This week we started one of the projects we want to do before planting the big garden this summer.
Last winter we had the trees cut that were blocking the sun from hitting the area, but as summer progressed we realized a few trees along the creek needed to be cut too. The corn on that side of the garden grew at an angle as it reached toward the sun.
As we worked on taking down the trees we found some of Pap’s fingerprints from days gone by.
The first one was an old broke tiller belt. I’m sure it fouled a day of Pap’s tilling when it broke. He laid it around the bottom of a tree and that’s where it’s been until the tree came down and showed it’s hiding place. Pap probably thought he might use a piece of the belt for something else and wanted to keep it handy.
The next fingerprint was a tree with a rock in it. The tree had a hole or ditch if you will running up the length of it. It started a couple of feet off the ground. At some point Pap had thrown a rock into the cavity, likely not on purpose just aiming for the creek and hit the tree. Over time the natural growth of the tree surrounded the rock locking it tightly in its grasp.
We loved finding the little nods from Pap. The Deer Hunter and I spent many days working the land with him.
Seeing his fingerprints made it seem like he was still right there with us preparing the garden to grow food for our family.
Last night’s video: Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers 4.
Tipper
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Love ever so often finding things from the everyday lives of loved ones who have passed. Feels like they’re reaching out to touch you.
Pap was such a sweetheart. I have always done like Pap: When I find something in the woods, I set it at the foot of a tree, just in case – if I don’t go ahead and take it to the house with me.
Pam in Virginia
That’s so beautiful. ❤️
What a joy to find these treasures that stir up your special memories of Pap. Thank you for sharing these with us!
such a sweet reminder of his life!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ximTyhPf3UE
Ed-what a great song! Thank you for sharing it 🙂 I just love it!
How special!!
I love that. ❤️
Tipper – this reminds me of an old song/hymn? called “Precious Memories” and one verse reads: “Precious memories, unseen angels; Sent from somewhere to my soul;
How they linger, ever near me; And the sacred past unfolds.” Your unexpected discoveries are like precious memories that comfort your soul, and they linger everywhere in that hollow where your family grew – and are still growing; and each ‘find’ unfolds the past of what once was – making for precious memories.
If you want a treat, go to you tube and listen to Pap, Paul and one of the girls sing Precious Memories.
I am glad to know I am not the only one that hangs on to old worthless items, they sometimes come in handy later on. PHD mentioned sentimental things, I mentioned my Daddy in my earlier comment, he usually carried an old razor sharp Kelly axe with him when he went with me to cut his firewood. He would often sit on one block of wood and set up another one for a chopping block and cut him up a pile of small pieces of wood from the small tree top limbs while I was cutting with the chainsaw. I would tease him and tell him if it is big as match stick you save it. I have saved and put up several of these small sticks of wood he cut from the last time we were together when I was cutting wood for him. Worthless to everyone, but priceless to me. As I have said before, there are some things in my life money can’t buy.
I love reading the stories about Pap, we all have many memories of our own parents.
It is strange what nature does with our placed or misplaced items. Just north of Greeneville, Tn years ago someone placed a 5 gallon bucket in the fork of a tree. The tree has grown completely around the bucket. In Gibson County near Bradford, Tn some tin was wrapped around a tree by a tornado and the tree fork has also grown around the tin. Just yesterday in McNairy County I saw a tree that had grown around some barb wire fencing. The wire was probably embedded 3 inches. Just recently I visited the area where I grew up and as I viewed the area, even though it is drastically changed I could envision the old chicken house where mama would throw chicken heads after wringing the neck from the chicken. I could find the area where the hog pen had been even though trees now inhabit the area. The old persimmon tree was gone but I can still remember the day daddy cut a limb from it and gave me the beating of my life for sassing mama. The three oak trees int the front yard are still there, probably 150 years old, one with a scar where a car hit it more than 60 years ago. So many things I see bring back memories from long ago.
Herman, I have heard loggers say it is very dangerous to cut a tree around an old barn, yard of an old home place, or a pen of some type. You never know what is inside the tree but there will usually be something that will dull your saw or tear up the teeth of the sawmill blade. There is a big cedar tree that was in the corner of my Granddaddy’s hog pen, if I was ever to cut it down I would cut it off at least 6 ft above ground, any thing lower and you are going to hit hog wire.
