Outdoor Wednesday

Pull up a chair and grab a glass of something to drink, I gotta story to tell about these two rock posts, and I think you'll want to hear it...... The above rocks, sticking out of the ground in our yard, are limestone posts. In the middle of Kansas, many people years ago used them as fence posts. They are so heavy that you can only haul 3 in the back of a heavy duty pickup. They are usaually about 7-8' long so that they go in the ground at least 3', with the other 4' sticking out for the wire to be strung on. If you drive through Kansas there are many areas with limestone posts, but the middle of Kansas is most well known.

My Mom gave these two posts to my daughters when they were young, for their birthdays. I know that sounds like an odd gift, but the girls were tickled about it, knowing the whole story. These two posts are from my Grandparents farm near Lucas, Kansas. You can search it on the internet, it's a very unique little town. Anyway, when my Grandmother was a young girl, she went with her father to the local quarry, where these posts were "harvested" for lack of a better word. That is where she met my Grandfather, and they lived happily ever after....

Now that's all well and good, but you have to think about this in a different way. I told you that they are so heavy that you can only haul 3 in a heavy duty pickup. What kind of implement would it have taken to haul these things in the days of horse and wagon? How did they get them to the fence row and put MILES of them in the ground? They are amazing to me, and to think of the WORK it took! The next photo points out the diffence in color in the stone. I'm told (and I can very well be wrong) that these colors show a difference in the weather during the development of the rock. They either show wet/dry years, but I'm not sure which is which.

The next photo shows the way they were "harvested" when Grandpa did it. The arrow show neat, round, "stake" shaped areas in the side. In the fall, a HAND drill was used to drill nice neat holes in the rock. Before the first hard freeze, and over and over during the winter, these holes were filled with water. The water would freeze, expand, and cause the rock to break, straight to the next hole, and so on.

Generally speaking, there are these drill marks on all 4 sides of the stone post, which means that it was a very long laborious task to complete. Than again, I say HOW DID THEY DO IT???? Oh my goodness, my respect for people who worked and lived in these days, just continues to GROW!

Ok, I'll get off my soap box.....ANYWAY! When these posts arrived, we were fortunate that they each had a hole already drilled in them, so that we could put a chain between the two.

With the chair between the two, it made the most unusual "hitchin" post that anyone ever had. You see, when the girls were little, they spent sun up to sun down on the back of the horses. And when they needed a potty break, or a snack, they would ride up, jump off, hook the reins onto the chain, and into the house! That's also why to this day, nothing grows well under these posts. Too much horse manure will burn the soil for many, many years! Thanks for stopping by my outdoor post for this week. Please leave your comments OR corrections, but it's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Love from me to you!!! Lets go check out the other outdoor posts, by clicking below...................

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