Old Common, Day to Day Technology. Waht do you hang onto?

[California]

...[cars ...]
When I get rid of them they are dead.

I can't seem to wear out the '99 Subaru Outback or the 2004 Ford Focus Wagon I described above. I'm getting bored with them but there's no objective reason to replace them.

Everything prior I bought cheap and ran until it literally was unrepairable.

... Or in a couple of cases was destroyed after more than a decade use - a Wagoneer that was broadsided while parked, a Trooper crushed by a neighbor's tree. Both incidents were sad, I loved those rigs.

 

[Jstpssng]

Here's another one, which may be a bit more applicable to the topic of older vehicles. :thumbsup:

YouTube

 

[goeduck]

I can't seem to wear out the '99 Subaru Outback or the 2004 Ford Focus Wagon I described above. I'm getting bored with them but there's no objective reason to relpace.

Here that is becoming even more so with COVID. The driving and gas bill has gone WAY down. Mostly the wife drives less. So the vehicles we have are being driven less. The wifes Taurus has barely been driven in 3 months. My 99 F250 gets its miles going on over to my farms but I have to remember to purposely drive some of the others to keep them in working condition.

 

[Oaktree]

Speaking of Tauruses, we have a 2004 Sable parked in the driveway that our oldest bought used when she went off to college 10 years ago. Aside from brakes and a weird problem where the air conditioner blows a fuse and kills the car, the only thing wrong with it is rust. It rides nice and the cloth interior is immaculate. So, we disconnected the air conditioner and will have the brakes repaired. Good beater car.

That's been my impression of the Taurus. Nothing special, and as I've mentioned in the past they have a crappy resale value. But they seem to be cheap to keep, and resale value doesn't mean much to me since I've never had a vehicle which made it very far past the junkyard when I was done with it. (although there were a couple who should have gone there before I owned them.)

My wife had an '03 Sable up 'til a couple years ago. Very good car, never had any trouble with it, rode nice, decent on gas. Some rust, but no more than usual for a car its age.
Was starting to get a little shabby looking and she wanted something a little nicer.

Never quite understood why some vehicles hold resale value better than others. In my experience the ones that have higher value don't seem to be any better built or anything, sometimes not even as good as some that can be had cheaply.

Likewise, when I'm done with a vehicle there isn't much left of it.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I don't at all mean 'suckers' coming up from the base of the trunk.

I mean 'water sprouts' AKA vertical shoots from every branch and limb and never trimmed, while nearly every horizontal is lopped off to contain the tree's diameter.

These trees will be 4'-6' across and 18' tall after five years in the ground. Fruit is out of reach and just left to drop.

40, 60 and 100 YO sections in the orchard next door aren't nearly as tall as the stand-alone dwarfs in backyards around here.

Oh sorry to wander from the technology of old cars.

Fruit trees are a much older technology than cars or tractors. My parents bought a new farm when I was 14. I didn't care for the place, but it had mature (8" trunk) standard apple trees that I kept pruned and shaped for the next 53 years. One was a gravenstein, one a Jonathan, and one that was a Rome beauty with a grafted branch that I never did identify. I think it was a pippin. About 1968 they produced a seedling that was an amazing heavy bearing cider apple, I think a cross between a grav and a Jonathan. It sprouted in a compost heap, so I babied it along until it took off. By '85 it was producing 50 gallons of cider a year. After the folks died, the next owner bulldozed the tree. Oh well.

There is some other old tech that is very handy. Asparagus will yield for decades. I have a rhubarb patch that is at least 30 years old, because the previous owner here planted it.

 

[bunyip]

blackberries and bamboo, once established almost impossible to get rid of, about 50 years ago it was fashionable to have bamboo in the garden then it took hold, the rest is history.

 

[California]

Folks around here buy 'dwarf' fruit trees, plant them to get max Winter wind and sunlight, and furthest from possible pollinators.

After a few seasons, the trunks are as tall as I am but they're pruned to be needlessly tall & narrow vs short & broad. (like folks do with lilacs :laughing

5-6' tall trunks with most growth a bunch of 10-12' water sprouts don't look like 'dwarf'. Many remind of that Slim Jim guy with the foot tall spike hairdo.

I'd love to see a photo of that. They just prune what they can reach to control diameter but don't take out the excess shoots or prune them to control height?

Is that some kind of regional custom? How do they harvest?

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^
They probably buy one of those pole harvesters with a basket on the end, so that they can pick one fruit at a time.

 

[the old grind]

Impulsive shoppers who will believe their first impression, ad copy, or humorous commercial in spite of what the label says. :laughing: My brother has an apple and a cherry and as most senior the apple fits my description best. Next doors have a cherry, a pear, and a peach within 4 yrs. So far, they fit the pattern of consumerism comically. I do pest inspections, spray for Jap beetles (carbaryl) and remove crossing branches. If I don't set up a barrel and bucket to water the trees they might dry up.

Someone planted thorn-less raspberries 8 yrs ago .. in the shade. I suggested they'd bear more fruit if an overhanging elm limb was trimmed back and they got more the 1-2 hrs of sunlight/day. "I like the shade in my yard," but only the berries are shaded. Their lawn bakes in the sun and dries up like it does around the trees in the front yard. Two or three handfulls/year of not very flavorful berries is a 'good' year. The fun was in the planting and the dream. btw, last year it was chickens, this year it was another coop. They eat eggs once/wk and give the rest away.

"Gonna people" let me have fun in their yards without responsibility. It's kinda like raising a nephew, you get to help the family but with less pressure than parenting your own. I'm farming ducks and bunnies again this year, zero maintenance. Supplying jelly to orioles on the deck is the most work I have to do at home.

btw, Pat's closest apple 'section' next door are what Mom called 'cooking apples'. They're about as sweet when ripe & raw as fresh acorns. :yuck: But deer seem to love 'em that way.

 

[Jstpssng]

This is a list of what I'vw planted in the last several years, taken directly from my layout sheet. Most of them are old style "antique" apples, although I do see a honeycrisp on there. My preferred root stock is 111, but sometimes all that I could get was standard. However I have a saw and pruners, and know how to use them. There are a few cherries, pears, and plums in the mix also. Most have been planted long enough so they should start producing soon. :licking:

Some of them predate when I started mapping the orchard and considering that I"ve forgotten what they are, it will be interesting to see what I planted.

2 Ashmead's Kernel
3 Red Gravenstein
4 Honeycrisp
5
6
7 Nanking Cherry
8 Golden Russet
9 Black Oxford
10 Patten pear
11 Pioneer Cornelia Cherry
12 Montgomery cherry
13 ?
14 Golden Delicious
15 Cox Orange Pippin
16 Garfield plum
17 American plum
18 Ben Davis
19 Grimes Golden
20 Northern Spy
21 Lapins cherry
22 ?
23 ?
24 ?
25 Winesap
26 Baldwin
27 Stacyville Pear