In April 19, 2014 my brother and I decided to burn the native grass on our farm. Doing this every four years keeps undesirable brush and trees under control and allows the grass to flourish. The resultant potash from the burn provides nutrients and gives the new grass a higher protein content.

After receiving approval from all our neighbors we proceeded. It was a vigorous burn and with the help of strong winds the fire spread fast through the native grass and into the heavily wooded creek area.

During our post inspection burn we noticed we had also burned and ruined one neighbors bass boat that was invisible in the tall grass. The fire had also burned and ruined the tires on some of their farm equipment stored in the creek area. We eventually paid them for the damages, but as I was leaving the farm I did more damage by backing into my brothers car and ruining his air conditioner. It ended up being a very expensive burn.

A few days later while walking the property line I noticed a large walnut tree had burned at its base and fallen across the fence line. It saddened me to see this stately tree ruined, but a few weeks later as I was thinking about the fallen walnut I decided to make lemonade out of lemons. This is when I contacted Paul at Handcrafted Pens By Paul and asked him if he could make some Fountaine rollerball pens. He said he would be delighted to do so and crafted us four beautiful American Black Walnut pens.. one for each heir of the Fountaine Family Farm.


Tom Fountaine
September 9, 2014

Click here to purchase a pen made from the walnut.