LOL Thank you for the funny story (you can tell I was not the one trying to get those hedge balls.)

Maybee, you are getting older or Maybee you have just proven that it just takes more determination and TIME to accomplish the same things.

Thanks for sharing your escapade! I can *see* my sister or me doing something like this....well, maybe. We're not yet 69 so ya never know :-0

You are a lot braver (or would that be more stupid...ROFL) than "this" 69 year old woman. You are also lucky. Had you slipped and gone tumbling, nobody would have known where you were, but I must say, that is true friendship and stubborn determination. Glad your cold body had a happy ending to your story.

Well this is a first for me...never saw nor heard of a hedge ball, but I sure can relate to stories about growing older. LOL!!!!

I've never heard of them before either. I had heard of horse apples, but didn't realize they were anything other than real apples maybe a little past there prime...........? What can I say? You learn something new everyday, right?

Laurel

We call them hedge apples here. Loved your story. The one and only time I ever went after them, they were along a country road. BUT co-worker and I went after them on our lunch break. IF I ever would do it again, I'd wear throwaway gloves!!! Sticky goo is putting it mildly. We used quite a few office cleaning supplies to get it off our hands.....and we were laughing like the fools we were the whole escapade.

Thanks for the chuckle at YOUR expense. lol

Shirley

We use to have Horse Apple Wars when we were kids. Sticky...Sticky. Dried Cow Patties worked better. Kinda like a frisbe.

Gayle

LOL! Cute story! You really had to work for those, didn't you!
By the way, we always called those monkey balls.

Maybe it's not that you are getting older but that hedge balls are just getting harder to collect. Yeah, that's it. That's for the laugh.

Linda (who has never seen those things before)

LOL, not laughing at you, but with you. Reminds me of my trip to Pigeon Forge. A friend and I rented a cabin in the hills. Cabin is on a hillside. The lockbox with the key is located right above the porch rail which falls off into a steep "abyss". Of course, first time I went to open the stupid thing I dropped the cover into the abyss. I was only 45 at the time but it took me 20 minutes to carefully walk down that steep hillside to retrieve it, grabbing onto huge trees, etc... whatever I could find. I knew I was going to fall and break a hip or other bone.

What do you do with those, never seen one so they must grow in warm climates...

Great story. I give you an A for determination also!

Next time you decide to do something like this though, please take a friend and a cell phone. It would have been even colder if you had ended up in the creek!

I never heard of Hedge Balls, so I googled and found they are what I know as Osage Oranges. I have seen two of the trees in this area, and have picked up the fruit after they have turned orange and aren't sticky, then put them in a Fall arrangement.

The trees have an interesting history and usefulness.

Sue

Hey, if it is not any trouble, could you go back and get me a few?

(Only kidding AND ducking!)

My trouble is that I truely forget that age has its limitations and go through life thinking I can do what I've always done until I'm pulled up short by reality. And...it's not that I'm one of those sixty-nine year olds who has gotten to this point with no aches, pains or medical problems. I'm not sure what I am going to do with the coat at this point, but hey..it was my son's I may just not say anything and hang it back up :o) I never thought about my cell phone and I had pulled the car behind grain bins and it couldn't be seen from the road. But...I "had" mentioned to my husband where I was going and what I was going to do...he was on an adventure of his own (he's as bad as I am) or he would have gone and helped me get them. When these fall to the ground, they just turn brown and yucky.

When I "was" young, we used to slice them into 1/4 inch circles and punch little holes in them and then put them into a 250º oven until they were dried out. They would turn a beautiful shade of brown and would curl slightly. They made beautiful fall "flowers" for arrangements.

Younger still...yes, we used to heave them at each other. I marvel at that now after seeing how much these babies weigh.

I found yet another tree...so if anyone "should" want some for insects, flowers or to heave...you can come and pick your own...

Maybe, where are you located?

Here, I have never seen them for sale, but find them in the ditches.

I need to get a few more. Got only two so far, as I am also picky about them, and won't pick them up if they are "damaged".

I never picked them off a tree.

Moni

Moni...I'm in southeast Iowa

Well so am I and we call them horse apples and they are good to get rid of spiders.

Loved the story.

Osage oranges here in Michigan and we use them to get rid of spiders.
Kathy G in MI

I asked where you were, cause when hayjud visited, we picked some up for her to take home. She said, they buy them in the store, in Minnesota. I had never heard of people buying them.

