History (cont'd)

Every piece of equipment we have saved has its own story, of which we only know in part. The donors often tell us the price they paid and the effort to save enough money to purchase it, and how much better life was after it came into use for them. Thus, in retirement, they still remember that cost and often I have noted the tears and hurt in their eyes when younger folk say it is only junk so dump it. The fact was it made us the wealthy nation we are today. The young need to stop and think but for those elderly folk things could have been so much more Spartan for them instead of how it is today.

The drudgery of hand milking a herd of cows, even if the number was only 25, was great. Four to five minutes per cow equalled 2 hours and over, then add all the associated work. It was into the 1930’s before milking machines came along, and they were quite slow to start with.

The simple task of cutting down a tree was hard work. No such thing as a chainsaw, only 2 man crosscut M tooth saws 7ft long.. A large tree meant a large scarf or cut out to the base of the tree to enable the saw length to cut past the centre line.

Drains were dug by shovel by 2 men(one right handed and one left handed) shoulder to shoulder would dig along a cord line and so start an 8ft or 10ft cut as a wide drain was known. How many would even try that way today?

The ability to handle stock was a very important part of yesteryear as horses and bullocks were the only way to get heavy work done. It was not uncommon to see 4 or 5 teams ploughing a paddock, one behind the other. Remember animals were the only power units for thousands of years. In my lifetime we have seen so many changes.