"The Farm Keeps Coughing Things Up"

The title is a quote from Saiph who made that brilliant observation after we uncovered yet another "treasure" while working on the farm.  It often feels I'm embarking on an archeological dig when I  clean out garden beds, muck fields, or clear areas with the tractor.  Some of the found items are useful while others are down right strange.  Here's what I have discovered since October:



Saiph and I stumbled upon this in the back pasture after the snow had melted.  At first it looked like the toe of a sock sticking up out of the ground.  I turned to Saiph and said, "I hope there is not a body attached to that."  It's really a faded, incredibly dirty knit headband.  File this item in the "useless" category.

After the winter's freezing and thawing, these two tennis balls came peaking up out of the ground in the backyard.  They undoubtedly hold the memories of hours of fun with the previous owner's Golden Retriever. Kayla (at 5 pounds) and Penny (13 years old) are really not interested in playing so I'll call these "useless." 

This dog toy turned up when I was cleaning out the garden area around the wellhead.  Obviously, the  Golden Retriever loved a good game of fetch.  Finding all the toys made me think of my late Golden Retriever, Chessie.  She was so obsessed with catching tennis balls that she would pull green tomatoes off the plants.  We didn't get to eat many vine-ripened tomatoes but we knew that Chessie  thought we were great dog parents since we grew tennis ball bushes for her!  

This cross says "Miss Giget  July 9, 1979- March 8, 1993."  I assume "Miss Giget" was a dog buried by the previous owner in the wooded area on the edge of the back pasture.  I found the rather hefty grave marker under a pile of leaves while I was cleaning out that area.  Now you would think this remembrance of Miss Giget would be useless but I found it helpful in weighting down the tarps that covered the round bale over the winter.  I  hope that isn't being too disrespectful of the late Miss Giget.

I asked the neighbor if she knew anything about Miss Giget and she looked puzzled and said she had no idea if, in fact, Giget was even a dog (maybe a cat, horse?) .  She did mention that another former owner of my farm raised Great Pyrenees.   

When I uncovered this bone under the raspberry bushes, I was certain that I had stumbled on a undiscovered dinosaur--equinefarmasaurus--that would make me rich and famous.  No such luck.  We thought at first it was from a cow but now I'm thinking of poor Miss Gigit.  I imagine the previous owner's Golden Retriever happily discovering this Great Pyrenees bone when digging near the grave marker!  Cow or dog, I filed this one under "strange and useless."
   

At last!  An item with a definite purpose.  We uncovered these scissors while we were digging to create an area to bathe the horses outside the barn (no room for a wash stall in the barn).  We use them now to cut open feed and sawdust bags.  

Weeding around the side of the barn yielded this riding crop.  I don't use a crop when I ride but we put it in the barn anyway.  At least it isn't something that ended up in the trash.

I was clearing the lawn around the barn with the tractor to create a sitting area for the boarders when I uncovered these reading glasses. I suppose they would be useful if I had only one eye and one ear. 

This pad emerged from one of the (messy) garden areas in the backyard.  I'm assuming it was used to make kneeling while planting or weeding more comfortable.  I'll probably try to see if it helps on those days when the garden is really muddy. 

Since I've been a farmer for just over six months, I confess that I didn't know the purpose of this particular item so I consulted a friend with a lifetime of farm experience.  It's a drawbar and is used to attach various implements to a tractor, such as a drag harrow.  

Here's what one (newer and cleaner) looks like when attached to a tractor. 

I attach my drag at a single point on my tractor so it hooks up something like this but there may come a day when the drawbar will be useful! 



I am excited to keep digging around the farm in the hopes that one day I will come across one of these:

 But I'm enough of a realist to accept that I'll probably only find more of Miss Gigit.