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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Stoneboats
  • Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 20:18:41 -0500

A recent story about a stingy grandmother reminded me of one of my first jobs in the country. In 1952 or 1953, when I was 16 and 17, I was hired by a neighbor farmer to pick stones off his newly plowed fields. In our Wisconsin post-glacial area, stones rose like spring weeds, lifted each winter by the freezing of the soil, moving ever upward.

I was paid five dollars a day. The work was straightforward: get the stones off the field. I was given my choice of a small tractor or a light team to pull the stoneboat. The first day I chose the tractor; thereafter I used the team. The tractor required climbing on and off whenever I needed to move forward. The team responded to vocal commands.

A stoneboat is typically made of two or three oak planks joined by a couple cross boards bolted together. The thick planks are shaped upward at the front, to avoid digging into the soil as the boat is moved forward. A chain is secured at the front, to which the pulling force is attached.

The intelligence of the design is simple: stones are heavy; lifting stones is hard on the back; rolling stones is easier than lifting them; a wooden sled that rises but two or three inches off the ground makes for easy loading of stones by rolling.

Here at Heartwood I have not yet made a proper stoneboat but I will. For now I have a sled I made years ago to move supplies down the steep driveway when it is iced over. Yesterday I used the sled to move the very heavy twelve-inch planer with five horsepower motor about two hundred feet. Rolled the planer onto its side on the sled, used the ancient farm truck to pull it.

Most of us today know better than to plow. A stoneboat has uses other than to clear a field. If you have stones in quantity and wish to use them for building, I recommend you build a stoneboat and use it to gather your stash. And if you have anything really heavy and want to move it, why, slide it onto the stoneboat and save your back. Or, just give the kids a winter treat.






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