The Blog Farm

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Grandpa's garden tools just keep on tickin.

This ancient gardening tool is a push along weed tiller....This was originally my grandfather's tiller but as he got older and could no longer garden he handed it down to my dad. We figure it is around 70 to 80 years old...(of course my dad made a few upgrades to it along the way.) Over the years the tiller was eventually shoved to the back of the old shed and forgotten. After all, there were new and improved tillers (especially the kind that had a motor) that could do a much more efficient job. Last spring the family starting reminiscing about old-time farming and about how our society has become so dependent on motorized equipment that we tend to take a lot for granted. Needless to say, that prompted my dad to pull out the old tiller from the back of the shed to show us kids that it still did a fine job of tilling! We actually used it a lot this past summer... and yes dad....it does a wonderful job even after all these years. Dad found another old time hand-me-down tool in the shed that we also used during spring planting...the corn planter (below). I'm not so sure it isn't more efficient to just use a shovel but it's still kind of cool to utilize the old timers that my grandparents used back in the day....not to mention I have had brand new tools break within a year's use but these old tools they just keep on tickin....


6 comments:

  1. I just found you today through Thomas at A Growing Tradition..one of my favorite people and favorite blogs..He is such a super nice guy. We have become great friends here in blogland....


    your blog looks like so much fun....

    i too will be following along....

    i'll be back to visit soon.....

    fondly,
    kary

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  2. Well thank you kary...I am slowly getting around to checking out the various gardening blogs...winter seems to be a great time for that....I stumbled upon Thomas' blog while on The Urban Veggie Garden and really enjoyed it....I'm amazed at how many gardening blogs there are! I will check yours out next!
    Thanks,
    Sunny

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  3. That is one mean lookin cultivator! I bet it works great.

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  4. Dan: it certainly is lol....and it actually does work great....it's funny how the old tools stand up to the test of time...which reminds me of a freezer my grandparents gave us about 20 years ago...built in 1950 and still running today...never been serviced once. Pretty amazing...and to think I used to think the saying "they don't build things like they used" was bogus...

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  5. Hello, My name is Amanda and I'm working as a segment producer for an upcoming TV show about gadgets. I am interested in using some of the images on your blog! Email me and I will send you all the details. Thanks :) acupido1234@gmail.com

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  6. It really works great and useful. I've been looking for lawn mower for sale.

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