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Walking my little bit of hunting land I ran across this old wheel. Think it was 24"-30" wide, next time I head up there I'm taking along a shovel and that bad boy is coming home with me. Hoping the entire piece is in that good of shape.




Also nearby I ran into this, and I am totally, 100% stumped as to what it came off of or might be. Ideas? Foot is in the picture to give scale.

Calhoun,

That wheel is from am old horse-drawn hay mower.

I wonder if more of the mower is buried with it.
The other part might also be off the same machine.

Myron

It's from the Sandhills in Nebraska, so hay mower would make perfect sense.

Might be off an old manure spreader.

We can put that to good use here on the 'Fire.

I found these a couple years ago. Left them there, they weigh about 60lbs each! I was miles from anywhere.

Those are cool!

Found this in my creek 3 years ago, no idea where it washed down from or what it's from either. It's smaller, maybe 12"-18" wide. It's sitting in front of my house now.




All of these are near an old dam on my creek. I think it washed out in the late 30's maybe? I know it had been down quite a while by the end of WW2.

I was popping some precocious prairie poodles in Wyoming some years back when I came upon a broken Indian pottery jug - laying there exactly as it had obviously been dropped. Nothing in it, so it was probably a water jug.

No photos, and I left it just as it was; it seemed to somehow be indecent to touch it if the original owner hadn't.

i know where theres some of wheels like that way back in the PA hills. i think the site was a sawmill at one time. i've been going there for 40 some years. its a fur piece back in so its getting to be less and less these days. i'm about due.

I hunted a public hunting are near here and walked right past an old homestead several times without seeing it. The house was mostly caved in, and overgrown with grape vines.

My dad found an old bear trap out in the woods while deer hunting. He set it up on a stump to haul it out when he walked out, and never found it again.

That is neat. I would have to dig it up

As mentioned, the wheel is from a horse drawn mower. They were ground drive, hence the cleats on the wheel. We had one in the barn when I was a kid but I never used it, just sat on it and pretended I was mowing hay like the old man.

The other part might be from a mower, the 'tab' in the lower right with the square hole looks like ones I've seen on New Holland haybines to provide attachment for the top hold down clips. You run a carriage bolt up from underneath to maintain the smooth bottom that runs across the ground. And the channel is where the cutterbar would run. But I'm speculating and don't know for sure.

Dale

Dale,

Probably an old McCormick Deering mower.
Grandad had one that he cut the tongue down on and pulled it behind his Ford 8N. I rode on it a lot of times.

It was somewhat of a PIA to operate without a helper on the mower to get it unplugged as you were frequently stopping and getting off the tractor to deal with it.

That second piece is probably off the same mower. It looks about like the part that held the cutter bar onto the chassis of the mower. I think the angled tabs on the left end are where it hinged up and down.

Myron

[quote=Calhoun]Those are cool!

Found this in my creek 3 years ago, no idea where it washed down from or what it's from either. It's smaller, maybe 12"-18" wide. It's sitting in front of my house now.




The top photo looks like an irrigation gate wheel to adjust, open/close a gate valve.

Used one as a kid, so it has been a long time but I think the second piece is out on the end of the sicklebar. There was a curved rod that stuck up and that whole piece moved the hay over a little and made kinda of a bare spot between trips around the field. There would be board fastened to that piece too. miles

miles,

I don't think that the part at the tip of the cutter bar was that large. The 2 curved steel rods were attached to the board, IIRC, and the board (maybe called a ledger board ?) was mounted on a pivot that let it ride up over obstructions.

Myron

That had crossed my mind, but there's still one gate wheel left on top of the dam and it looks different from this. I'll see if I have a pic of it somewhere.

My memory was wrong, the surviving wheel looks sturdier to me than this one, not thinner.

Got in behind that wheel this weekend with the intention of removing it, but turns out it was put there to anchor the barbed wire in the gully. The gully has filled up behind it, but the barbed wire is still tied onto it in 3 or 4 different spots and the wire was too brittle to risk taking the wheel out. I'm not gonna leave the barbed wire hanging loose. I'll go back with some extra wire and tie the fence off to that tree next spring.

The wheel is actually loose enough to just roll out if it wasn't tied down. Bit more weight to it than I was expecting, good ol' cast iron.




While there, I spotted some wire mesh about 10 yards away on top of the side of the gully with some sheet metal on the end. Had to check that out before I left.

I have absolutely NO idea what the mesh was for, but it's in pretty good shape considering how old it must be. Left it there as well, but I'll retrieve it. The sheet metal turned out to be 2 old license plates. 1928 and 1933.

A friend of mine found a brick of pure silver, and a cavalry belt with a saber from the mid 1800's. That's one reason I really want to get a metal detector. That's how he found the stuff.

Bushwhacking far off trail in the backcountry I sat down to rest and drink some water. It was the only flat spot around. I looked above me on the tree I was against and saw that long ago someone had shod a horse here on this very spot. The shoes have grown into the tree where the rider hung them.