Vintage farmer and his tractor

[LBrown59]

Yep. Maybe we should try to be a neighbor like we think he is.

good point

You said a mouthfull....Kind of like the Tim McGraw song: "Live like you were dyin' " "Be a friend a friend would like to have...."

and another good point

 

[scott_vt]

Good Mornin John,
Great pictures ! I just have the feeling that the world grew up around him, box store in backround, and left him behind ! Im willing to bet he would have alot to share if he were on here !

 

[bontai_Joe]

Good Mornin John,
Great pictures ! I just have the feeling that the world grew up around him, box store in backround, and left him behind ! Im willing to bet he would have alot to share if he were on here !

I think it's not that life left him behind, more like he enjoyed where he was at and decided to stay. Sounds like a real nice guy to have as a neighbor and as a friend. There was an older fella that lived next to my mom. Worked most of his life as a self employed welder and was a pretty good blacksmith. Subdivisions were built all around him and he finally had to give up raising pigs because a couple of neighbors complained... then he had to get rid of his chickens (he lived on a 1 acre plot), but he grew a huge garden, chopped wood well into his 80's, still made some folk art in his blacksmith shop and played hymns on his trombone loudly and ocassionally in key. He passed away about 2 years ago from a heart attack, which is kinda amazing, because he was supposed to die from cancer over 20 years ago. I know he didn't do a whole lot towards treating the cancer, i think he just decided mentally, "Nope, that ain't gonna be killing me."

 

[Soundguy]

Kinda sad that people moving in can dictate what you can or can't do with your land.. when you've been doing it for years.

soundguy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Kinda sad that people moving in can dictate what you can or can't do with your land.. when you've been doing it for years.

soundguy

Oh so many small details that may or may not play into the final outcome of a situation like this. In MOST states, what is known as "Freedom to Farm" laws can go to the plate for someone who's been actively farming a piece of land for years only to have new neighbors start squawking about the smells or noise eminating from the farm. Even in those instances, the farmer might have to initiate his defense. Some of these old timers just get tired of fighting and call it quits.

When I started farming in 1970, my place was in an area that was more or less all farms or woods. There was no interest in residential development, nor was there any industry in the immediate area. In the mid 80's that started to change. First a small "tech park" sprung up nearby. Then home builders started to buy and develope tracts along our road. The tech park started to turn into a full blown industrial park. That drew more residential development. By the mid 90's I was an island in the middle of a city. At one point I had beef cattle, hogs, along with crops. The first signs of trouble was a neighbor who took exception to my combining at night when the ground was froze enough to support the combine. It took a judge and my attorney but a few hours to settle the issue. A few years later, it was ANOTHER neighbor who voiced his displeasure with my spreading manure on a field ajacent to his property. Once again I had to pay an attorney to defend my right to do what I'd been doing for 25 years. In 2000, received a visit from an EPA rep regarding dust generated while I was discing a field prior to planting corn. Coincidentally, that visit came on the same day I was approached by a developer that wanted me to sell him my land. I'd later find out it was that same developer who initiated the EPA visit.

I'd had enough.

Another developer had made me an offer a few months earlier. I turned him down at that time. After the second one tried his strong arm tactics, developer #1 got a call. I made him a counter offer. He accepted. 9 months later we moved.

I've thought about it many times over the last 3 years. I COULD have stayed and fought. I could have done a dozen things. I was just tired of fighting. In the end, I was paid 47 times what I'd originally invested in the land and would have been a fool NOT to have accepted the deal. Anyone who knows me will tell you I don't run from a fight. I'm one of those people that you will have to kill or keep fighting me until you can't keep going. In this instance I had to convince myself that I was the big winner by simply giving up the fight.

 

[jimmysisson]

Our small town just passed an ordinance (now that most of the farms have disappeared) that requires real estate agents to hand a prospective buyer a paper explaining our right-to-farm bylaw. It doesn't have much teeth, but it may help when the neighbors get feisty. Maybe this economy and the local food movement will bring back some appreciation and support of the small farms we miss.
Jim

 

[Soundguy]

I understand. Where I have my small farm.. it's broken into 2 pieces about 4 miles apart.. 3ac and 10ac. The 3ac piece has become more or less a residential area.. even though all the land parcells are still A-1.. Just beginning of this year a banker moved to the piece of land 2 parcels south of me... In short.. He got a couple parcel owners together to sue me over my pigs and roosters...

