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Post by hmca on Jun 7, 2022 14:56:18 GMT
Of course your model is what draws my attention, but I did find your commentary and the video interesting. I kept trying to see those little plants after they were planted but couldn't.....or am I misunderstanding how that works?
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Post by BuckSkin on Jun 7, 2022 15:30:35 GMT
I kept trying to see those little plants after they were planted but couldn't.....or am I misunderstanding how that works?
I think you are understanding the concept; it would help if they had larger plants.
The two metal "wheels" rolling on the ground drives the mechanism.
The plant holder thingies open wide on their way up to the top and stay open until they are level on the people side, by which time somebody had better have placed a plant in there.
The plant holder thingies close together and clamp the plant snugly within for the trip down and into the ground.
When the plant holder is straight down in the ground, it releases the water mixture to give the plant a squirt and opens to release the plant.
As the now-open plant holder moves away, it closes the water valve and starts it trip upward to repeat the cycle again.
If the video were of any quality, you would see the plant emerge standing planted in the ground between those two metal wheels.
Quite often, when picking the machine up at the end of the row, or whenever they may stop for whatever reason, it just so happens that the water valve is in the open position and continues to pour out; when this occurs, one or both the riders will use their foot to rotate the wheel until the valve closes.
A couple of my cousins are big-time contract tobacco growers; if they haven't already finished planting, and it works out, I may see if I can do a better job of capturing the process; but then, it is approaching the middle of June; I may have to wait until next year.
I think their setter is a two-row (four people) and they may have a three-row (six people). |
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Post by BuckSkin on Jun 7, 2022 18:13:23 GMT
I kept trying to see those little plants after they were planted but couldn't....
It shows the plants and the process better.
It doesn't help that everyone these days uses float-bed water-grown tobacco plants/slips that are tiny compared to the big in-the-ground-grown tobacco bed plants that we used to use.
At first, to prepare a tobacco bed, we would pile all the brush from cutting the winter's wood, and anything else that would burn, on the 12' x 100' spot where the bed would be.
My father, environmentalist and tree-hugger that he was, would also pile on several truck-loads of old junk tires and inner-tubes.
Once all the flammables were piled in place, it would all be saturated with at least ten gallons of coal-oil or diesel fuel; then, it was set ablaze.
You never heard such popping and cracking and the leaves on trees a hundred yards away would curl up and fall off, it would be that hot; sparks would go hundreds of feet into the night sky.
After all the fuel burned away and the fire finally burnt itself out, long straight poles of about ten-inch diameter would be placed end-to-end along both sides and across the ends; and, dirt would be banked along the bottom of the poles to hold them in place and to prevent varmints from entering the bed.
The ground inside would be raked and cleaned of all bits and pieces of charred wood.
Empty glass "coke" bottles would be pressed neck down in the ground about three feet apart in all directions, leaving about eight inches sticking up; these were to keep the canvas off of the plants and ground.
The super-tiny tobacco seeds would be mixed into a bag of fertilize in a #2 wash-tub; stirred and stirred and stirred until the seeds were mixed thoroughly into the fertilize; then, this fertilize/seed mixture would be spread evenly over the ground.
Once the ground was thoroughly covered with the seed mixture --- all of it, as a package of Rickards Seeds were the correct amount for a standard-sized bed( we are talking a little bitty seed packet about the size of a playing card and the entire amount of seeds within crowded into one corner and so tiny as so you can't see a hundred of them) ---, it was time to stretch the canvas.
A Cotton tobacco canvas is such that you can hold a newspaper under it and read every word.
Farmers were very careful with their canvas and it was braided neatly and stored away from year to year; if it got a hole snagged in it, it was patched with an old bed sheet or such.
Stretching the canvas took all hands and the cook.
There were eyelets all along the edges and these were hooked over bent nails that were driven into the wooden poles.
If a dog was dumb enough to run across the stretched canvas, he was taken over the hill and didn't come back; if a cat was foolish enough to sharpen his claws on the canvas, you would hear the crack of a .22 and the cats claw sharpening days would be over.
Let the kids witness a couple such executions and they would stay away from the canvas as well, lest they meet with a similar demise.
In later years, instead of burning the bed, the ground was prepared and then a tight sheet of plastic was stretched and made as air-tight as possible.
Underneath this plastic, about five feet apart and close enough to the edges to barely be reached, were three-pocketed plastic cartons with sharp inch-long nails protruding upwards in the bottom.
Three canisters of Bromine gas were placed nose-down in each carton; all of this was placed prior to stretching and sealing the plastic.
When everything was ready, you carefully pushed down on the plastic over each canister, pressing down hard enough to pierce the canister and release the deadly pressurized gas.
This gas killed every living thing, be it plant, animal, insect, or Alligator that was trapped under the plastic.
