I didn't have to look at those LOL, because I'm old enough to have some idea of how "it was."
My Mom's parents did not have running water until I was in Jr high school in about '60. My Great uncle lost his brother, sold his farm in Oregon, and moved in with them to live. He used his money to drill them a well, and add a bath and remodel the kitchen on their old house.
I well remember very young, two different "Model A" Fords my Dad had, one a dump truck. Here's me, about 4? after investigating how "that little man inside the lights" made them work --- using my toy hammer
I also remember MANY stormy and winter nights with no phone and no power. Our original phone system was a wall mount hand crank deal. Our "ring" was 4 short rings, and I still remember our phone "number" -- 19 F4 -- which meant we were the "19th" customer on the rural line, and our "ring" was "fast 4"
Even after we got a dial phone, we had about 15--20 people "on the line" until just before I joined the Navy in '68
No power? No problem. Quick get some water before "the well pump" bled off, get out the candles, the kerosene lamps, and stoke up the wood heater. Most of the time, our kitchen range was a model that had a "trash burner" on the side, and Mom could cook on that too.
For many years we had no electric water heater. To take a bath, there was a small pot belly stove in the basement which Dad/ Gramps had enclosed with a gravity duct/ plenum up to the bathroom --hot air rises-- and had "water coils" in the stove. So the stove heated bathwater AND heated the bathroom SUMMER AND winter!!!
You can tell I look very unhappy, and the right headlight is broke. This would have been about 1952-3
The only reason we did "so well" as a family back then is that "Gramps" had given Dad a smokin deal on the house and 10 acres, and "the run" of the rest of the 40. We had a cow and a beef on the hoof for years. I've helped put up TONS of hay LOOSE, and cut, haul, chop, and carry firewood
Our old Farmall Regular the day it sold around ?2000? We DROVE it on the trailer. You can see the pulleys of the front - mount "buzz saw" on the rear of the trailer
Gramps and Gramma on the "hay machine," a Model A "Doodlebug" this was taken before we owned the place, and I would have been very young
Next photo is Dad And Gramps, both gone now, Gramps younger by many years than I am now.
Last is the tractor Dad made out of an old grader. It was delivered with just two rear wheels. Originally, it looked something like this one:
All we got from the junkyard was the rear part with the engine. Dad built the rest. My little sister is hanging onto a second steering wheel, which operates winch drums, visible behind the headlight, which lifted the blade by hand. The front end was about a 36? Ford front axle, originally cable brakes. Dad used to say that "you needed 40 acres to turn it around"
