neighbor and down into our woods down to the pond. The pond is an interesting body of water. Not much bigger than a good sized in-ground pool and filled with duck weed and algae, and some tractor tires. Oh well, we do share it, pretty much down the middle with our neighbor. So, the middle of the pond is one boundary and the far edge from the house is the back boundary of our property. The other path comes off the pond path about in the middle of it and goes back up towards the house past the lagoon into the back yard.  

Granny, Peyton, and I took the path from the backyard toward the pond. On the way there are two Osage Orange trees on either side. Those trees have dropped most of their fruit at this point and they are all over the path. Peyton took great delight in sitting among them and playing with the ‘balls.’

According to lore osage oranges are good for keeping spiders away. You quarter them and put a piece in each corner of a room. Alternately, you can put them outside the house near the foundation. Other than that I don’t know of anything else the fruit is good for. The wood is extremely dense and is often used as tool handles. There are some good shaped branches on the tree, I may cut some for spare hammer handles.

I enjoy taking these walks and it’s very cute to see Peyton tromping through the woods. It’s marvelous to have this land. Who needs a park when you have your very own right out your back door.