How old machine?

[JPG]

I have no interest in going back. And of course you can't. What you can do is live frugally which also means different things to different people.
Probably the biggest mistake made when comparing the past (say early 1950's) to today is that folks don't factor in the huge difference in the way we generally live now. We had no TV (in our house and in many homes). Even though I live what many would call frugally my house is filled with electronics, many of which most folks consider necessities. I went to school with kids that had no electricity. Out in the country a lot of homes had lights but no indoor plumbing and pumped water by hand. This farm had 3 hand pumps including at the house. My wife and I both grew up with outhouses.
I have about 15 tractors here now, mostly hobby stuff. Several of our neighbors had just gotten "a" tractor about 1948 and were retiring their horses.
I would venture to say that when we go to Wally World that fully 80% of the products in the store didn't exist at all back in the early 1950's.
My only point here is trying to point out our folly in trying to compare then to now... But of course we will till attempt it and it can be fun at times making comparisons.

I am often taken aback by such things as the lady on the Today Show yesterday who kept stressing that a dress they were showing was "ONLY" $1,000... That was compared to the $2,000 dress they had just shown before it. Discussions of $20,000 to $40,000 weddings always rattle me. Can you imagine the woodshop you could have for that? It is the "marriage" that matters. The "wedding" doesn't really amount to crap... Ours was a simple wedding but the marriage has lasted 48 years this spring.

Ahhh! But you hitched up to a mid western country gal who unnerstans such things!:D

[robinson46176]

Ahhh! But you hitched up to a mid western country gal who unnerstans such things!:D

Over 68+ years I was bound to do at least one thing right if only by accident.


.

[JPG]

Over 68+ years I was bound to do at least one thing right if only by accident.


.

Done anything right since!:D Other than ss collecting!;)

[swampgator]

Farmer, been there, done that. Remember when we got electricity in 1952. Didnt' have a phone, but a battery powered radio. Outhouses, chicken coops, horses, wagons, water from well or springs, common dipper for all, garden out back, fruits and vegetables canned in jars with big rubber rings, rub board washing and hung on the line to dry, no matter the weather. Like you, don't want to go back. I'm 63 and remember how tough life was in the early 1950's from East Tennessee. Even had our groceries (what staples we needed) delivered in a Studebaker pick up truck.

[JPG]

Farmer, been there, done that. Remember when we got electricity in 1952. Didnt' have a phone, but a battery powered radio. Outhouses, chicken coops, horses, wagons, water from well or springs, common dipper for all, garden out back, fruits and vegetables canned in jars with big rubber rings, rub board washing and hung on the line to dry, no matter the weather. Like you, don't want to go back. I'm 63 and remember how tough life was in the early 1950's from East Tennessee. Even had our groceries (what staples we needed) delivered in a Studebaker pick up truck.

Where were you? Cades Cove?:D

[robinson46176]

[quote="JPG40504"]Done anything right since! Other than ss collecting!]