I was slowly moving most of my animal farming over to the 10ac anyway.. but was wanting another year or two to get all the fencing and pens up where i wanted them.. and I was going to save the 3ac for vegies and a pleasure (yeah right ) horse... I viewed all my options for 'digging in.. and in the end.. even though it was likely I could win .. it would have been cost prohibitive on my part.. so i just moved the offending animals to the other property ahead of schedule... Mind you that wasn't cheap.. took a few months of all weekend and night work with a few frined shelping and some electrical contract and plumbing work to get the paddocks that were not in use yet, watered.. but it was still cheaper than fighting... I still think it's sad though..

soundguy

Oh so many small details that may or may not play into the final outcome of a situation like this. In MOST states, what is known as "Freedom to Farm" laws can go to the plate for someone who's been actively farming a piece of land for years only to have new neighbors start squawking about the smells or noise eminating from the farm. Even in those instances, the farmer might have to initiate his defense. Some of these old timers just get tired of fighting and call it quits.

When I started farming in 1970, my place was in an area that was more or less all farms or woods. There was no interest in residential development, nor was there any industry in the immediate area. In the mid 80's that started to change. First a small "tech park" sprung up nearby. Then home builders started to buy and develope tracts along our road. The tech park started to turn into a full blown industrial park. That drew more residential development. By the mid 90's I was an island in the middle of a city. At one point I had beef cattle, hogs, along with crops. The first signs of trouble was a neighbor who took exception to my combining at night when the ground was froze enough to support the combine. It took a judge and my attorney but a few hours to settle the issue. A few years later, it was ANOTHER neighbor who voiced his displeasure with my spreading manure on a field ajacent to his property. Once again I had to pay an attorney to defend my right to do what I'd been doing for 25 years. In 2000, received a visit from an EPA rep regarding dust generated while I was discing a field prior to planting corn. Coincidentally, that visit came on the same day I was approached by a developer that wanted me to sell him my land. I'd later find out it was that same developer who initiated the EPA visit.

I'd had enough.

Another developer had made me an offer a few months earlier. I turned him down at that time. After the second one tried his strong arm tactics, developer #1 got a call. I made him a counter offer. He accepted. 9 months later we moved.

I've thought about it many times over the last 3 years. I COULD have stayed and fought. I could have done a dozen things. I was just tired of fighting. In the end, I was paid 47 times what I'd originally invested in the land and would have been a fool NOT to have accepted the deal. Anyone who knows me will tell you I don't run from a fight. I'm one of those people that you will have to kill or keep fighting me until you can't keep going. In this instance I had to convince myself that I was the big winner by simply giving up the fight.

 

[Farmerford]

Great pictures of Oscar. Thanks for sharing them.

Looks like the only part ever replaced on his Ford is the generator.

My grandfather was too cheap to buy anti-freeze for the three months it was needed in south Georgia (December through February) so we used plain water and drained it every night. The problem with the old Fords was that distributor mounted on the end of the camshaft right above the crankshaft pulley. If you weren't very careful, water would spill down the back of the radiator right on to the distributor, and then you had a bit of a job taking the distributor cap off and drying it out.

What does Oscar grow? Do those trees behind him bear fruit or nuts?

 

[JB4310]

Great pictures of Oscar. Thanks for sharing them.
What does Oscar grow? Do those trees behind him bear fruit or nuts?

He grows and sells a small amount of fruit and veggies, he also sells about 100-150# of honey.

I don't really know the whole storey of Oscar, he lives a few miles away from me, I've been trying the last couple of years to befriend him, but he's a little stand offish. he has warmed up a little sharing some of his history.

He's fiercely independent as one would guess and no it wasn't the world that left him behind it's he that wanted to keep doing things the old way. He's out there everyday on his tractor.

Even though he's surrounded by metropolis, I don't think anyone's complaining about his farming as it is on a small scale with no animals except ducks and geese, he did have a large chicken operation years ago.

It's one of those situations where his land is worth probably 20 million dollars, and I'm sure he's getting all kinds of solicitations, which explains why he's careful with strangers, of course at this stage of his life he doesn't want to know about developing anything.

Judging by the close proximity of some of the developments around him, he may of sold some land in the past which afforded him the opportunity to live at his own pace.

I'd like to get some pics of his old implements, seen an old watering wagon built like a wood barrel, looked very old.

JB.

 

[farmboy12]

There was this old fart that lived next door for a while, not a farmer but, listen anyway. He had a tendacy to bite off more than he can chew. For instance-

He tried to pull down a LIVE 60+ foot pine with his old 1/2 ton Ford Econoline (didn't happen)

Got 6 dump truck loads of top soil to move and level some 125ft away with his old Cub Cadet garden tractor (didn't happen)


We ended up leveling it out for that abusive old farts daughter after he shot himself. Sad times, but deep down, abusers are hardly missed.


Kyle