Believe it or not! Our discussions at Thanksgiving dinner included advanced studies in meteorology, life support systems development at NASA, international financial research and….the interest a young family friend has taken in forging steel “sparked” by a TV documentary. His interest has evolved toward building a small mock furnace to melt iron/steel!
That’s when Dad said “I have one in the barn that was used to make and repair horse shoes.”
Behold!
1930s device to heat horseshoes
Click the “Nina Bay Farm” link in the header above for a brief 2016 photo journal.
So far, we have found Oliver as the manufacturer of the mower with a December 1936 date. It is very likely that the age of all of this equipment is within a few years of each other.
The horsepower for these implements would have come from mules. (Last year I observed the Amish of Lancaster Co., PA planting with teams of six horses.)
There are no offspring of mules on Nina Bay Farm. However, the descendants of burros relocated from the Southwest US could be trained to pull a farmer seated on the metal saddle seat of the rake, mower, disc or cultivator. Presently, the role of the burros is to defend cattle against coyotes.
Burro_power
elfcroft 
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