Picture for Today

[John B.]

I bet he wishes he had that 8N with that trencher that was posted on here the other day.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Neat picture-I don't know why he has his ditch crummer laying there-he is only one spade deep-around here they were put in two tile spades deep. Not the good old days!!

 

[Wheat Farmer]

Not a Gov. job. No pickups, nor six people standing around. Ha Ha

 

[Anonymous-0]

As wide as the trench is it looks like he is preparing to go deeper. A lot of them weren't put in very deep though, as I have plowed up a number of them over the year's. He probably worked that far in a couple day's. Today with the modern equipment in good going they can get a 160 in one day.

 

[retired farmer]

Can't really tell from the picture what year it is but it looks to me from that neat pile of dirt to the left of him that the trench was dug with some type of machine. Lower left corner of picture looks to be part of a machine.

 

[John B.]

What do you think of that large house?

 

[Hendrik]

Could that "some type of machine" be a plow? Just a thought.
My Grandfather had a long slender spade for tiling. The steel part of that spade is strongly curved (something like 1/3 of a circle) and 2 feet long. I still have it.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I hope he did his "ONE CALL BEFORE YOU DIG"--Don't see the NRCS or the SCS peering over his shoulder!

 

[rrlund]

Huge family or prison farm?

 

[John B.]

There was another picture on the same page shaped like a circle and it overlapped this picture. It's not a machine.

 

[JMS/.MN]

Sometimes they are one and the same.

 

[Adirondack case guy]

I have a question for you guys. I noticed the shovel the gent was using. I have two shovels with the same one peice handle in my colection of old hand tools. Most handles are made like the spade in the pic. with a metal fork and wood handle rivited in. Does anyone know the history of these shovels. The two I have with one peice carved all wood handles are a scoop shovel and a potato? shovel. the handles and bottom brackets that the blades fasten to are identical, just diff blades.
Loren, the Acg.

 

[in-too-deep]

Is that what those are called? Ditch crummer? Long-handled thing with a curved scooper and adjustable angle? My dad hss one and I wish I did too.

 

[Mike (WA)]

Bet he wishes he had a long-handled shovel, too. Those half length things are killers on your back.

As neat as his spoils pile is, its not neat enough to be from a machine. Trencher will deposit the dirt evenly, with a straight edge on the ditch side of the pile. Looks like a Norwegian Armstrong trench job all the way.

 

[EJ70]

thats funny right there

 

[Anonymous-0]

I looked at the picture again and I think he is making his second cut now-I've heard old guys talk about this years ago-one guy would make the first cut-next guy make the second cut {jr. man} the third guy would crumb and lay the tile-then blind the tile-puy a little dirt on top. It looks dry where this guy is digging-can't imagine digging thru a bog with water sittig in it! FUN!!!!

 

[gtractorfan]

My grand-dad put in tiles this way. Deep ripping may take them out. Back in those days they never dreamed about the kind of things used today.

 

[Outback Rider]

About 20 years ago, I was caretaker of a large
estate in NY. I found paperwork in the barn for the digging and installation of the well water lines. It documented by day how many men worked each day, shoveling 9 hours a day, 6 days a week.
This was back in 1930. Each man made something like 65 cents a day...if my memory serves me right. Included was a map that showed they dug for over 3/4 of a mile. The family was very wealthy...looking at the size of the house in the picture...seems like the same here.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[JRSutton]

Hope he's going below the frostline or he's going to have to do it all over again.

 

[David G]

My grandfather did that for a living.

 

[David G]

They were never put in below frostline when hand dug, the farmer plowed where he wanted the tile, then two spades deep.

 

[Paul from MI]

Looks like the open cast iron scoop is an ear corn scoop. Designed to allow the shelled kernels to fall thru when shoveling ear corn into a crib so that it would dry better. Most of them were made of bent wires instead of cast like yours. We used one of the wire type when shoveling ear corn out of a barge type wagon into cribs. I hated that thing, it was like trying to shovel with a wet noodle. But Dad insisted on it so we used it when he was around, otherwise a #14 aluminum scoop. Yours is pretty rare I think.