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The ole days

13K views 57 replies 20 participants last post by  asevereid 
#1 ·
I love this old stuff.
 
#7 ·
Ah damn, wish I saw this yesterday, I'd have taken some pictures. Today I repaired an old skeleton key lockset. I had a broken spring, so I cannibalized parts from a closet door on the 2nd floor to make the bathroom door on the 1st floor operational.
I truly love working with those old locks. One of my favorite things about the trades.
 
#10 ·
You guys would love an illustrated book by Eric Sloane called Diary of a Early American Boy. My favorite book of all time. So many good illustrations of early tools and explanations on how things were built and used. Here is the link. Go to the "look inside" to get a glimpse.
http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Early-American-Eric-Sloane/dp/1887840516
 
#12 ·
When I was a kid my oldman used to flip old villas, like 1900's ones. There was a salvage yard called musgroves and I remember it was all gravel roads and an old billy goat to keep the grass down that used to chase us, there were these large old wooden buildings 3 stories high and they had those old wax cardboard screw boxes all on trestle tables filled with old doorknobs, latches, hooks all sorts of fittings. I didn't appreciate it then but it would be like a gold mine for me now.
 
#20 · (Edited)
We live in an old farm house and live daily with cool old stuff. Sometimes I lose the appreciation of it. Lots of people come here and are amazed at how good condition things are that are decades, if not centuries old. Somewhere up in the attic are the original gas light fixtures.

I'm not sure what year this was made, but my mom remembers warming her feet in the oven part as a kid. I am the 6th generation to live here at the farm. We use this daily, it's quite the nice fireplace. Heats great.

 
#21 ·
We live in an old farm house and live daily with cool old stuff. Sometimes I lose the appreciation of it. Lots of people come here and are amazed at how good condition things are that are decades, if not centuries old. Somewhere up in the attic are the original gas light fixtures.

I'm not sure what year this was made, but my mom remembers warming her feet in the oven part as a kid. I am the 6th generation to live here at the farm. We use this daily, it's quite the nice fireplace. Heats great.
My great grandmother had one of sorts and it was cast iron and built into the house in a brick rangehood. Her husband bought the house she used to look at from the hospital she worked at as a nurse. I remember it being stinking hot in the summer in the kitchen and having to go get coal for it and her calling us racial slurs from the coal dust "aye look atchye, coupla wee ******s yous are". She grew all her vegetables in the backyard and cooked everything in the coal range. Her griddle scones and pikelets with fresh cream and jam were to die for.
 
#23 ·
blacktop said:
Did your Granny ever chop the head off a chicken while you stood there in amazement watching it run all over the yard with no head?? Mine did!:laughing: That was some good fried chicken tho! I never cared for the fresh cows milk...That was nasty.I can still taste It..:sick:
I grew up in a house that was 140 years old. Parents farmed old school too.

Can't stand fresh cows milk. Drank it growing up and never cared for the taste.

Never chopped heads off, but we used to kill a few hundred every fall. Some ours, some for friends and neighbours. A few years that was the only income from October to December.

My great grandmother cooked on a Woodstove her whole life. Had an electric range but wouldn't use it.
 
#25 ·
blacktop said:
Did your Granny ever chop the head off a chicken while you stood there in amazement watching it run all over the yard with no head?? Mine did!:laughing: That was some good fried chicken tho! I never cared for the fresh cows milk...That was nasty.I can still taste It..:sick:
I love fresh cows milk! I grew up in Norway, and my best friends family had a farm we uses to visit. Fresh cows milk in the morning, and home brewed beer and liquor in the evening!
 
#28 ·
PBS did a great series called Frontier House.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-prRxB1ggg



They followed three family groups that agreed to live as homesteaders did in the state of Montana on the American frontier in 1883. Each family was expected to establish a homestead and complete the tasks necessary to prepare for the harsh Montana winter. At the end of the series, each family was judged by a panel of experts and historians on their likelihood of survival for each group. It was brilliant. It made me and my hubby look at the way we live and evaluate our material possessions. It also reminded me to appreciate our modern conveniences.
 
#40 ·
PBS did a great series called Frontier House.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-prRxB1ggg



They followed three family groups that agreed to live as homesteaders did in the state of Montana on the American frontier in 1883.
I saw most of that. The California couple drove me nuts - whine whine whine. How anyone could wind up having their teenage daughters walking around in snow in night gowns, no socks, panties, nothing, is beyond me. Too lazy to wash clothes - amazing.

Old style living isn't all that fascinating to me. I grew up with people that still had to hand pump water, use outhouses, and cooked and heated with wood, grew their own crops and raised chickens, sheep, etc. The kids had the joy of doing much of the work.
 
#34 ·
Ive been away from the site for a few weeks. I love the old stuff too. I've posted a few threads on the construction part of the forum about various building practices I've seen around the world. These were some you might find interesting from Australia.

This is a hand operated table saw from cira 1874


And I love these lockset's from an old hotel in far northern Queensland.






Or how about a bit of history from Sri Lanka.

A beautiful set of doors from the Portuguese era.


Another old door and lockset from the 1600's


And an amazingly elegant window latch from the same period.




I think if you look up my profile you should be able to find your way to some of my threads with other pictures.
 
#36 ·

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