Old Time Knowledge

[pa_friendly_guy]

I was hoping to start this thread so that people can share information that has been passed down from Generations befor us. Sharing wisdom that their Grandfather or Grandmother passed down to them. Too much of that has been lost to us. It is Aug and the leaves are already falling here, but they have not turned color yet, just dried up and fell off. Is that because of the dry summer, or does it mean a heavy winter, or maybe a light winter, I truely do not know, but I wish that I did. A heavy mast crop of acorns seems to predict a heavy winter around here. The Amish will not tap a Maple tree to get the sap on a foggy day because the sap will not run. Why is that, I do not know, but having that knowledge will help you if you plan on making Maple surup. A good friend of mine owns a feed mill up in the mountain and deals with alot of Amish farmers. One day he was visiting one in the fall and his son came walking back to the barm with 10 or 12 ears of corn tucked in his sweat shirt. Dale asked the guy what he was doing. He said he was checking the moisture content of the corn to see if it was ready to pick yet or not. Dale asked him how he was going to do that, he said just throw the corn into the water trough and see if it floats, if at least 3 out of 10 float the corn is dry enough to pick. The corn floated and was ready, Dale said give me some of that corn to check. He had a fancy machine that he had spent thousands of dallors on to check moisture in corn. He took it to the mill and the moisture content was right on. That is the kind of information that I hope we can share with the group.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I own a front tyne tiller. The rear tyne tillers are much better, do a better job and are alot less work to operate. The front tyne tillers beat the crap out of you and are bone jamming machines when you run them BUT they are WAY cheaper to buy. Hundreds of Dallors cheaper. So being the cheap guy that I am I own the front tyne tiller. Every time I ran the thing it beat me up, I was always fighting it to keep it upright, it always wanted to go over into the area I had just tilled. Then one day I was talking to an old fellow at the Vets Club. He asked me how much space I left between the rows? I said What?? He asked again, how much space do you leave between the rows? I told him that I tilled down the row, then back up the next no space inbetween. He said that was my problem, He tilles down one row, then when he tills back he left a foot or 1 1/2 foot of untilled space. He then tilled back down that untilled space and the tynes on both sides would dig into that soft tilled area and dig deeper doing a better job. and because both sides where into the same soft dirt you did not have to fight the machine to keep it upright. That a blessing to be given that knowledge. I would have NEVER thought of that myself, but the machine no longer beats me up as badly when I use it. It is a simple thing, it costs you nothing to do it that way, but it makes your life way better, This is the kind of ideas I hope we can all share. Things that we have learned through life that have made our lives way better by having the knowledge.

[Lollykoko]

Both of those are good things to know, Guy.

I noticed that there was some leaf drop at the farm yesterday and put it off on the dry weather. Most of my fallen leaves are from the walnuts, along with the earliest nuts. The cottonwoods seem to be the trees that lose their leaves first in my grove, and they are still green. I wasn't worried about early winter. In fact, I wondered if it was too late to throw some peas and beans in the ground (yes, I'm sure it is).

[pa_friendly_guy]

There is an old Chineese Proverb that says the Best fertilizer for the Garden is the Gardeners shadow. I think that is very true. The more time you spend in the garden fussing with things the better they do. I am out there alot in the early stages of the garden, mulcing, weeding, planting etc. Not so much this time of year. The garden has pretty much run its course now, the tomatos are dieing back, the peppers will produce untill frost. Most other things are in slow motion because of the cold nights. Maybe if I spent more time there?

[matt walker]

I like that one Guy! I wish I had more to share on this thread but unfortunately I'm working on my own here. My folks didn't garden, and I don't know any Old Guys to talk to about it around here. I try to learn as much as I can on the old intertubes, but I'm guessing most of the Old Time Knowledge dudes aren't hanging around on the computer.

[pa_friendly_guy]

You are right, the real old guys with alot of old time knowledge are not chatting on the computer. Unfortunately many of them are already gone. There is a group here locally called Fort Allen Antique Farm Machine Ass. They try and preserve the old equipment. There are several shows a year, some stream tractors, mostly old tractors, plows etc. They do have a saw mill that they run off a wide belt with a tractor. There is also a wood shingle cutting machine, an old pounder well drilling machine, a large number of Hit and Miss engines owned by the members and brought to the shows. I love seeing the old equipment work. And where you hitch the load, and how you hitch it does make a difference in how well you can pull it. When horse power was limited you had to learn tricks about levers and pullys to get the job done.
They do have a forge there and the guys give leasons every Thursday for free in Black Smithing and metal working. You have to join the group , dues are $10 and you have to be added to their insurance, another $10. Other than that you pay for the coal you use and the metal you pound. I have really been facinated by shaping metal with a forge, but I do not think my shoulder will stand the pounding any more. Getting too old for such things, I did buy an anvil some time back. I also bought a Champion 400 blower for the forge, the Pat. dates are 1901 and 1902 on the blower. [ you can look them up on the net, it was a popular model back then ] I bought it for what I thought was a bargan, $50. I cleaned it up some, it had been repaired and it is missing the handle. The guy who sold it to me said the the guy who owned the blower could make a Handle, so I bought it. Never used it yet, I still need a forge.

[pa_friendly_guy]

When you plant crops like onions or garlic, plant them After the Full Moon. When the moon is on the decline it tends to push them into the soil. If you plant them after the New Moon, when the moon is on the rise , they tend to be pulled right out of the ground. I had heard that for years and never paid much attention to it. I planted when ever I had the time. But I have had both garlic and onions pop out of the ground after I planted them. Now I do try and plant when the moon is on the decline, just less work than pushing them back into the dirt. By the way, after they were pushed back into the ground they grew well, I saw no ill effect from haveing to re-plant the bulbs a 2nd time. It was just more work is all, and I prefer the No Work Therory of Gardening.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I came across this page on the web. The Magazine seems to have alot of articles about old tech and how we got things done befor we had power equipment and gas engines.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/03/ ... ranes.html

I enjoyed reading several of the articles.

[pa_friendly_guy]

We will often get a very warm day in January around here. Temps up in the 50's or maybe even 60, many woman feel that is a great time to do some washing and hang it out on the line outside to dry. The warn snap does not normally last too long. The Bee Keepers I talked to this weekend told me not to do that. The Bees have been couped up in the hive by the cold temps, they all fly out of the hive to stretch their wings, and to Poop. They don't like to poop inside the hive, so then they get a chance to get outside the 1st thing they do is relieve them selves. Clean cloths hanging outside seem to attract them for some reason, and they will poop all over your washing. I felt that was a useful bit of information right there.

[George Collins]

Here is a whole book of the type of knowledge that at one time was far more common than at present.