This picture was taken in March of 1951. Clarence Schmidt, with whom I worked with the Soil Conservation Service and I agreed with Lee Jeffreys to trim up this half mile row of Osage Orange (Hedge) trees that he had bulldozed out. Many "hedge rows" were planted in this area when the land was homesteaded to meet some of the requirements and also provide a "living fence". It made great wildlife habitat for Quail, Pheasants, Rabbits, etc. This row had been cut over once before and 4-6 trees were growing from each old stump. We are using a two-man saw to cut the several newer trees from the old stump roots. We used our "double blade axes" to trim off the brush and piled the poles and helped Lee saw them up in "post length" with his buzz saw. The Osage Orange was a very hard wood and made excellent Hedge posts. I noted in my Diary that I got $84.00 out of the project when we finished. It was one of the first "projects" Clarence and I undertook. We worked at it for several Saturdays and think we got something like $1.25/hour. It wasn't long after this experience that he and I started selling and planting landscaping nursery stock as a part-time job. Fortunately, it was much more lucrative. Incidentally I still have my axe out in the garage that I bought new for the project. My Brother Don and wife Gladys later moved to the farm where the barn is shown over our heads.
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