Just like Jesus, Pap is with you…He’s in your heart and always will be.
Have a great day!
The little treasures our parents left for us to stumble across years after they are gone is like finding a golden egg. Mom left a glass jar full of bean seeds in the freezer I decided to plant a few years after she died. She had written a note on a piece of torn paper and tucked it inside the jar to remind her of the date and person who gave them to her. The note said a woman gave these to me when Thomas stopped to look at a horse they had for sale. Her description makes me smile as I think about them riding around and stopping to chat with strangers.
Pap is definitely showing his presence with each thing you find as y’all work around the properties he worked for so many years.
Precious truths….family love.
Little treasures from those that are gone remind us they are still with us. Like you, the older I get the more I treasure those discoveries of loved ones.
It’s so wonderful to find treasures from our loved ones. It’s the littlest things that stir my heart. Thank you for sharing. I have the garden hoe my daddy used and he put his initials on it. So precious to me. I was so very close to my parents and there are days it’s hard to think they’re gone home. Oh what a reunion one day for all that are in Christ!
Tipper, I love reading your blog and watching your videos. So many reminders of my life on the farm. I look forward to them every morning.
May God bless you always
That is really special. It’s like you said like he’s still there.
What an interesting find, a rock in a tree. I imagine Pap would be proud to know his family is still working the land to provide sustenance.
I love to read your stories and hear about your experiences. I hope you kept pieces (at least) of the sentimental items you found-especially the tree. Label and date the appropriate date and location found and put them in a special place so someday his great grandsons can find them.
Those sorts of “artifacts” are markers of people-to-land interactions, especially over years of living. The habit of “laying up” things for reasons of safety or future re-use can cause odd results, such as trees holding a bottle. Also, I have learned by experience that it is not a good idea to put anything snugly in among tree roots or limbs. Very soon it will have to be cut out. But, as you mention, they are history.
That is so sweet!
I love this! We occasionally find things like this from my parents and it’s so comforting to me. It’s like a sweet hug from them. ♥️Jane
Tipper! What a great story! Thanks for sharing!❤️Regina
I have been awake for almost 2 hours laying here with all kinds of thoughts and memories running though my head, just another sleepless night. I don’t know if it would be called fingerprints, but it seems like I can do nothing without seeing something that reminds me of time spent with my wife. I have lived on the old home place for soon to be 71 years, I often find or run across things that remind me of my Granddaddy or Daddy, it could be something as simple as a old very large nail, a piece of an old mule plow or even an old rotting stump in the woods, it reminds me of a time in the past when I cut my Daddy’s firewood. He never wanted me to go to the woods without him going too, he would sit on a block of wood while I cut his wood and sometimes cry. I would tell him I am just paying you back for the things you did for me when I was a kid. Nowadays after needing my son or grandsons to help me with things, I understand.
Randy, I love hearing your stories as they bring to mind my own. Such a treasure you are! May you have a most beautiful day and may your memories bring comfort and not pain. Although, my memories make my eyes leak too.
Randy, I’m the same age as you and I’m noticing my feelings are not buried near as deep as they once were. Sometimes now the simplest little thing will choke me up. My eyes don’t leak but I feel like they might start anytime. I think I’ve lived too long to care what people might think about it.
Ron, if a man is not suppose to cry, I am not much of a man. At the time I was doing this for Daddy I was working 7 days at a time on rotating shifts with 48 hours off, not two days between shifts. He would cry because I was doing things for him during the hours I was off. Now I have to ask for help. I once worried about what people might think, but now at soon to be 71 (Feb. 20) I no longer care as long as I am not hurting anyone or doing something illegal. I am not trying to be be a “smart donkey” when I say this but if you don’t like what you see or hear, leave. It will soon be 4 years since my wife died, I still can’t talk about her without breaking down and crying. If you add the time we dated to the years we were married it would have been 50 years when she died. I love my son and grandsons so much it hurts, my eyes often leak when I think of them.