Thursday, August 17, 2017 – Six Sites and Homes, Incompatible Graft, Contorted Mulberry

Another full day of work on the grounds and in the historic site of Old Nauvoo. We really got a lot done and covered a lot of territory. We cleaned, weeded. Pulled Poison Ivy and hauled away debris and storm damage from six different sites and homes.

As we continued to load our trailer we had to keep smashing the load down to make room for more. By the end of the day our trailer was completely loaded and then some.

While we were cleaning and weeding at the Pageant Office I got to show Elder Cantwell and Elder Johnson a strange looking tree. It is a tree with an “Incompatible Graft.” Richard explained that the wrong Elm tree root stock was used for the grafting of an incompatible Elm tree. Now that the new tree is mature it makes for an interesting conversation piece.

ight next to the Pageant office there is another interesting looking tree. This one is a “Contorted Mulberry” tree. It looks like it could have been a prop from the movie “Lord of the Rings” or something. Unfortunately the contorted Mulberry tree’s days are numbered, last spring one of the long low hanging branches split at the trunk and the big beautiful twisted and gnarled limb has been dying ever since.