A Thank You, A honor and RIP

-for 35 years he owned Old Allis and it was almost 4 years ago I bought her from him.  This man was my high school teacher who taught me some really cool things.  He was a kind man with a lot of patience and very wise mechanically.  I wouldn’t say I was close to him but he was one of the teachers I enjoyed having classes with.  He was well liked in the small town I went to school in and was well liked.

When I bought Old Allis I didn’t know he was the one selling her until I showed up to look at her.   Old Allis was owned by the family of a teacher who was my High School Government and history teacher and it was about 8 miles from where I grew up where old Allis toiled.  Old Allis went back to her original farm and then to a show just around the block from where my teacher who last owned her lived. He saw her and was happy to see what she looked like.  The last thing he ever told me was “I am glad you ended up with her, I wanted her to go to someone who would take care of her.”  That made me feel good.  Well, last month at the age of 89 he died and I felt bad of course but I thought a lot about him before I wrote this.

They don;t make men much better than this man was.  He taught me some neat things and he was a smart guy.  He grew too old to keep Old Allis where she needed to be and so she got old and needed a lot of work done to her.  It happens to every tractor because we get old and can;t take care of them like we should.  So, for the second time she was restored and this restoration was easy in many ways for mechanically Old Allis was very sound except for leaky seals and gaskets.  That he approved of my job made me feel good.  I know it made him feel better that she has a good home and he did his job in preserving her future.

Old Allis now has outlasted her original owners and her second generation of owners.  The oldest known survivor is a neighbor who is well over 90 who was there the day she arrived to her original farm sold by the company I later worked for in high school.   So, old Allis has outlasted  them all and is still working.  It is amazing.  But, this post is a tribute to the last man who owned her and kept her working and well maintained mechanically.  To the original owner a hats off to him for he loved old Allis too.  She replaced the horses and today as I listened to my father and another old man talk about the horse farming days it was fascinating.  They loved those horses, but they loved the tractors that replaced them too.

So, goodbye to a man who impacted so many lives…….  RIP……..   and THANK YOU!

A big Collie salute and a pic of Old Allis who still exists because of him….

 

 

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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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Buried Near Their Master

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Here is a picture of Rutherford B. Hayes after he left the Presidency on the West End of the big porch… notice the two dogs.. 🙂

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Here we are in the same spot…. 🙂

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THis is Old Whitey, Hayes horse when he was in the Army. His other was called Old Ned….

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Those horse meant a lot to Rutherford B. Hayes.  When they passed he had them buried on the knoll on the property with stones above them.. this is Old Ned’s….

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A few feet away is Old Whitey’s stone and grave….

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Perhaps nothing signifies more how important these horses were to Hayes than where they are buried…. from between the two horses graves this is what you see…. President Hayes’ grave….

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Here is the grave of President and Mrs. Hayes….. on the other side is their son Webb Hayes and his wife.  Webb Hayes was a military hero like his father and won the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions in the Philippines…. he was everywhere the action was and took part in the fabled charge up the hill with Teddy Roosevelt!   I believe that President Hayes and his son are the only family to have a President and a Congressional Medal Of Honor winner in the same family and in back to back generations.  We were very surprised and very moved to find that the descendents of the Hayes family to this day visit the family home.  They do not come in and make airs… they buy a ticket and take the tour like everyone else, blending into the crowd.  They do however, get to use the home and gardens for family weddings and such which we feel is only fair… after all they gifted the library, the grounds and the family home to the ppl of the USA in 1965….

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Here is Mrs. Hayes with her birds…..  they had a lot of pets and loved animals….

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Here they are with Spot….

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Wow, I am thrilled to be named Niamh’s Misty Meadow Rutherford B. Hayes……  what a honor….

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Unexpected Visitors!

In France there lives a wonderful friend of mine and her name is Solange.  She lives with her family in a big, beautiful old French Mansion in the country.  Recently, it has been very warm there and so they opened the windows and doors to help keep the house cooler. Like all those wonderful old mansions the air flow is probably wonderful when the doors are also open.

Well, as you can see they had unexpected visitors who came wandering in since the door was, after all open!

This is one of their ponies!!!  It is named Lovely and I think it is a perfect name. 🙂

Lovely; “Hi Mom! Thought I would tour the house!”

Lovely; “Wow! This is really nice… where is the couch, the TV and the beer?”

Lovely; “Hi Lili!  Well Mom, guess we will be going!  Its been fun and I really enjoyed the Hayseed Buns….”

Their visit over, Lili helps Lovely and Berlingot out as they leave. 🙂

Now I found this extremely entertaining!  Isn’t interesting how animals will wander in to say hello!  What beautiful ponies!!! What a beautiful home! Of course I love blue so it only enhanced the loveliness of their beautiful home to me.

Now, what she needs are some collies to herd the ponies in and out! 🙂  Thank you to Solange for sharing these wonderful pictures with me!

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