Massey Discussion Forums > Massey Talk > Old Timers still at it!
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Old Timers still at it!

The land has at last dried out so I have been able to get on with the last round of clearing stones and boulders from a new field I bought last year.  It had never been ploughed in history and we had to clear a mass of 8 foot high scrub last year.  Then came the stone and boulder clearance - all a result of the field's glacial history.

So it has been a 71 year old me, a 65 or so years old Ferguson transport box and my 50 year old MF 165 tractor plus my Dad's old crowbar and towing chain.  The latter two necessary to pull out some of the big boulders.  I reckon some of the boulders weight up to a thrid of a ton.

It has made me realise just how hard our forefathers worked clearing the land and building the stone walls which are so common here, all with their own sweat and maybe ponys (4 legged type!) and sledges.

John
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RE:Old Timers still at it!

John,

You should be stacking them rocks up making walls for a new shed!! No sense in letting them go to waste just sitting there.....

Or perhaps the next thing on your bucket list should be to find a good used Sawyer Massey Rock Crusher to give the #2s a little work out.....

You guys and your "new" equipment here is how it was done in the Old "Wallis" Days.

Keep up the good work! It is looking good!

Joe
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RE:Old Timers still at it!

Joe,

That's a superb photo - whereabouts in the USA was it?

But I do note that there are two of them at it whereas I am on my lonesome........!!!!

Just back in for a cup of tea.  I've had three big ones out today with a chain.

John

RE:Old Timers still at it!

Well spring is in the air and time to get working on the land again now that it has dried out. 

Now that stones and boulders have been removed from the new field it's time to think about re-seeding it.  So a start to making a half decent seed bed with a set of Massey-Harris 721A trailing disc harrows.  I reckon that they date back to the 1940s.  Very rare to find a decent set nowadays but I got lucky late last year at a nearby sale - the first set I had seen in must be more than over 55 years and those were my Grandfather's parked up to rot under a hedge.  A few years ago at another sale I picked up a set (4) of transport wheels which were used to enable one to pull them along hard roads - these are even rarer

This set has 6 discs per gang whereas the set that Malcolm spotted at a sale the other day had 7 which makes them wider than our standard trailers so not so good for carrying about.  I think that they also made an 8 disc model.

I must say that trailing disc harrows follow the ground contours much better that mounted types like the Ferguson which I used as a lad on my Dad's Ferguson TEA 20 and MF FE 35

John
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RE:Old Timers still at it!

Nice photos John. I had never seen M-H Discs before.

Even nicer with a Pacemaker pulling them.

If things come together tomorrow I hope to buy a set of Ferguson Mounted Harrows.

Alan

RE:Old Timers still at it!

John,

Your field looks much different than last year!! You have working at it for some time!!  Looks great.  I am sure you can not wait to see the duplexes and condo being built on theat property very very soon!!  I know your neighbors will enjoy their new friends!!

LOL!

Great job with lots of work behind you!!

GTE