The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: ser3dan on January 17, 2012, 06:39:15 pm

Title: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: ser3dan on January 17, 2012, 06:39:15 pm
My parents have a set of placemats that have a variety of tractors doing different things. All but one of them are very obvious and easily identified, apart from one - so what do you think is happening in it?
(http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f201/Dan_Penketh/IMG_3842.jpg)
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: mab on January 17, 2012, 07:29:29 pm
I assume the other ones are not related? - i.e. there's not a story being told from one mat to the next?

My guess it the tractor's broken down and they're trying to get it home (or out of the ford) for repairs.

Looks like one man's winching the tractor through the ford whilst the other cranks the engine - assuming it isn't going to start, turning the engine with it in gear would move the tractor forward, helping it through the ford. Although it looks like it'd roll forward fairly easily from where it is anyway.

Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Bangbang on January 17, 2012, 07:37:34 pm
That man's trying to run the kid over ! - slowly.

Just turn the handle boy, 'Shep' your my witness!
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: chrismahon on January 17, 2012, 08:17:11 pm
I echo Mab. The winch would need to be moved several times in the process.
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Hermit on January 17, 2012, 09:46:00 pm
Surely the man would just winch himself nearer the tractor!!! They would just get another tractor to pull it out. Looks like it is something to do with a stuck wheel, one bloke starting up while one gives the wheel some tension.
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: ser3dan on January 17, 2012, 10:01:06 pm
No, the story doesn't follow from one to another, it's just a variety of tractors ( Grey Fergie, MF35, Fordson etc ). This mat had my dad and I puzzled though as the ford isn't very deep and isn't running particularly fast ( not enough to endanger the running of the tractor ) so why not just drive through it? Why stop and wind it in gear through the water, and why the extra winch?
It was just an odd picture that we couldn't make any sense of!
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Bangbang on January 17, 2012, 10:02:28 pm
After studying the picture again (with a bit more serious head on),  it actually looks like
the man has just shot a rat out of the barrel of the pole and the poor wee critter has been projected
towards the distant hills!

Bangbang!

Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Lesley Silvester on January 17, 2012, 11:55:51 pm
After studying the picture again (with a bit more serious head on),  it actually looks like
the man has just shot a rat out of the barrel of the pole and the poor wee critter has been projected
towards the distant hills!

Bangbang!



 ;D ;D  Or that brown bit could have been gravy left over from dinner.
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Sylvia on January 18, 2012, 09:01:45 am
Surely the man would just winch himself nearer the tractor!!! They would just get another tractor to pull it out. Looks like it is something to do with a stuck wheel, one bloke starting up while one gives the wheel some tension.

Tractors would have been a bit thin on the ground in those days :)
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Hermit on January 18, 2012, 09:16:18 am
Perhaps its making the point that they are not without fault and that a horse does not break down in awkward places ;D They could have made the point better if they showed a horse pulling it out instead of a winch. Or are they regretting selling the horse? mmmm.
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Dizzycow on January 18, 2012, 09:37:13 am
Obviously the man on the left would like to pursue a new career in Venice as a Gondolier. He has made himself a small board to stand on, and has gently yet elegantly been winched down the farm lane, while practicing his punting manouver. He's just headed for the tricky part of his training - actually on the water - when the engine has stopped and the boy is trying to crank it up quickly before disaster strikes, he hits the water and is instantly devoured by the savage collie.
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: doganjo on January 18, 2012, 09:44:51 am
Obviously the man on the left would like to pursue a new career in Venice as a Gondolier. He has made himself a small board to stand on, and has gently yet elegantly been winched down the farm lane, while practicing his punting manouver. He's just headed for the tricky part of his training - actually on the water - when the engine has stopped and the boy is trying to crank it up quickly before disaster strikes, he hits the water and is instantly devoured by the savage collie.
You should start writing books, Dizzy!  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Dizzycow on January 18, 2012, 09:54:30 am
Hahaha! Overactive imagination!  ;D
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: robert waddell on January 18, 2012, 06:04:51 pm
i think the artist was a relation of dizzys ;)
first it is a fordson in the 1940s       it is being winched    what the artist has not shown is the anchor cable that should be going of to the left    it maybe has run out of fuel :farmer:
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Plantoid on January 18, 2012, 11:15:11 pm
Perhaps The winch man cant get enough sound anchor to complete the job or the winch is not man enough for it .
So the guy  on the starter handle has removed the spark plugs , put the tractor in first & winds the tractor  along with the pull from the bankmans winch so using the gears to help reduce the load on the bankmans winch .
It would also stop the tractor running away into or out of the ford without using the brakes
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Norfolk Newby on January 19, 2012, 12:05:49 pm
The tractor has just been washed in the ford. The old man is complaining about the water being polluted by the nasty tractor (oil, grease etc.) ans scaring the fish.

Around the time tractors started to appear, it would have been normal to take the farm horses to the ford to give them a wash, so why not take the tractor?
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: SallyintNorth on January 19, 2012, 03:27:38 pm
The picture is at least an nonsensical as Dizzycow's suggestion!

So we think it must be a whimsical cartoon, possibly with a caption such as, "You can lead a tractor to water..."
Title: Re: What's going on in this picture?
Post by: Dougal on January 19, 2012, 03:40:11 pm
I suspect that the idea was that since at some point the over dinner chat would be rubbish they decided to give you some thing to chat about. It's not a rat either, dimensions are wrong, more a rolled up ferret me thinks!