Here they are called hedge apples, and osage orange.

About the spiders...., just were all do you put them (hedge apples) Kathy? and how many do you scatter around?

Moni

Love your story....sounds like something I would do...LOL. We all should go gather some and sell them.....seems theres a market for these sticky things......

~Kathy~

Here is a link that might be useful: Hedgeapples

(((Maybee)))

As a "once long time resident" of southest Iowa.....I know what hedgeballs are and the risk one takes to get the "choice of the crop". I give you a purple ribbon for taking that risk, especially after your description!!!!

We would insert cloves, cinnamon sticks and orange rinds into the hedgeballs intwined (is that a word?) with cranberries and natural walnuts or hickory nuts for our fall decorations. Because they would last into the Christmas seanon we would add pine cones, holly and more spices.

Thanks for the memory!!!!!!!!

I can smell the aroma as I type!!!

The natural wonders of Southeast Iowa, Fairfield to be exact!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in the Ottumwa area..not all that far from Fairfield. Yes, I guess they use them to repel spiders, but I'm a skeptic. But...I guess they are selling them in Des Moines for seventy five cents apiece. When I delivered them last night, my cousin said, "Wow! These are heavy..couldn't you have put them in two sacks?" I informed her I carried them a quarter of a mile wrapped in a coat and they kept rolling out the sleeves. I'll bet that coat won't have an spiders :o)

There is an Osage Orange tree around the corner not too far from my home. I am in the Flint area of Michigan. I don't think anyone ever picks those things up, they just lay there and rot. I have never seen them turn orange either. I really don't pay much attention to them. I'm going to go back and look at indianakat's link and see what that's all about.
Dee in Michigan

Great story!
We always called them "monkey balls" and I have no idea why....Years ago, my DD lived in a small mobile home and one night, it got windy during the night and these darn things were coming down and hitting her roof..She said, she thought someone was jumping on the roof and scared the living day lights out of her....People around here do use them to keep the spiders away....

Saw some for sale in a grocery store here on the Keweenaw penninsula in Michigan's UP just last week! I didn't check the price but I will if they're still there when I go back!

Maybee, you sound like my dad years ago. He was an older father and I was one of the younger bunch of kids. I remember him climbing around in the top of the corncrib in his 70's and I told my mom he acted like he thought he was still 60! He was a very healthy and active 60 too!

MONKEY BALLS!!!! They are also called Monkey Balls here in my part of Pennsylvania. And they are known to keep spiders away. They turn a shriveled up brown ball when they dry out. MONKEY BALLS!!! lol

We always called them Horse Apples but learned the 'proper' name was Bois D'arc. I usedto make the sliced, baked flower type decorations but found out fast you wanna' wear gloves and NOT use a knife you're not willing to toss! They are native to TX, AR, OK & MO.

I read that years ago in Central TX, you couldn't get a home loan unless the 'piers' in a pier & beam house (one with a crawl space) were of Bois D'arc wood because it was known to be rot resistant & repelled termites. Past generations used it for fence posts because it was said to last 100 years.

Suzi

I forgot to say reading your story had me laughing so hard I nearly wet my pants! Reminded me much-ly of something I'd do.
Suzi

I'm way over 70 ... and I can see me doing something like that - but no high blood pressure to complicate the issue ... yet.

ole joyful.

Holy smokes! Peoply actually PAY for those thingS?! I had no idea...
:-)

Hedge apples here in Oklahoma are sometimes considered a nuisance, but I've heard of some people who use them to (supposedly) repel bugs. Fine woodworkers sometimes like to use the wood. We talked to one guy from South Dakota who was willing to pay for some with nice burls so he could literally "turn it" into something beautiful.

Geeze Louize...our daughter just e-mailed me (she lives in Ames) and wanted to know if we have hedge balls because she would like to have some. Hey, I'm going to give this request to her dad and "he" can get them this time. The must be popular items this year for some reason....

Good idea, Maybee. I fondly remember our "adopted" grandpa when he and his wife kept us kids for a weekend. He had us help harvest his garden and taught me to collect seeds from flowers (my favorite pastime today!). He took us fishing on his pond/lake in a leaky old rowboat and had us help him cook the fish for supper. Then after supper, he climbed up his walnut tree and shook down the nuts for us to gather. He was 70 or older and climbed the tree like a monkey! Great memories.