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Books About Life on a Farm Written Especially for People Who Like to Read! "Highly recommended reading." The Midwest Book Review Reviews & Readers' Comments |
LeAnn R. Ralph Rural Route 2 Author E6689 970th Ave. Colfax, WI 54730 (715) 308-6336 |
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(Or is that "A Gift of Hearts"?) by LeAnn R. Ralph For the past four or five years, I have planted Morning Glories every spring by the posts on which our bird feeders are mounted. In spite of my best efforts at training them and giving them as much help as possible, the Morning Glories still managed to make a tangled mess of themselves, vines winding around each other instead of going up the posts where they were *supposed* to go. Well, they're not going to do that this year. At least I hope they won't. Not after my husband spent an entire day building trellises for them. It all started a week ago Saturday when my husband came out of my office early in the morning with a sheaf of papers clutched in his hand. "What's that?" I asked. "It's going to be your new trellis," he said. The sheaf of papers turned out to be a set of plans he had found on the Internet for making a trellis out of natural materials -- poles and grapevine with a bit of lattice thrown in for good measure. A little while later, Randy and I and the dogs went across the road to the "big pines" to see what we could find for materials. Not a problem at all. Thousands of smaller pine trees are growing underneath the canopy of the 60-year-old big pines. When we came back to the yard, we had all the materials Randy needed. "Are you sure you want to go to so much work?" I said. "Oh," Randy replied, "this won't take long." And he was right. An hour later, the trellis was built. And it was gorgeous. Three vertical poles with poles crosswise (instead of lattice) to help the Morning Glories climb, not to mention five-foot long, half-inch pines bent into heart shapes. The hearts really "made" the trellis and transformed it into a work of art. Randy looked at the trellis for a little while. And then he decided to build another one. "If we have two, then one can go on each side of the bird feeder," he said. So back to the woods he went for more materials. It was while he was building the second trellis that he decided he needed to rebuild the platform bird feeder, as well. The birds that visit our yard appreciate the platform feeder. Many members of one species can eat together, and several species at a time can also share the feeder. By late afternoon, the trellises and bird feeder were finished -- my husband's clothes, hands and arms were covered with pine pitch -- and I had a brand new place for my Morning Glories to climb. Two or three Morning Glories have already started growing in the tub beneath the bird feeder. They are volunteers started from last year's seeds. I know it will be another three or four months before the Morning Glories are ready to bloom. But I can picture them now, climbing the trellises and twining around the hearts that my husband made with his own two hands -- a gift of hearts that are a gift from his heart.   ***************
This article may be freely distributed as long as the following information is included: LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the farm books "Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm" (trade paperback 2003); "Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam" (trade paperback 2004); "Preserve Your Family History (A Step-by-Step Guide for Interviewing Family Members and Writing Oral Histories" (e-book 2004) --http://ruralroute2.com |
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