Stone Boat

[oosik]

My abutting neighbor on the south is a cattle rancher. About five years after we moved down here - his eldest came over one fine spring day for a visit. He was particularly interested in my tractor - Ford 1700 4WD. After looking it over, he very politely asked if I could come over and help them clean the calving barn. I got my jacket and gloves and started to jump in his pickup. Oh, No - he said, come over with your tractor.

Well, bottom line - he and two of his sisters were charged with cleaning out the calving barn. Their tractors are all very large field tractors but he had an idea that my little Ford would fit in the calving barn. They had a "stone boat" & wheel barrow that they drug around inside this barn and would load up and pull outside by hand.

My little Ford fit just fine and even into each stall - with precise and careful maneuvering. Got the entire barn cleaned in a little over half a day.

Their dad came over a couple days later and thanked me. I'm not all that certain that he was too overjoyed with his kids creative decision.

 

[Egon]

When I was a kid on the farm we had one very similar except it had 4x6s (with steel wear runners on the bottom) instead of poplar logs but it did have a tongue made from a poplar tree. It also saw most of it's use hauling manure out of the barn.

Built with whatever was available!

 

[gemutlich]

oosik that's a great memory

 

[gemutlich]

Six years have passed and as with all of us, much has happened hasn’t it?

If you’re reading this, I deeply hope you and those you care about are doing well - and if you haven’t spoken with some of them in a long time, please take a moment just to let them know you’re thinking of them

I haven’t really been on any forums much, and honestly had completely forgotten I started this thread when I first brought the stone-boat Home…

After pulling it out of the shed this morning to measure for replacement boards, I started searching for more information on it and this thread popped up!

If I can remember how to post up pictures, here’s the stone-boat today as I load load it up to take to sawmill tomorrow

 

[CalG]

I put 2X3 wooden skids under the 3pt carry all frame.

If the stone is too heavy to lift, dragging is an option.

 

[gemutlich]

Sacrificial runners are a good common-place idea to save your metal for sure ‘Cal, they’re on my old brush hog for the same reason if it ever kisses the ground

Restoring this old piece is more a sentimental mission for me, and something that will probably see more mileage on a trailer going to shows than on the ground working

 

[garry1p]

I took and old truck bed liner, reinforced the front and pulled it many miles easy to use and would just slide along.

 

[oosik]

All the land around here - for many miles - was all homestead. Back in the 1890's. It was given by the government with the hope that oil would be found. I rub more Corn Huskers Lotion into my hands than any oil that was ever found around here.

Anyhow - the homesteader to the north of me had several sons. They used stone boats and mules to clear much of their acreage. I have pictures of the "stone fences" that were created when they cleared their land.

 

[oosik]

These pics are just two of the stone fences. There are many others - all over the homestead.

Makes your back ache - doesn't it.

 

[ponytug]

These pics are just two of the stone fences. There are many others - all over the homestead.

Makes your back ache - doesn't it.

I just look at stone fences and piles of stones like that and find the amount of work just staggering. I can imagine the whole family of kids fanning out in the field and tossing stones on to the stone boats, round and round.

Sometimes, I think big jobs are best done one pebble at a time. You don't eat the elephant in one bite. When I was in high school in one of my first jobs, I suggested doing and then did a job that required me putting something like a hundred and fifty thousand dots on some plates in a day or two. In hindsight, it seems crazy, but at the time, it turned out to be incredibly useful.

All the best,

Peter