Basically, I grew up on a working museum. We drove tractors from the 1930's They built them to last back then, and with the proper maintenance they can obviously last 60 plus years. We stacked hay in those days and the rakes that we pulled with the old tractor were actually horse drawn rakes from an even older era. Keep in mind, we used this equipment and it was probably 2002 before my Dad and Uncle switched to bailing hay. Prior to this, we ran a 1935 John Deere B for the rake tractor, a 1936 John Deere B for the sweep tractor that my Granddad had turned around backwards so that you swept in reverse, a 1937 B, a 1947 B and a 1934 A as mower tractors. That's just some of the antiuqe equipment that we still used. All of the horse drawn equipment, and equipment that was put out of service before I came of age to use it was still on the place parked neatly and most of it covered with tin, as if waiting for the next use. I love to show people the old equipment, planters, choppers, mowers, rakes, etc. Of course scrap iron dealers would love to get it, but I think it has so much more value than that. I like to just look at it and think of a bygone era. Two row corn pickers, one row corn pickers, when today we have combines that can harvest 32 ows at a time. A lot of the old equipment in the trees was horse drawn as well. In fact in the old barn we still have a lot of the harness that was used, of course it's degraded over time, but it get's the imagination working, especially for a young boy.
So, there I was in my early teens, a solid American farm boy and I found a forge! When I say I grew up on a working museum, this particular shed was the homestead shack of the original pioneer who homesteaded the property. Yes, it is still standing. But, back to the story. My Great Grandfathers forge was still in the building, untouched, unneeded for several years. I put it back into service. Of course there was some learning curve that went into that. One of my other Grandfathers, my Grandpa Birch happened to teach blacksmithing prior to WWII, (he fought in the war.) But, he made a special effort to come to Nebraska and spend a few days teachig me the art of blacksmithing. I am forever grateful. He passed away a few years ago, but the life lessons I learned from him are invaluable.