# Saw mill, circa 1900



## pgriz (Jul 4, 2016)

This weekend, we celebrated Canada Day (July 1st) and went to see my youngest daughters's beau's family.  Met them all together for the first time, although we have met most over the years.  I have to credit my daughter with very good taste.  Her beau, and my future son-in-law, is a thoughtful, intelligent, capable and hardworking young man.  His family lives in the area we visited (near Ormstown, Quebec) and he is the sixth generation to live in the area.  As part of the family tour, we got to see the property that his grandfather owned on which there was a sugar shack, a sawmill, and various barns housing miscellaneous farm machinery such as hay balers, seeders, etc.   The property is in the process of being renovated (new septic system, water course from the water mill refaced, etc.) and we got to see some of the work in progress.

Besides being a working farm (dairy, hay, and various crops), the place had a sugar shack (where maple syrup is reduced to syrup), an old wood mill (dating back to 1890), and various tractors (1940 vintage) that were still functional.  The wood mill was in operation up to about 2008, with my future son-in-law demonstrating the various features of the wood mill during our visit (he used to help his grandfather cut the logs into planks and posts).  He also restored a circa-1940 international Harvester tractor to working state and was planning to do the same with the one attached to the saw mill.

Not great photography, but it's neat to see old stuff still in pretty good condition.  First, the sugar shack, circa 1940...



 

Next, the wood mill, either powered by water power from the pond, or by the International Harvester tractor, circa 1940.



 

And finally, one of the 1940 International Harvester tractors (manual crank) restored by my future son-in-law.  It needs a muffler on the exhaust pipe, but otherwise the tractor is ready to be rolled out and used.



 

You'll notice the various sawed planks that came from the mill.


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## Rick50 (Jul 4, 2016)

Very cool. Love old stuff, mostly how they did things.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 4, 2016)

Cool


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## tirediron (Jul 4, 2016)

Nice!  Lucky daughter.


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## Achaicus (Jul 5, 2016)

Nice, that must be a common look for small sugar shacks. I saw one in Hudson this spring just after the season ended that is close enough to how that one looks for me to do a double take and check the location again.


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## FITBMX (Jul 18, 2016)

That old timber frame building with the sawmill looks rather straight for it's age! 
The also looks like it is in very good shape, it looks like a Mccormick Deering W4. A good friend of mine has a W4. 
Great photos.


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