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JBDISCOVERY · 08-31-2011, 07:46 PM

DW and I are traveling from northern Michigan to the west coast on US 2. Observation: ALL THE OLD FARMS HAVE OLD RUSTY EQUIPMENT JUST SITTING IN THE EQUIPMENT YARDS. Why is this equipment not sold for scrap? This would yield some dollars, clean up the junk, and make the farms look better.
Anyone have an answer?
JB

BlauMax · 08-31-2011, 07:51 PM

Don't know about this situation.. but, in our area.. collections of old farming equipment parked along fence lines can be popular.. I know I get nostalgic looking at them. Nothing like combines or harvesters.. just OLD horse and tractor drawn stuff.

Course it may be like some of the places I've seen in various parts of the country. Lots of old rusting cars parked in the field. UGGHHH.

mythplaced · 08-31-2011, 07:56 PM

Watch the TV show
"HOARDERS"
and you'll get an idea

RickO · 08-31-2011, 08:03 PM

Great observation and it echos the question I began asking a few years ago. My FIL lives in SW Minnesota in a 100 year old farm house on 6 acres of what's left of the family farm. He was born and raised there.

In his pasture is a pile (mountain?) of old equipment and scrap metal. It's a terrible eyesore and nobody can remember when it wasn't there... although it gets added to all of the time.

He says guys come around all the time asking if they can clean it up for him but he says they don't offer him enough money for it.

He's nearly 80 years old.

Rick

GOLDWINGER2 · 08-31-2011, 08:03 PM

I'm guilty
J

Jack R · 08-31-2011, 08:14 PM

junk to one is a treasure to another.

jack

JimM68 · 08-31-2011, 08:18 PM

I see a lot of that too. It seems they just leave em lie where they die... :(

RoyM · 08-31-2011, 08:45 PM

They dragged it home from an auction meaning to fix it up or build something but just never got a roundtoit. Others either can't bear to part with it (hoarders) or just don't care.
My bil built a beautiful 1200 square foot shop with 16' ceiling behind the new house, it is wondrous to behold. It is also full of STUFF, most of which he will likely never use. Like the Onan diesel gen set and transfer switch. The quads, snowmobiles, spare steel, lumber and whatever else are outside. The guy is a certifiable card carrying pack rat.

frankdamp · 08-31-2011, 08:48 PM

It costs money to get rid of it. Storing it on your property is free. QED!

RovinOn · 08-31-2011, 08:58 PM

Quote:

THE OLD FARMS HAVE OLD RUSTY EQUIPMENT

It gives the area that "Rustic Look" that we all enjoy!

ka6bud · 08-31-2011, 09:12 PM

It is yard art nothing like a 50 chevyp/u with hood missing but relplaced with flower pots and perhaps some other pot

Joe(ka6bud)

CD · 08-31-2011, 10:20 PM

You might be amazed at how many of those rusty hulks have been brought back to life and look like new(in fact many are like new). Many of these people belong to tractor clubs as I do. I can't take credit for renewing any but I have a 43 Ford I bought as a dead tractor that is now running fine and being used.

Midnite-CTD · 08-31-2011, 10:25 PM

My grandfather (and I suspect a lot of the original farm owners) was of a generation that 'recycled' whatever they could to keep from having to spend money they didn't have to. Very little was thrown away in favor of something new like we do today. If he had two of the same tractor and one died, it became a donor to keep the other running that much longer. If his neighbors had one, they could get parts from him too, and him from them in return.

As a kid, I was always amazed at the fact that he could pull something off of an old 'useless' piece of equipment, and fashion it into something he needed to get him through instead of buying a new part. He ran his farm like that until the day we had to put him into a home. Even then, we ended up using four harvesters to make two run well enough to get the years crop off. If he'd have sold the ones that didn't run, we would never have made it without spending a fortune...

When we did clean the farm up for auction, We ended up with some big scrap piles. The winning scrap dealers, simply picked through their 'winnings', took what they wanted and left the rest sitting there even though it was all "good scrap". Now all we had left was garbage which cost more to get rid of than was made auctioning it off? I would guess that is the reason for a lot of the scrap piles seem on farms nowadays...