You went home that night, washed your hands until they were raw, and went to bed and had nightmares of someone tying you in a tobacco bed and releasing the gas.
You let this cook for a couple weeks and then split the plastic down the center and roll it to both sides, broadcast your seed mixture, and then stretch a tissue-thin Nylon tobacco canvas over the gassed and seeded bed, staking the edges with long thick bent wires made for the purpose.
With the exception of the gas cartons, which you put away and used year after year, all of this was disposable, plastic, Nylon, gas canisters, wires, and all.
After a couple years of this, there wasn't a tree nor fence nor rock ledge in the creek that didn't have fifty feet of plastic or Nylon caught and hanging on it; the trees looked like those Louisiana swamp trees with the moss hanging from them, except this moss was clear plastic and bright white Nylon.
It was almost as bad as those big long white plastic tubes of haylage; that plastic being much worse on account of it by necessity being so much thicker and more durable.
The old-time way of burning the beds didn't leave near the eyesore once the smoke cleared.
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Post by hmca on Jun 7, 2022 18:44:03 GMT
Thank you, BuckSkin. I read your commentary above and watched the video. I had no problem seeing those. It was interesting to me that the video was just recorded in May of this year. You are certainly diligent in your posts and response to members' questions. I continue to enjoy seeing your posts on everday life in Kentucky.
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Post by whippet on Jun 7, 2022 18:50:31 GMT
Me too, BuckSkin.
Regarding the flag boot, on your link, it states - Just attach the boot to your saddle, slip the end of your flag into the cup.
No mention of stirrup there, Buckskin.
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Post by BuckSkin on Jun 7, 2022 23:32:48 GMT
Just attach the boot to your saddle, slip the end of your flag into the cup.
Being volunteered into carrying a flag is good experience for any horse and especially one that spooks at his own shadow.
It is good for the rider as well; one hand on the reins; one hand holding the flag; and, no hand to hang on with.
It was years before we knew a flag boot should be made of leather; we always used a piece of an old radiator hose lashed to the stirrup with a piece of rawhide; and, in later years, when called upon in a pinch, cut the neck off a plastic soft-drink bottle. |
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Post by whippet on Jun 8, 2022 13:37:18 GMT
That new pic. makes it much clearer to see. Similar to the old knife sheaths, isn't it. (I think). A plastic bottle would be a lot cheaper - and the added bonus of the drink to consume first.  |
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Post by BuckSkin on Jun 11, 2022 18:16:53 GMT
John Deere 435 Detroit Diesel
This 1960 John Deere 435 is interesting in that it came equipped with a 2-53 Detroit Two-Stroke Diesel engine.
John Deere 435 Detroit Diesel
1959-1960
Factory: Dubuque, Iowa
Monterrey, Mexico
Total built: 4,626
Original Price: $3,000
Engine: General Motors 2-53 Detroit 2-Cylinder 106ci
Liquid-cooled 2-cycle Supercharged Diesel
Fires on Every Stroke
Transmission Option 1: John Deere Unsynchronized Gear
4 Forward - 1 Reverse
Transmission Option 2: John Deere Unsynchronized Gear
5 Forward - 1 Reverse
Live PTO 540/1000rpm
Drawbar: 28hp
PTO: 33hp
Weight: 3,750 lbs
Home Place on Green River
2022_Spring Festival and Plow Day
Taylor County - Kentucky
Saturday_30-April-2022  
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Post by BuckSkin on Jun 15, 2022 21:39:54 GMT
Warehouse Tobacco Basket for Hand-tied Tobacco
The demise of the tobacco program shuttered an entire basket-making industry.
If it hadn't been for a table-full of people eating underneath, I would have gotten a shot of the edge that would have had the warehouse name stenciled on.
In this view, from left:
1. Spade from a steel T-post fencepost
2. Old wooden stirrup from a saddle
3. steel singletree
4. hand shears with a blade broken off
behind them, on the same nail, is a worn-out disc-mower blade
5. wooden singletree
6. dried-out leather work bridle(w/blinders) that hasn't seen harness oil in years
7. steel reinforced wooden singletree
There are several interesting things hidden by the basket.
Home Place on Green River
2022_Spring Festival and Plow Day
Taylor County - Kentucky
Saturday_30-April-2022
And, courtesy of PSE&M Member WayneS, here are views of the baskets in use.
Thanks for looking; I hope you enjoy.
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Post by hmca on Jun 16, 2022 0:28:56 GMT
Nice collaboration on this post BuckSkin and WayneS . Interesting documentary pictures. |
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Post by BuckSkin on Aug 14, 2022 0:07:33 GMT
My Cute Little Sidekick petting a Shoat
Home Place on Green River
2022_Spring Festival and Plow Day
Taylor County - Kentucky
Saturday_30-April-2022   
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