Yes. I retired from everything else and got into horses. Great therapy.
This bad winter has been quite a challenge for several reasons. Mostly because the pasture boarding business has grown so much faster than I ever dreamed. I expected to have 4 client horses by now instead of the 14 we have here now (in addition to our 5). I am just this week able to start finishing up the water and power work I started just before the winter went to pot and stayed there. Just getting around in the ice and snow and now deep mud hauling water twice a day has been exhausting. It will all get a lot easier this week as I get the water system finished for the horses across the road and some repairs made to part of the system on this side of the road. By the end of March My work load will be be minimal and I can start enjoying it all again.
A friend that lives a little farther away than most of our clients took her 3 (not included in the count above) home for the winter but they will be back this spring. She doesn't have room to graze them at home but it didn't matter this winter because due to last summer and fall's serious drought there is not much pasture any where around here. That drought was also responsible for much of our current mud problems. We normally get a lot of late fall grass growth and I mow farm traffic areas pretty tall which makes a heavy mat of sorts to drive on. Not this year, everything has been burned to a crisp since about September and late fall recovery was zero. Now there is little more than bare ground. Saturday we put 70,000 pounds of stone on the main lane and it mostly sank into the mud like it was quicksand.
This week it finally warmed up and is drying down enough to start firming the soil. It is going to be 65 today and things are starting to get a little green. The 10 day forecast looks quite acceptable too. Things will start being fun again.
Even during the worst of it I did enjoy being out visiting the horses. A few hang back but most come stick their heads over the gates to get a chin rub and an occasional peppermint. My peppermint bill is atrocious...
Clients are already coming out again now to ride the trails and work their horses in the round pen and arena. Soon we will be sitting in lawn chairs around a fire-ring. We couldn't last summer/fall due to a strict burn ban.
We are going to expand a good bit this year but I hope to keep it slow enough to be fairly organized with it and keep it fun. I intend to limit client horses down to about 24 - 25. I am supposed to be retired...

[JPG]

Yes. I retired from everything else and got into horses. Great therapy.
This bad winter has been quite a challenge for several reasons. Mostly because the pasture boarding business has grown so much faster than I ever dreamed. I expected to have 4 client horses by now instead of the 14 we have here now (in addition to our 5). I am just this week able to start finishing up the water and power work I started just before the winter went to pot and stayed there. Just getting around in the ice and snow and now deep mud hauling water twice a day has been exhausting. It will all get a lot easier this week as I get the water system finished for the horses across the road and some repairs made to part of the system on this side of the road. By the end of March My work load will be be minimal and I can start enjoying it all again.
A friend that lives a little farther away than most of our clients took her 3 (not included in the count above) home for the winter but they will be back this spring. She doesn't have room to graze them at home but it didn't matter this winter because due to last summer and fall's serious drought there is not much pasture any where around here. That drought was also responsible for much of our current mud problems. We normally get a lot of late fall grass growth and I mow farm traffic areas pretty tall which makes a heavy mat of sorts to drive on. Not this year, everything has been burned to a crisp since about September and late fall recovery was zero. Now there is little more than bare ground. Saturday we put 70,000 pounds of stone on the main lane and it mostly sank into the mud like it was quicksand.
This week it finally warmed up and is drying down enough to start firming the soil. It is going to be 65 today and things are starting to get a little green. The 10 day forecast looks quite acceptable too. Things will start being fun again.
Even during the worst of it I did enjoy being out visiting the horses. A few hang back but most come stick their heads over the gates to get a chin rub and an occasional peppermint. My peppermint bill is atrocious...
Clients are already coming out again now to ride the trails and work their horses in the round pen and arena. Soon we will be sitting in lawn chairs around a fire-ring. We couldn't last summer/fall due to a strict burn ban.
We are going to expand a good bit this year but I hope to keep it slow enough to be fairly organized with it and keep it fun. I intend to limit client horses down to about 24 - 25. I am supposed to be retired...

You are retired! You are doing what you enjoy(even if exhausting at times). Give that appaloosa a peppermint for me! He doesn't like carrots?

[swampgator]

Where were you? Cades Cove?:D

A place very much like it. We lived in on the Dalton-Cleveland Road. We were 7 miles south of town. We didn't have inside plumbing until 1958 at which time we also got one of those highly complicated dial it yourself phone. We had to learn all those signals, look up the number ourselves, use a phone book, figure out how to turn the water off and on and flush a commode. Wow! What a learning curve!

[JPG]

A place very much like it. We lived in on the Dalton-Cleveland Road. We were 7 miles south of town. We didn't have inside plumbing until 1958 at which time we also got one of those highly complicated dial it yourself phone. We had to learn all those signals, look up the number ourselves, use a phone book, figure out how to turn the water off and on and flush a commode. Wow! What a learning curve!

But you no longer had to crank it!:D