88 Mother earth News December 2016/January 2017Country Lore
other end, only in the PVC pipe, near
the cut edge, for another piece of
tubing. The logic is to allow water to
trickle in at the higher level, and the
lower hole is to allow overflow to be
siphoned off and not spill inside the
coop. The incoming tube is hooked
into my irrigation system for my
garden and lawn. The overflow tub-
ing is routed outside the coop into
the yard. So, whenever the irrigation
comes on, fresh water is channeled
into the PVC pipe and overflow is
channeled out, so the coop doesn’t become
wet. The hens actually prefer this fresher
water, and when I leave town, my timer on
my irrigation system likewise waters the
chickens. I’ve been using this system for five
years now.
C. Hope Clark
Chapin, South CarolinaWabi-Sabi Walnut Table
Our house was built on land that was once
an apple orchard, and I’ve found that using
apple wood for carvings is a good way to pre-serve the memory of all those delicious apple
pies and apple pancakes we’ve enjoyed over
the years.
But when we had to cut down our 50-year-
old black walnut tree, I knew I needed some-
thing special to commemorate the decades
of shade and splendor that tree brought to
our backyard.
I’ve always had a deep appreciation for the
Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi. “Wabi”
means finding beauty in simple things.
“Sabi” means appreciating the value in
old and imperfect things — a cracked vase,an old door handle, a rusty pitch-
fork — as long as they still work. That
was the aesthetic I was looking for in
this project.
So, when I asked the arborists
who cut down the tree to save some
logs, which otherwise would’ve taken
two men to drag to their trucks, they
were more than happy. And, as soon
as they drove away, I set to work with
my chainsaw, cutting off beautiful
walnut rounds for some possible
“old wood” projects.
I finished a variety of projects made from
the wood from our walnut tree. These in-
cluded a parquet coffee table, a bird house,
a picture frame, drink coasters, and, because
of the wood’s considerable weight (40 pounds
per cubic foot), the bases for two photograph-
ic light stands. But none of these brought out
the special characteristics of black walnut.
Black walnut slabs and oval cuts are very
popular for fine furniture, so I finally settled
on a project that would capture the swirling,
amazingly beautiful rings — a small, round-top
table, using an end slice from the tree trunk.Circle #56; see card pg 97Use PVC pipe and trickle irrigation tubing to provide fresh
water to your hens, even when you can’t be there.p 83-90 Lore.indd 88 10/13/16 2:22 PM