Grandpa's Plow

The plow that my grandfather first used on his farm circa 1910 when he first started farming his patch of land and before he bought a tractor is on display at a froofroo shopping complex named after the family (or at least one of the progenitors of my family).

 

I remember playing around this thing as a kid. It was unused for many years, sitting in the back junk pile (kind of like the farm version of a junk drawer) given that my grandpa bought a tractor in the 20's. He kept the draft horses, however, and one of them lived into the 1950's (or so I am told.)

 

I think this is why my father had such a low opinion of horses. "Hay burners" he used to call them. Being the practical man he was, I don't think he had a connection with the horses that Grandpa did, given that Grandpa had stopped using them before Dad was born. For Dad, giving feed to was fine for animals you actually ate (like cows) or for sheep (who give us wool), but draft horses by his time were an anachronism.

 

An animal that helps you to survive in a very uncertain world is certainly worth all the hay your could give it.

Done