Saturday, March 9, 2013

Retired Farm Machinery - Photos by Bob Kelly


Old, retired farm machinery can be found all around the rural midwest.  Sometimes it is just left where it stopped and is never moved, and in other situations it is placed into a setting as an accent piece. I am not quite sure what the motivation was to place this old tractor in front of this house that is slowly falling down. 



This wagon was like one my father used when it was pulled by horses, as he walked through the corn field,  picking and husking the corn by hand and then throwing it into the wagon. Those were days of slow progress, but that is the way it was done back then.

The hay rake dramatically placed between two trees at the top of the hill was used for many years to rake hay and oat straw into rows to be gathered as loose hay, or later baled into rectangular bales.
The boards on this old barn have been slowly removed for other construction projects because of their age, patina, and wood grain.  The skeleton remains, but the way it looks, not for long, as a good windstorm would soon do it in.  The very old tractor sits there as a reminder of times gone by, a relic of the early 1900's.

1 comment:

Rick said...

It appears someone lived in the house in recent years since it has aluminum windows and a door. It doesn't take long for a place and/ or relationship to go to crap without some TLC. I like the wagon pic.