Billy, back in Nebraskee I had an old mining cart and a few sections of rail for yard art at the house in town.  I might have mentioned it before but the neighbors didn't like it much.  Haha, I wanted to bring it with but got way out voted on that one (pull type roadgrader stay behind as well).  I settled for an old plow....

IFI member njanvilman has an old caboose on a section of track in his yard. 

JHCC that’s pretty cool! Is there a picture of it on here somewhere? 

Scott, let’s hop in the truck and go get it back sometime!

I don’t know about a picture; I saw it when I visited the Fisher and Norris Museum several years back (I’m assuming it hasn’t moved).

There ate atleast a couple old caboose living around southwest PA. There is one next to a beer distributer I stop at in 84.  I'll have to try to get a picture of it next time I'm there.  There are also many places that have old machinery and things in in the yard. 

I have some old mine shovels and picks but that's about it really. Won't lie, I wouldn't mind having a mine cart in the yard. 

  Aric here's my old roadgrader yard deco.  I had to pull it in a semi-circle when I wanted to mow cause the steering was locked up.  I'd rather have the mine cart though.

4 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

Scott, let’s hop in the truck and go get it back sometime!

  Sounds great.  Can we stop and clean out my little storage unit on the way through?  I have lot's of stock in there yet I can give you for "gas money"....

Sure! We’ll take all the junk we can get! I’ll hook up the trailer! Lol

  I know a few metal dumpsters and other old sources we can check on the way by.  

My friend in Iowa had a grader like that on his rural, dirt cul-de-sac. Every once in a while someone would pull it to the other cul-de-sac. I have recently found myself thinking about it more and more and wondering if it would be made from wrought iron and if it would be worth tearing apart...

I got behind a grader like that a few years ago in a Mennonite community. Was being pulled by a team of horses. Had plenty of chances to pass it but I was having fun watching. Never seen one before that day.

You'll sometimes see team drawn graders sitting outside county road department shops as a historical monument, like a cannon outside an American Legion or VFW post.  I believe most of them date to the early 20th century and were in use up until about WW2.  That would mean that they would have been primarily made with mild steel but if I found a derelict one I would check various parts with a portable grinder to see what the sparks would indicate.  Any blades or springs would probably be good high C steel.  I'd do the same with any old farm equipment.

I was once at an auction and could have had an old hay baler, one of those big, gray boxes on wheels, for $5 but I couldn't fit it in my Subaru.  Lots of good metal but no way to get it home or cut it up.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

  I never so much as touched that grader with a grinder.  That was the one thing on the place I decided not to take anything from.  There was a lot of sculpture material on there as well.  Will power!  There was an old wooden wagon that fell in a hole that had wrought iron and I used it.  I dismantled several other old derelicts, including discs, cultivators and planters.  The planters had lots of interesting things on them, but I liked the "square" linked chain the best for metal sculpture.  A hay baler probably would be fun to tear apart!

Nice old grader Scott. I wouldn't harm something like that ether. It is just too nice as is. 

George, I've been in that situation a bunch of times where even tho it was super cheap I just couldn't haul it so I had to let it go. And usually they want it gone that day or the next. 

 

  George, I wish I had thought about the county road department.  It never crossed my mind.  I could have donated it.  I got so busy with other details, I forgot all about the grader. I knew the fellow that ran the maintainer for our area very well.  I lived on the gravel and he did a great job keeping them drivable all seasons.  I had a row of pines in front of the place and the snow drifted around them right onto the road.  Sometimes very deep.  But in the morning you could always hear his machine, clearing the way.  I wish I had asked them if they wanted it.  Missed opportunity.  It's probably got hauled off to the scrapyard.  

Speaking of horse drawn equipment, I thought this was long gone. I haven’t seen it in 20 years. Found it on the back fence. Horse drawn stalk chopper. Think I’ll get it out and set it up somewhere.

   Put it in your front yard!  It's a piece of history.  I'm going to google stalk choppers.  I won't be using relics for metal sculpture anymore.  They should be preserved.

This one’s also sentimental. It was my grandfathers. He farmed with a mule his whole life. Cotton was his biggest crop in the early 1900’s.

I also Googled stalk choppers and there seems to be a bunch of them for sale if the first page is any indication.

I admire people that work hard Randy.  No matter how they do it.

Years ago a friend of a friend was doing a BIG garden, several acres, and found what worked very well was reconditioned horse drawn equipment pulled by a garden tractor, driven by his wife, while he walked or rode behind to work the equipment.  His wife did not like being compared to a horse.

Randy, if it were me I'd try to restore and repaint it to the point where it would look like what you grandfather had when it was new.  BTW, what kind of stalks was it chopping? Corn?  And for what purpose? Animal feed?

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Pretty sure he was chopping cotton stalks to clean up the fields after harvest. He always had a big garden and at least one field of corn. Corn was for meal and feed. The corn stalks were harvested and stood upright in the field until needed. They were animal food. He called it fodder.

My Aunt and Uncle used to share a large garden plot with an elderly couple who cultivated their share  with an old mule while my kinfolk used a rototiller.  Until the mule died and the elderly couple asked if they could use the rototiller too...

At least they didn’t have to feed the rototiller every day. 

Farming with a mule is another dying art. My grandfather was good with them. He never set foot on any of my dad’s tractors.

An old store just up the road from me got renovated a few years ago and they found all sorts of stuff. Best of all was an old ledger. One thing that stood out was the purchase of a mule. The mule cost like $10 and the man made payments every fall after harvest until he paid off the debt.

those stories are the best ive seen some nice old stuff might half to take a walk at the local museum and share some of the stuff we have here lots of old tools etc. and one of those graders old train caboose the list goes on theres old cameras...

Edited March 22, 20224 yr by Mod30
Remove excessive quote.

I've always wanted a caboose for a guest house or private office. Seems I've grown up too soon. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.