eblanks
Member
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2008
- Messages
- 32
- Location
- Clayton, NC
- Tractor
- 1967 Ford 3000, Bolens 1050 (year unknown)
I'm a history nut. I enjoy reading about it, but even more I enjoy finding history and learning about it, especially where my family is concerned. The farm that I call mine is not really mine, my father owns it but his health does not allow him to work it or even visit it. Furthermore it's not even much of a farm, it's grown over and hasn't produced a crop in many years. As a kid it was my grandfather's farm. I would visit him in the summer and help him get up hay. He would put me up on his red and gray 8n and I would steer it around the field as others would load the trailer. Just as I was getting big enough to actually be able to depress the brake pedals, he upgraded to a Ford 2600 and I was back to square 1. Those were my memories of working with my Grandad out on that farm. He is gone now but the presense of my family remains. My Grandad's aunt, the lady that actually raised him is buried on the land. 2 other graves that would have been my Great Grandfathers brother and sister are buried there as well along with many others from my family and families that were there by marriage along the way. I can't help but feel the past as I stroll the old dirt road that cuts through the 65 acres.
Last winter I finally bit the bullet and bought me a tractor and a bush hog. Along with my trusty chain saw I am slowly trying to clear away the 10 or so years of briars, weeds, sapplings and mature trees that once were hay fields and before that yielded Tobacco.
Not much is left out there. The house that my Father was born in, that was built by his Great Uncle is still standing. And a tobacco curing barn is still there, I park the tractor under one of it's lean to's. Behind the curing barn has always been an old implement that I never really thought much about, but now that things like that interst me I have been trying to delicately remove the years of poison oak and other growth that has covered it and somehow added to it's mystery.
This past weekend I was finally able to find some markings. They read:
Force Feed Grain and Fertilizer drill with variable speed B1741
Fertilizer Grain Drill Manufactured by the American Seeding Machine Co. Springfield OH USA
I did the usual Google search and turned up some info on this equipment. American Seeding Machine was born in 1903 as a merger of several companies and then later in 1929 was acquired by Oliver. I have no information on why and when it was used. I can only assume my Grandad used it, probably when he switched from tobacco to hay.
I'll try to get some pics posted of this project. I really don't have a good sense of where I'm going with all this. Maybe one day I'll turn it into an actual farm, but for now I get a lot of satisfaction out of clearing the land and seeing what lies hidden underneath the overgrowth
Last winter I finally bit the bullet and bought me a tractor and a bush hog. Along with my trusty chain saw I am slowly trying to clear away the 10 or so years of briars, weeds, sapplings and mature trees that once were hay fields and before that yielded Tobacco.
Not much is left out there. The house that my Father was born in, that was built by his Great Uncle is still standing. And a tobacco curing barn is still there, I park the tractor under one of it's lean to's. Behind the curing barn has always been an old implement that I never really thought much about, but now that things like that interst me I have been trying to delicately remove the years of poison oak and other growth that has covered it and somehow added to it's mystery.
This past weekend I was finally able to find some markings. They read:
Force Feed Grain and Fertilizer drill with variable speed B1741
Fertilizer Grain Drill Manufactured by the American Seeding Machine Co. Springfield OH USA
I did the usual Google search and turned up some info on this equipment. American Seeding Machine was born in 1903 as a merger of several companies and then later in 1929 was acquired by Oliver. I have no information on why and when it was used. I can only assume my Grandad used it, probably when he switched from tobacco to hay.
I'll try to get some pics posted of this project. I really don't have a good sense of where I'm going with all this. Maybe one day I'll turn it into an actual farm, but for now I get a lot of satisfaction out of clearing the land and seeing what lies hidden underneath the overgrowth
