Re: CULT: Tools for digging irises

Hi Walter,

Your little article reminds me of my Dad.

We bought a farm in northern Wisconsin, the house and buildings were on the south
side of a 200 acre field.  My parents decided to plant the perimeter with
evergreen.  My Dad got someone's canceled order from 'Trees for Tomorrow' and we
my Mom and I started planting.  The deal was you used a tree spud.  It had a 6
foot round handle with a flat blade 4" by 8 " inserted part way into the handle.
You dropped the spud onto the ground pushing down with your hands and made a hole
about as deep as the spud blade.  My younger sister who could not handle the spud
dropped a tree into the hole made by pulling the spud back and forth a couple of
times.  Then while she worked doing the same thing with my Mom I would heel the
hole shut and dig another.  Trouble was we kept my Dad at the welder repairing
tree spuds.  He even made an extra to keep ahead.  Finally he inserted a longer
blade almost all the way into the handle.  Did not break any more.  We, my Mom
and my sister who was 8 and I who was 11 planted just over 10,000 four year old
evergreens that spring bu hand.  Is it any wonder I hate the things!

Char, Region 8

wmoores@watervalley.net wrote:

> What follows is a forward from a friend of mine whose grandfather was a
> blacksmith, who, naturally, forged and repaired tools.  I had asked my friend
> about pitchforks, bill dookies, and sharpshooters after this thread developed
> just to see if I was still sane.
>
> I used to go to the blacksmith shop, too, where we had made a 'spade' with a
> metal handle.  My dad got so tired of breaking the wooden handle on the spade
> that he took the spade and some pipe to Mr. Maxwell, the blacksmith, and told
> him to 'fix the spade forever.'  And, he did, and I still have it, probably
> sixty years or so after Mr. Maxwell fixed it.
>
> "Walter,
>     It would be almost impossible to dig up an iris clump with a
> pitchfork.  The tines are too fine and sharp, and would bend under that
> kind of pressure.  A pitchfork is made for pitching hay.
>     I never heard a bill dookie referred to as a sharpshooter until I
> was grown.  Plumbers and city folk call a bill dookie a sharpshooter.  I
> guess it sounds better in polite society.
>     Somewhere in the back of my feeble mind is the idea that the word
> bill dookie is a corruption of some  French word.  I am working on my
> fence row now, but I will make it a project to see if I can find out
> where the word bill dookie comes from."
>
> John
>
> Walter Moores
> Enid Lake, MS USA 7/8
>
>
> Walter Moores
>
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