In the 1930's 2 Five year old Mules cost more than a 7 year old Car

[hunterridgefarm]

I recall a story told to me by my Dad (born 1910). During WWI, my Grand father had a matched set of Percheron mules...the Army came to the farm, commandeered the mules, and sent my Grandfather a check...for $800. Seemed like a lot of money, but stranger things have happened.

Mules were a necessity back then for most farmers. They were more important than a car and some family members :laughing: I remember my FIL talking of plowing with mules growing up and riding the mules to barn dances and corn shuckings. He still plowed a small greden with a horse up until about 15 years ago.

 

[dmccarty]

Mules were a necessity back then for most farmers. They were more important than a car and some family members :laughing: I remember my FIL talking of plowing with mules growing up and riding the mules to barn dances and corn shuckings. He still plowed a small greden with a horse up until about 15 years ago.

The town of Benson, NC has a Mule Day festival every September. The Mule Day celebration has been going on for 60+ years. My wife's grandfather used mules on their farm, and while some of the farm outbuildings have been lost, three are still standing, and one of those is the mule barn. It was the closest barn to the house until they built the cinder block repair garage. Funny thing is that the tractor is parked in the mule barn, and the mule barn is still called, well, the mule barn, even though there has not been a mule on the place in probably a half century.

I wish the wife's grandfather was still alive. He had so much knowledge that disappeared with him when he died. There are some apple trees on the place and I want to know the type. The grandfather wrote everything down in little note pads so the family was going back through the paper work to see what trees he planted. I have a book written about heritage southern apples. The author knew that these old apples were disappearing in a modern world so he tried to find as many as he could to at least document them and hopefully save some. I have met the author and he is curious to know what trees the grandfather planted. He found so many of these old apples just by talking to people who remembered an old tree here or there. I don't know what type of apples were planted but we ate some this year and they were unlike any apples I had seen or tasted. Stupid me did not take a photo of the apples. I just dried them and ate them. :ashamed: I have some of them in a mason jar that I am looking at right now. :laughing: That does not help me ID the apples though.

Later,
Dan

 

[hunterridgefarm]

The town of Benson, NC has a Mule Day festival every September. The Mule Day celebration has been going on for 60+ years. My wife's grandfather used mules on their farm, and while some of the farm outbuildings have been lost, three are still standing, and one of those is the mule barn. It was the closest barn to the house until they built the cinder block repair garage. Funny thing is that the tractor is parked in the mule barn, and the mule barn is still called, well, the mule barn, even though there has not been a mule on the place in probably a half century.

I wish the wife's grandfather was still alive. He had so much knowledge that disappeared with him when he died. There are some apple trees on the place and I want to know the type. The grandfather wrote everything down in little note pads so the family was going back through the paper work to see what trees he planted. I have a book written about heritage southern apples. The author knew that these old apples were disappearing in a modern world so he tried to find as many as he could to at least document them and hopefully save some. I have met the author and he is curious to know what trees the grandfather planted. He found so many of these old apples just by talking to people who remembered an old tree here or there. I don't know what type of apples were planted but we ate some this year and they were unlike any apples I had seen or tasted. Stupid me did not take a photo of the apples. I just dried them and ate them. :ashamed: I have some of them in a mason jar that I am looking at right now. :laughing: That does not help me ID the apples though.

Later,
Dan

The town I live in has a small version of Plow Day. I have not attended but may this year.

My wifes father was a wealth of history and I wish we had recorded his memories for future generations. We still have the house, barn, and three other building at the home place. A couple of them are not going to last much longer and we would like to fix them up but time seems to be the hold up.

The apples would make a nice addition to your property if you could get a couple of trees started. As far as the ones you have dried...FRIED APPLE PIES!!:thumbsup:


David

 

[dmccarty]

The apples would make a nice addition to your property if you could get a couple of trees started. As far as the ones you have dried...FRIED APPLE PIES!!:thumbsup:
...

The family barns are slowly rotting away. One got damaged by a hurricane decades ago and the farmer that leases the land finally tore it and another outbuilding down and burned them. The barns needed to go but one was full of tobacco sticks. I wanted a few of those for history sake. We used to use them to tie up tomato plants but I think we lost the ones we had and I did not get a few more before they burned up the building.

The author I mentioned has helped a guy growing heritage apples. We had some trees taken down and once I clean up that mess we will plant a variety of apple trees. We have a fair amount of land, but because it is mostly forest, we have danged little space. :laughing: I the family apple trees I did not even know about until this year. I thought the trees were on someone else's property! Next time we are at the farm I will take a stroll over there to look at the trees. Once we have established apple trees I want to try to graft the family trees.

So much to do and so little time.

Years ago on TBN someone posted a fried apple fritter recipe that used dried apples and store bought dough. It was pretty good. :licking: I have been thinking about making the fritters with the dried apples but so far I have been eating them as fast as I dry them! :laughing: Though, this weekend I managed to put up a couple quart jars so I might be getting ahead. On the other hand I just opened a quart jar of dried apples for lunch and I have eaten quite a few! :shocked::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Was this the thread? http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/70321-fried-apple-pies.html

 

[dmccarty]

Was this the thread? http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/70321-fried-apple-pies.html

Yeppers that was the thread an recipe! :licking::licking::licking:

I have been thinking of making the fritters but making my own dough and using our dried apples not store bought.

That thread also mentioned Krystals hamburgers. :licking::licking::licking: We made a trip to GA over the summer and I had to stop and get me some grease bombs. :laughing: I sure love those things. We buy froze White Castles to help get us the year or so between fresh Krystals. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan