Landmark, truck and steam engines!! [Jesus Talk]

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Freedom! self reliance : One Thread

The big old dude was just settin there in the shade of the Maple tree next to the waterwell and it's old pump. Many a seasons had come and gone and still it remained. Not complainin about to anyone in particular but always on the job. I'd seen it set there for many years and hadn't even wondered about it. As far as I was concerned it was just a landmark that everybody knew about and nobody done anything about. I finally found out more about it in 1988 when a farm auction came up and it was listed. Got me to wonderin about it more and when the sale date came up I was gonna attend and have a look see. Well, guess what! I fogot! A couple days after the sale I was down to the farm to pick up the propane tank and just happened to ask the landowner about the old landmark. He told me it had sold at the sale but the buyer hadn't picked it up yet. I asked'm if'n it could be bought. He said he'd find out and let me know. He did--2 days later. It could be bought--and for what the guy had bought it for at the sale, plus another $5.00. I told'm I'd be down and pick it up later on in the week. I took a 1 ton chevy flatbed truck with heavy overloads. He lifted that raskel up with his John Deer 60 tractor's endloader. The old dude was so heavy the tractor couldn't move. The front tires were flat by all the heavy load anyhow. I backed up under it--he easily lowered it onto the truck. I didn't think it would ever stop droppin. It finally did--so heavy on the overloads the truck was almost impossible to steer!

It went to a neighbor to build a rack to set it in. Oh, the landmark---an ANTIQUE IRON KETTLE. According to mathmatics [figgered by a nephew that's a whiz in math] it holds ???? but seems to me it was 248.6 gallons==gut I've slept since then! It was orginally used in the galley of a steam ship to cook grub for the old grubby sailors. Next it was used in an orchard thingy to make applebutter. The old farmer had used it for a cattle waterer--and it was already there when he bought the farm. The extremely heavy weight of it had made it sink into the ground so the top was groundlevel. Big nuff to take a bath in!

Jim [older bro.] drug it out with the winchtruck yesterday, rack and all. Next stop is my farm. Use? I dunno. I can't afford to fill it up for soup. REkon I'll try and trade it for a small workin steam engine of about 10 hp. or so. Anybody interested?

Are ya'll forgitfull too? I seem to forgit most important things as I grow older however, the MOST IMPORTANT thing I won't forget is the Salvation that Jesus Christ has given to me---for free! Ya'll can partake of it too! ole hoot. Matt.24;44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), August 14, 2001


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