Over the weekend we headed up the creek for some fresh air. When we walk in the woods The Deer Hunter is always keeping and eye out for rich pine.
I filmed our adventure and even told a few rich pine stories along the way.
I hope you enjoyed looking for rich pine with us!
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I loved this video….could almost smell the fire from here! Tks for sharing. Also the fiddle music was terrific.
My Grandpa used to talk about using Fat pine with a pine cone to start the wood fire.
My favorite of all your videos so far!
It will be shared and watched many times by
those who love walking in the woods.
Thank you all so much.
We call it fat pine or lighter pine.
That is for sure a white pine in the beginning. The limbs grow in a circle around the tree. A new circle of limbs grows every year. You can tell how old a white pine is by the number of rings of limbs it has. The distance between the rings of limbs are how much the tree grew that year. Other pines I know about have random limbs.
I didn’t know white pine was a good source of rich pine but the only white pine I know much about was the ones Daddy planted on Wiggins Creek. There were no old growth white pines around there.
Larry always gets some to keep for starting fires. He just calls it pine knots. I never heard rich pine but that’s a good name for it. Also have heard pitch pine?
By the way, I meant to ask. I’m wondering what the Deer Hunter called “red pine”. I had not heard that for an Apalachian pine. (There is a northern US red pine.) Gr owing up, I only remember hearing of “burr pine” (which I later re-learned to call Virginia pine), white pine and pitch pine. We had a yard full of shortleaf pine but I do not recall them being called anything but just ‘pine’. (My Dad would sometimes say ‘spruce pine’ for hemlock.) You all may have Table Mountain pine to.
Anyway, the forester in me coming out. Don’t put yourselves out to re-name red pine for my understanding. I know that can be a difficult exercise.
Beautiful video! The next best thing to being able to actually walk in the woods!
I remember my Granny saying, “Buster, brang me a piece of that pine from the barn. I need it to start the far t’mar mornin’.”
Thank you! Enjoyed this so much–as a girl my best friend and I wandered in the woods often. Strangely, I never remember gathering the rich pine. Don’t know how the wood stove fires were started.
We need to find some for one of our state park visits where the cabins have fireplaces. Yall would have had fun seeing us try to get a fire lit. I found out that a chapstick will burn for a bit!! These cabins are in West Tn at Chickasaw State Park and were built by WPA workers.
This is the first video I have watched that made me feel out of the groove. My sis and I watched your video on my tv, and she found it fascinating. I do not know why rich pine was never mentioned nor was it searched for in my growing up years. Perhaps it was because our fires were always with coal. They had gotten away from fire places, and instead most homes either had a pot bellied stove or a warm morning stove. We had a large coal furnace in the basement that could heat a large sized home. Some of the homes back in the coal camps had a coal house where the coal was kept. I was mystified once at a house in later years because the coal house was right on the road. I wondered how they parked a truck right on the road to fill it. I can only presume it was just a time when traffic not so busy along the roads. Sis has land for walking, so I am sure she will be telling me stories of finding rich pine now. Appalachians have so much in common, but sometimes it is interesting to ponder the differences.
Good job on the rich pine. I once tried to use a pine torch to go possum hunting, but when the pitch melted and ran down on my hand I went for the flashlight really quick.
I had walked past a big log on my hunting lease many times before I realized it was the entire heart of an ancient pine, and all fat wood (rich pine, fat lighter, etc.) The Deer Hunter would have brought in oxen to drag that log home. I had a chain saw and an old Ford 2N tractor. I cut my prize into four 10-foot sections, hooked a chain around each, nd dragged them home, one by one. It was a lifetime supply of rich pine. I gave some away and moved off and left the rest where I had dropped it. The tree had once been a line tree (left by loggers to help mark a property line). Only God knows how old it was when it fell, leaving that heart of rich pine.
I enjoyed the sounds of the crackling fire and gurgling stream. I could almost smell that fire. When the campground opens this spring, I am going to look for some rich pine for our campfire. I’m sure I can find some.
i was so envious to see you can get away from everyone…. yesterday we went to a very out of the way place and still ran into people. i’ve never heard of rich pine, i thought this was so interesting. thank you for sharing!
