Here's a silly original that I did today for fun. I took most of the photos. I didn't take the photos of the mesquite or the mesquite beans, because we don't have any on our place; the live oak for the same reason; the cedar because there's only one cedar here and it's all the way on the back of the property and I didn't want to walk back there in this heat; or the hickory nuts because it's the wrong time of year. I also didn't take the photo of Clint Eastwood from "Pale Rider." But all the other trees are growing right around my house.
Now the post oak grows straighter than most
And it's okay for fence posts
Except it doesn't keep away termites or ants
Because it's not naturally resistant
Like the cedar tree.
Didn't stop people from building fences with them, though, back in the olden days.
Yeah, a cedar tree, it smells real nice
And that smell helps to repel termites
And other little bugs and things
But the deer can whip it to death in the spring
When it's time to get the velvet off their antlers.
And there's the blackjack. It's another oak
With black bark, but watch 'em when the ground gets soaked
'Cause they tend to fall over easy
When the wind blows hard and the weather's queasy
Not like a live oak.
Now the live oak is an evergreen, sort of
Anyway it grows like a great big shady dream
Because it has a real big canopy
It's a nice shady place for you and me
And they can get very, very, very old
And there's the prickly ash, we call it tingle-tongue
'Cause if you chew on the leaves it'll make your mouth numb
It has smooth white bark and lots of thorns
And only the wild goats with their big old horns
Would dare to eat the leaves of a prickly ash.
And it's funny when they do it 'cause their mouths go numb and they walk around goin' gnah gnah gnah and slobberin' all over the place.
The mesquite tree, it has thorns too,
But it makes real good wood for a barbecue
And the Indians used to eat the beans it grows
I even tried some once, you know
But I didn't like it very much
I don't think they had been well-prepared.
Oh the hickory, now there's a tree
You can eat the nuts from hickory
You can barbecue with hickory wood too
And you can make yourself a nice hoe handle or two
No, there ain't nothing like a good piece of hickory
