I was born under a ladder... by Stanislav Kytka

Ladders made by Stanislav Kytka The valley of Vestenice is part of the region of Upper Nitra. The name of the territory has been derived from the names of the two villages, Dolné Vestenice and Horné Vestenice, that are located in its centre. The oldest residents of the villages know from what their grandparents told them that they had been fruit traders for ages. They were purchasing fruit from orchards where they were grown for productive purposes and they went with the whole family to pick up fruit for several weeks at farms. As their experience says, they were making own working tools and transportation vessels. “The Vestenice ladder” was a basic tool when they were harvesting fruit. They exists a saying referring to the hardworking people from Vestenice – “he/she was born under a cherry tree” or “under a ladder”.
The author of this article learnt how to make a ladder from his father who had learnt it from his father. A fruit harvesting ladder is the most useful tool when harvesting fruit. It is necessary to have a stable, fixed and safe ladder. It should be stable when a person carries it on a shoulder. Now, commercially produced aluminium ladders have replaced our good old hand-made ladders.

Further articles magazine Craft, Art, Design 02/2011:

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