alan skeoch
Nov. 3, 2017
“Long ago I hung a little sign in the old pantry of our farm house….before we gutted and rebuilt everything. It said, “My Days Are in The Yellow Leaf”. It is a quote from Lord Byron which he may have borrowed and changed from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “My way of life is fallen into the sere and yellow leaf.” Both quotes are depressing…expressions of dread…
“I Don’t get the Meaning?”, you say…”Thought you were about to describe farm sale, not a love poem or a Shakespeare play ? What does the expression mean?”
“Years ago I was saddened that my Grandparents farm was decaying…collapsing…Meaning the days of the farm were numbered. The hand-hewn frame barn had collapsed and those wonderful beams chain sawed into kindling blocks. The hand woven wire and sapling fence around the garden was aslant and doomed. Wire worms infested the carrots. The cattle and chickens were gone leaving Laddie the dog as the only non-human resident. And he was accidentally shot by Angus Mcechern while worrying sheep. “Meant to scare him.” In the house The plastered walls were cracked and great slabs fell regularly. The cedar shingle roof was leaking. The floors were worn down by heavy work boots…The knots resisted so the effect was wavy. The dirt floor cellar was filled with water come spring time. The field stone foundation was wonderful…for snakes that is. And my grandmother and grandfather were just holding on by the skin of their teeth. Grandma shook so hard with Parkinson’s disease that the coal oil lamp in her hand cast shaky shadow devils on the walls. And granddad needed help to get to the back house. Out beside a huge walnut tree bounced baseball sized walnuts off the house roof. The sound was chilling. Red squirrels tunnelled their way into the
walls and piled the gaps with those walnuts as if they were insulation. Hence my feeling that “Their days were in the yellow leaf.”
“And all that came to mind today?”
“That was how I felt at the Farmer Moore auction today, November 3, 2017, as tractors, tools and scrap iron things changed hands assisted by Jim McCartney, auctioneer.. I do not know what really happened here 15 years ago. Something bad for sure. The farm has been padlocked and untouched for the last 15 years. “He was put in the home,.” said farm neighbours.
His tractors, trucks, Wheelbarrows, tools, furniture, even sexy pin-upgirls have all been gatheirng dust and vermin footprints for all these years.”
“What Happened?”
“I have no idea. The hand built ramp at the farm house means Farmer Moore had difficulty walking, perhaps wheelchair bound before he “put in the Home”.
“Forgotten. Padlocked gate…laneway leading up a gentle slope to a place of mystery dominated by a huge derelict bank barn whose grim future you can judge in the pictures.”
“Everything here was new at one time. Brand new.”, said auctioneer McCartney. “Today things are sold to the highest bidder. I make no guarantees. These machines….tractors, trucks, combine…have been safely undercover for the last 15 years. Be aware of that. None of them will be started today. “ In other words Buyer beware.
Farm Auction Sale
For Cimino Family (Farmer Moore Farm)
Friday, November 3rd at 12:00 noon
(Preview from 11:00 a.m.)
Located at 866 Safari Rd (7th Concession), Flamborough, ON. 1 1⁄2 miles West of Hwy 6, 4 miles North of Clappison’s Corners (Watch for signs). Tractors – Midsize Farm Equipment – Trucks – VW Beatle – 2004 -21’ Housetrailer (etc) Most items have been stored inside and have not been in use for over 15 years. (Everything sells as is)
Partial List Only: ‒ Case 730 Diesel with Allied Loader – Cab, John Deere 40 – 3 P.T.H. + P.T.O., A.C. – CA with remotes, Belarus 420 4 x 4, Ford 630 S.P. Combine (motor seized), 4 row 36” corn head, 12’ grain head
– 2004 Coachman 22’ model 248 T.B.C. house trailer with roof air – fully loaded (This unit has had very little use)
– 1971 Dodge Fargo 300 (29,050 mi) with 9’ x 7’6” dump box & 4’ racks
– 1979 Dodge S.E. – 300 Adventurer 70,000 kms with 8’ box & duals
– 12’ slide in camper – older Volkswagon Beatle 39,850 miles (rough)
– John Deere 210 riding mower 42” deck, 16 h.p. Master Craft, John Deere 1240 – 4 x 36 corn planter, 12’ 3 P.T.H. cultivator, J.D. 15 run Van Brunt Drill, 10’ Cultipacker, N.H. 351 Mix Mill with Loading Auger, N.H. 269 sq baler, 7’ Brady Flail chopper, 3 gravity boxes and wagons, 3 P.T.H. fert spreader, 3 P.T.H. Haban Corn Sheller, N.I 2 row 30” cor picker model 325 with 327 picker unit, Case 4 x 14” 3 P.T.H. plow, 3 x 12” Oliver drag plow, 7’ 3 P.T.H. single auger snow blower, 11 run McCornmick drill on steel, box trailer, J. D. 300 bale & grain elevator 32’, H. D. Front Mount truck blades 9’-10’-12’,
– (Older Ford 8000 single axle dump truck & other pieces for scrap)
– Antique hand operated forage, walking plow, bag cart, Welder, misc lumber, fanning mill, old hossier cupboard and others, misc farm related items
Terms: Cash – Cheque ‒ Interac® ‒ VISA® day of sale Lunch Booth on Grounds
Jim McCartney Auction Service Ltd.
905-689-8778
Waterdown
“And here we are, in the stable, empty. Ghostly”
There is beauty here…sunshine and a light breeze do wonders.