I remember my parents talking about looking for I think they called it pine knots or rich pine when they were young. I have that “walk’n in the forest” embedded in my DNA too. Loved the little creeks you showed and would have enjoyed sitting down by that beautiful little fire too! It just refreshes one’s soul to take a walk in the forest.
Wow! Thanks for sharing! And some people don’t understand being in the woods. Sorry for them. I too felt I was walking with you. Have always loved a walk in the woods. To see everything in the video, hear the sounds (seems like the rooster wanted to go too), the crunch of footsteps, running water, cracklings fire, all brought back pleasant memories. I was reminded of a story a man once told me about being left in an isolated place where a house was being built while the person who had the vehicle had to go back to town for supplies. The other person with him had a health condition where he would get weak if he didn’t eat often. This man realized he needed food for the other person, caught a rabbit, built a fired, skinned, dressed and cooked the rabbit on a stick on the fire for the other to eat. I wonder how many people could do that today if they had to? Your family could I’m sure. Thanks again. Having a video in this case enhances the written word. Keep it up!
Excellent video! The woods along that bubbling branch look like a grown up old field–small similar-sized trees and lack of rocks.
As you know, I don’t watch youtube, but I can definitely relate to the Deerhunter’s looking for rich pine. I recently ran across a piece which appeared to have been used as a fence post in the Sweet Branch area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s probably forbidden by our governmental betters, but I carried it out with me. We don’t use the fireplace in the house – it hasn’t been used in over 60 years, and I’d be afraid to rely on the chimney bricks at this point. But I split it up into slivers, and put it into packages.
My plan is to give it to grandchildren whenever this Chinese virus is a thing of the past. Each package includes a note suggesting that they keep a record of the date and circumstances when they use some of it to start a fire, with the idea that well into the future, they’ll be able to look back and be warmed by the memory – and maybe tell their grandchildren about the times.
If I were making a list of smells that take me time traveling, the smell of rich pine would be first or second on the list. Whether on a fresh cut or burning there are so many memories attached and each of them good.
I had to smile about Mr. Greene’s “old habits” and the Deer Hunter “always looking”. It is a habit and I have it to. One good reason for it to be a habit is that a fire can always be started with rich pine no matter how wet the woods are, as your video shows.
I took a fella some rich pine for fire starter awhile back. But I didn’t take him all I had. Would have felt too risky, though we don’t heat with wood anymore. Yes, Mr. Greene, old habits do indeed die hard, or not die at all.
The walk in those woods was absolutely beautiful! The brook gently babbling and the sound of crackling fire. Then as if it could be better, there’s little Katie sawing on her fiddle. I have a poorly socialized cat ( it’s a story) and she can be difficult to get along with but when she heard that fiddle, she was soothed and calmed instantly. Why, you’re all the best and pretty incredible in your ways too!!!! Blessings to you all this day!!!
Toted a fat pine stump back to the house last week. Added it to the pile I keep in the yard. We only heat with the wood stove if the power is out now, but old habits die hard.
I thought I smelled the pine when he first lit the fire! Thank you for sharing this.
This was one of the joys of my childhood. My granddaddy and me would spend about half of a day walking through the woods looking for rich pine. He would take his axe and the sack he used when he picked cotton by hand and maybe an apple and we would spend a warm fall afternoon in the woods. If we got thirsty we would drink out of a creek. Even 60 years latter, I will be on the lookout for rich pine when in the woods. We did not call it rich pine, we called it lighter knots.
The Deer Hunter has always been a very observant fellow and if you pay attention to him walking in the woods you can see that he is always looking for things and signs. He looks for the rich pine, he looks for signs of any animals (through tracks, broken limbs, fur caught on tree trunks and limbs and smells) he also notices if other people have walked there recently.
He loves the woods! Thanks for the video, Tip, it’s fun to see you all in the woods!
I love taking walks here in the mountains. It sure is a blessing during this time of the C0-vid. I cannot imagine being in a city and having to stay in day after day. Here there is a feeling of freedom and not isolation. I am never lonely in the woods. Just sitting on my deck is very relaxing and gives me time to think about all the good things in my life. I am truly blessed.