A Trip Back In Time To See Collies and the Farm in Action!!!

We thought we would post something a little different this post…   As you all know I grew up in farm country and own old tractors and plows and do our own acre garden.  My ancestors were all farmers… probably yours were too.  We have collies who are definitely a herding, working farm dog and I thought today we would post a blast from the past of the world my father lived in, and I saw some of… the old family horse farm or farm from that era.  I find it fascinating to see these old animals, machines and such working and while I like seeing horses working on the farm I am a tractor guy myself.  While my grandfather had the largest horse farm in our state when I was a kid I find tractors eat less and I don’t have to go around scooping up after old Allis, Molly or Annie. 🙂   So, let go back in time and see how farming used to be done on the family farm….

We will start out with a collie herding and then end with a collie herding sheep… hope you find it interesting…

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The reaper was a huge step forward on the farm….. all you had to do was go behind it and tie up the shocks!  No hand cutting…… whew!

But, then came the binder/reaper… now it bound the shocks for you!!! woo hoo!!! Also could drop the shocks all in a pile!

The same thing was happening with corn….. first you cut it by hand and made shocks… then this baby came along! 🙂

Of course once harvested from the fields how did one separate the grain from the stalks?  In the old days it was done by hand but then old J.I. Case came along with this wonderful invention!  Now, this is my favorite machine to watch.. it fascinates me how it cuts, shakes, blows and separates the grain from the stems…. amazing!  I go to the tractor shows and watch these Threshers and love it….

You can see them feeding the thresher, at the far end out comes the stalks to feed to the cattle and the grain goes through a chute to a bag!   Now, I couldn’t find a film of it, but horses ran these also on what they called a sweep. They would go around in a circle turning the drive… 🙂

What about the corn? Well they used to pick corn then cut it… but when this baby came along… it cut it up and sorted the ears from the stalks!  woo hoo!!!

Here is a sweep running a corn shredder…… see how it works? pretty cool..

Horses also had another way of powering machinery and it was by a treadmill……… this one sort of scares ppl, but it worked well and was pretty darn safe… despite its looks…

If you needed more power you could do this….

So, that is a trip back to the farming world a hundred and more years ago…..  hope you found it interesting.

Oh… and what would a trip back then be without seeing a collie herd sheep…. 🙂

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See A Collie Herding

This is from Hungary and I always love watching collies herd… hope you enjoy it too! A big thumbs up to this woman and her fabulous collie!

 

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Those Collies are at It Again!!! A Tigger Post!

Here we go again!  This is Tigger and I am in a roaring bad mood now…..  One of the collies looked at me and thought.. hey you know Tigger looks like those black and white cows so we should have her play the part and then herd her… for that is what collies do best ya know….

Ahem… needless to say this is what happened,

As you can see I have a bell around my neck and the strap on my head is supposed to have horns but they slid back so you cannot see them.  Needless to say I am not happy…..  the worst part was when they all tried to herd me across the house…. sigh….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, despite their antics I have to admit the collies are fun and they do let me snuggle up in their warm fur during the winter and I keep very warm.  Now, I want to mention something that even I, a cat, gets a broken heart over.  Last night we hit 10 degrees fahrenheit here where we live.  While we live in a lower and colder area most places still hit 14 or 15 degrees.  That is cold and when the old guy let the collies out before the sun came out this morning you could hear dogs who were obviously outside for the night howling, barking and not sounding very happy!

Dogs are not wolves, coyotes or what have you that live in the wild.  Also, those wolves and coyotes on nights like this go out only if hungry and then get back in as fast as they can for its even cold for them.  Dogs do freeze to death, especially if on a chain so they cannot go find a warm place to hunker down.  So, please bring your dogs in on these cold nights.  If it is not possible please get them a enclosed area with lots of straw or some sort of warm bedding they can get into and keep warm.  Frostbitten ears, toes and tails are not good or pleasant to deal with.  So, please find some way to keep your dog warm…. bring them inside is the best option.

 

Okay, that is the things that got my day off to a grumpy start, although I have to admit being herded wasn’t so bad for those collies had a heck of a time catching up to me for I move better than a cow.   🙂

 

Thank you for reading,

 

Tigger!!!

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