So let the story begin. Part fact and part speculation. It is November, 2017 and some trees are still clothed but today, Nov. 3, it is cold and the wind
is up. Soon the maple will be skeletal.
“I think there were at least two farmers here in the deep past. Farmer Moore for sure and perhaps his wife, or Farmer Moore and his brother.
The condition of the farm house with its ripped and worn linoleum…wallpaper in some rooms but not all…would seem
to indicate a lone male resided here for a number of years. Just speculation. A woman would never let the house be so neglected.
Men often are less concerned. No furnace…heat provided by a cast iron stove….Naoleon style”
The farm house was sheathed in white siding within the last 20years. Before that it was perhaps insulbrick.
Linoleum floor covering scuffed and worn out by boots and neglect.
Hand made ramps for wheelchair access to the house. Much more to the story that will never be known.
A few clippings pinned to the walls…with dates that stop abruptly around 2002 or so.
Now here is a visual story. Farmer Moore seems to have been heterosexual. Some ancient pin-ups and one modern. Dates seem to have ended
around 2002. Something happened. Farmer Moore was taken a retirement home. It would be tough to leave his ladies behind.
OK. Tell me what was kept in these crocks? Something edible…look at the plastic lids.
“Small forge with hand operated lever for blower…sold for $280
Old Hoosier Kitchen cupboard in workshop with faded pin-up girls sold for around $30 or less
Super organized shelves full of nuts and bolts and tings unseen sold for $85
Speckled sunshine of a forgotten mow of old hay. Holes in the roof made walking on the wonky threshing floor problematic.
Looking out from the warm brown granary to the open threshing floor
Farmer Moore once long ago had a thriving poultry business. 12,000 laying hens snuggled up to these straw lined nesting cubbyholes. Eggs collected by, the Moore’s were sold in Millgrove and perhaps as far south as Hamilton. I wish it was possible to save a rack of these nesting cubbys Why in tarsnation did I say that? There is no place for such.
The great cathedral roof has been ripped open. Rain water on piled hay and straw does not take long to rot the threshing floor…see below.
Stable door. A kind of invitation to explore..
One was of the field-stone stable has already collapsed. Likely to be repeated by others as no-one cares.
Lots of outbuildings on the Moore farm, all overgrown with shrubs and trees. A Tangled Garden. And dangerous for beneath every step seemed to be the rusty remains of some long forgotten machine of agriculture.
Acres of scrap so old that large walnut trees have wrapped themselves around rusty iron treasures…whole field of scrap[ machines sold for …I forget. Make a bid. This is the auctioneer Jim McCartney making his way through one of the hidden scrap pile. How do I know this was once a horse driven mowing machine? Look dead centre.
One of the largest outdoor corn cribs I have ever seen. Tenty ortirty yearsagoit was filled with yellow corn cobs and teased upon why birds and lots of rats until used to feed the 12,000 chickens that Farmer Moore raised. Empty now.. No longer needed since corn taken off the field below is shelled and blown into tractor trailers driven right up to the combine on under tiled fields and hauled to huge drying silos. Modern corporate agriculture. This crib is an object of art … doomed of course.
An abandoned Belarus tractor (Russian export from Soviet Union) … a green carpet of moss thriving where once Farmer Moore sat.
None of the machines worked…had not been operational for nearly two decades. This little John Deere sold for $2,200. Buyer must be a collector. Lots of bidders.
People are in search of specific treasures such as this tractor tire or…OR?
And here is the jewel of the auction sale in my opinion. Wisner Wilcox fanning mill made in Brantford when Ontario was called Canada West (C.W. stencilled)…made between 1840 and 1867 by skilled craftsmen who even gussied it up a bit with blue striping. This was the reason I went to Farmer Moore’s auction…prepared to be disappointed but instead found the machine in impeccable shape. Got it on first bid for $25. Expected to lose it for I noticed a guy buy a fanning mill screen in the workshop. Kept my eye on him. But he was gone. Guess he could not wait. This was the last thing sold at the auction.
“It’s all over… pay up today…you have only tomorrow to get things out of here…then the padlock goes on .”
Next day, Andrew and Marjorie came with me to load the mill. By then the farm had been stripped clean. We were alone.
Want more? Just scroll down.
At some time in the distant past a horses hitched here.
(Imagine this…not real comments)
“And you sir are now the owner of the back end of a half ton truck…rust and all.”
“How do I move it?”
“Should have thought of that before you raised your hand.”
“I was just scratching my nose.”
“Some bidders just wink or nod their head so the quick movement to get a bug out of your nose is considered a sound bid…you own
this now. If you back your truck up, some of the fellows will tip it up and on.”
“I don’t have a truck…just a small car.”
“Well, you could attach a chain and drag the old truck bed down the road.”
“But I live in Hamilton.”
“Best haul it down there at night then…less police around….might be a shower of sparks slip an old door under it.”
“What will my wife say?”
“Now that, sir, is a good question. Good luck!”
Wild cucumber vines festoon the place like neglected Chinese Lanterns.
“This Ford combine may be a little worse for wear but it would make the front lawn of your city home remarkable…and I mean REMARKable.
Like everything elsewhere, it was once new…could be a kind of Gazebo in the back yard…with an elevated glassed in reading room.” Sold for $200
MY DAYS ARE IN THE YELLOW LEAF
(Borrowed from Lord Byron and William Shakespeare by Alan Skeoch…on this November day, in the year 2017)
alan skeoch
November 3,2017
Farmer Moore auction sale
Auctioneer Jim McCartney
Cashier Kate McCartney
