I have been eyeballing my sourwood shoot honey hole all summer and fall just waiting for the right time to cut shoots. I like to wait until the leaves fall and usually until after hunting season(for safety sake) for this task. Today is the end of hunting season in our area so I drove out to check on and cut as many sourwood shoot as I could to make arrows with and use as trade items. When I got there I noticed a nicely mowed road bank where my shoot stash was to come from.
I had noticed the NCDOT bushhog crews near town last week but didn't expect them out here already(10 miles from town)...actually I didn't expect them this year. They used to mow these road banks every 3 to 4 years. Two years ago when I went to harvest some shoots the NCDOT had beat me to it. Now, after waiting 2 more years for the shoots to mature so they would make good arrows the NCDOT has foiled my endevour by their untimely mowing. Since when did any government agency do anything on time(not meant to provoke government hatred)much less early!
Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles. I have collected a few sourwood shoots from the woods around my home but not nearly enough to trade. Fortunately I have hill cane along my driveway that I can harvest and will begin soon. I'm the only one that mows that area so I should be OK...although last year the power company tree crew dropped trees and limbs into my cane patch then our uncommon 30" of snow beat the rest of it to the ground.
I better got out there and start cutting!!!
