Howdy Folks,
There is a grand
old stump just outside Kessy's barn, only a few feet on the other side of the
fence. It's near where I scatter the chicken scratch each morning and the wild
birds drift in for their breakfast of cracked corn. They are the birds I often
mention in my Coffee Clutch stories. The birds who visit there vary slightly
with the seasons, such as Juncos in the winter, Towhees in the summer. But the
grand old stump is always there. It was there when we cleared the place for
Kessy's barn and fence. From the looks of it, it had been here years before
that.
Every morning
chickens and wild birds use the old stump as a resting place while waiting
their turn at the goodies. Squirrels, too. Almost every day a Chickadee, Junco
or Wren will poke its cute face out the stump's only hole facing the barn. It
always brings a smile.
The old stump is
of good size and while I have no true way of knowing, I'd guess it must have
been over 200 years old when it was felled. It was certainly here for the
Battle of Appomattox during the Civil War. It would have been a good sized tree
even then. Did weary soldiers rest beneath it that hot and brutal week?
It takes a lot
for an acorn to grow to a massive oak. Simply surviving its first winter is a
challenge. Deer love to browse the tender shoots of young oaks. In fact all the
early years are a struggle for any sapling. From surviving the random deer
browse or trampling hooves, to pushing ever upwards toward the sun under a
canopy of tall trees blocking life giving sun's rays. But somehow this oak
managed to survive and thrive throughout those early years.
Was this old
stump once one of the few oaks left to stand in fields here to provide shelter
from the sun's sweltering heat while the farmer worked his crop? Did it provide
a welcoming shade to a man and his horses? How many birds, squirrels and
raccoons raised their families in its massive spreading branches? I remember
one time counting five different species of birds nesting in the same oak that
towered along a blue bird trail I was monitoring
Surely it was
witness to many changes throughout the countless years it stood regal and
proud. Living surrounded by other oaks, poplars and hickories in a forest only
visited by deer, foxes, bear and birds, to standing alone on the edge of a
tobacco field. From seeing no human to watching the forest cleared all around
by humans. The woods have grown back now, surrounding and sheltering the stump.
Today, the grand
old stump watches the birds, our chickens, Kessy and all of us. It joins us
each morning for Coffee Clutch and I wonder at the stories it could tell. Its
spirit lives on.
Gitty Up ~ Dutch
Henry
