Reusing farm items commonplace back in the day
Outside the house and around the farm were places where reusing instead of recycling was in effect.
In the workshop, my grandfather and father made use of wood, metal and leather scraps to repair and refashion many things.
By using an old forge and later, with the addition of a welder, they were able to be quite self sustained.
Leather scraps from horse and buggy days became seals for pumps, hinges or belts.
Metal buckets that developed a leak were resealed by adding a small bolt and scrap of leather.
Old hay mower blades were added to worn out shovel handles to create new hoes. Some of the hundreds of metal hinges taken from the vents of our old tobacco barns are still around today.
Lumber from one of those tobacco barns became our dairy barn and the leftovers were given to a neighbour in exchange for his labour.
The nails were collected and straightened for use again. Shingles were collected, stored in basements and used as kindling to start our furnace fires.
Our mixed-use farm allowed us to apply the reuse rule to our crop production.
Each year, some of the best and ripest beans or tomatoes would be kept aside and saved for their seeds.
Although there are some benefits to hybrid varieties of vegetables, it is a shame to see most farms no longer able to use their seeds for next year’s crops.
Many rural families still propagate their peach, apricot and nut trees using this “reuse” principle.
Acres of pole breaks were grown at one time in his region.
During the winter months, farmers would take to the hills to harvest slender poles on which beans climbed.
These poles would last many years, unlike the throw away system of string used in bean production these days.
Burlap sacks, retrieved from feed stores, could be used for many years to store grains and other cattle feeds, unlike the one time use of paper sacks today.
Wooden boxes and packing crates were an important part of our mixed farm.
Boxes were used for picking, storing, transporting and selling produce.
Each cannery or packing house had its own boxes with its name on one end.
There were several sizes and shapes of boxes, each designed for the product it would be carrying.
Rectangular ones were for vegetables, especially tomatoes, that were destined for the canneries.
Fruit boxes, most commonly used for apples, were squarish in shape.
Both these boxes held forty pounds of produce. Pear boxes were slightly smaller than apple boxes as forty pounds of pears takes up less space.
Many days were spent each winter in repairing and keeping these boxes in good condition.
Grapes were picked and sold in baskets. Once they arrived in the field, the handles were attached, baskets filled, lids added and off to the market they would go.
Those baskets which were not re-used, were covered and reused in the house.
As kids, we had a “sock basket” that was an old grape basket.
Melons and onions were picked and transported to sorting sites in large slatted crates.
There they would be cleaned, graded and placed in sacks for shipping.
Farm equipment, or other large parcels, were always shipped in wooden packing crates.
These crates protected their contents much better than cardboard. These crates were refashioned into storage bins for feed or the lumber used for making furniture.
Cardboard made an inexpensive alternative to wooden boxes so our farm began using them, too.
But, instead of buying new ones, farmers would visit stores during the winter taking away their excess boxes.
This allowed the farmer to have a free source and the business to avoid disposal fees.
The best source of large boxes for our pepper shipping business was Calona Wines. They received all their glass wine bottles in large, plain, boxes.
String was used to tie up these large boxes for rail shipment. The string used was all salvaged from the bales of hay used for winter cattle feed.
Each piece of string had a knot on one end that made it veery easy to use as a slip knot for securing the boxes. A special finger knife was worn that cut the string to length.
Even chemicals had their reuse potential. Leftover paint was saved and used to give the handmade stools, benches and tables their spring freshening.
The change of colour every few years made it look new.
Used motor oil was saved and applied to roadways, away from water wells, to keep vegetation to a minimum.
Furnace ashes were saved all winter for use in the farm outhouses.
Fence posts, no longer strong enough for their purpose, were cut up and used as fire wood.
These, and many more reuse or adaptational activities were not restricted to farm life, but these activities were more easily integrated into a farmer’s daily routines. People made it seem natural and not an extra activity that our modern affluent society seems to make it.
Folks of farming life were tied to their land 24/7, but in this life everything had its time and season.
Everything was integrated and it is very difficult to talk about one aspect without talking about their whole way of life.