Found near an old home site

[incajoe]

This was nailed to a tree at about the 7 foot level (has since fallen down) and was at the opening of a 3 sided small stone foundation that looked like a shed or possibly an animal pen. It's bigger than a horseshoe just to give you some idea of scale. Any ideas?

 

[Hill Billy]

The belt tightener idea wasn't bad. I have a similar piece on my '56 Ford 640 tractor that controls the stroke (lift/depth) of the hydraulics when lifting the hitch. The upper bolt in the slot is adjusted at the max point so you don't bend the lift arms. With the square nut maybe from a '30's or '40's tractor?

Why in a tree? Can't say. Locally there is a saw, sythe and assorted hardware that was placed there and never returned for.

Charlie is correct on this piece. Hydaulic Lift control to an older model tractor.

 

[Monty]

Every farm or home place I have ever visited always has a pile of junk iron somewhere. Farmers and ranchers were the world's most famous people for finding a use for discarded iron and junque. I'm sure that piece was bolted, probably to a post at the time, for some specific reason and it worked just fine. Heck I've watched my dad do the same thing when we had livestock as I was growing up on a small acreage. Still makes you wonder though doesn't it? Monty

 

[DCMatt]

Plus, why would it be bolted to a tree 7 feet up?

Strange..

The tree was not always that tall...

DCMatt

Trees don't get taller from the trunk, but from the top. I've seen blazes on 5 foot oaks put there in 1832 at the same height they were originally.

OK. If you say so...

 

[intimer]

 

[Adventure Wolf]

Just because it was found at an old house site, doesn't mean that its old. I once metal detected on a piece of private property near the Battlefield of Yorktown Virgina, and found a quarter from the year 2000.

It looks to me like an adjustable bracket used to hold up a scaffold. It's almost identical to the one that my dad uses for construction.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

The bicycle was hung in the tree and the tree grew around it.

 

[ivan salis]

scrap iron hung up in such a way that you could butcher a beast hung from it? -- near a animal pen *

 

[Adventure Wolf]

I will admit seeing a tree grow around a bicycle is odd, but it is common for trees to grow around barbwire if the tree was used like a post.

 

[Lucas]

OK. If you say so...

Correct. Trees grow from the top, but they also get wider... somebody hung that bike on the branch of a small tree...

Of course trees get wider... those 200 foot redwoods don't start out 20 feet across...

 

[ivan salis]

MRS GOOCH'S BIKE FROM THE WIZARD OF OZ

 

[Old Dog]

I have seen many things inside the trunks of trees.
I agree the bike had to have been hung there to be that high. We have found horseshoes and all kinds of things.
Shoot we even found a handyman jack handle inside the tree once. Right where it had been left forty years before.
(it broke the crank on the chainsaw too)

 

[Bum Luck]

I have seen many things inside the trunks of trees.
I agree the bike had to have been hung there to be that high. We have found horseshoes and all kinds of things.
Shoot we even found a handyman jack handle inside the tree once. Right where it had been left forty years before.
(it broke the crank on the chainsaw too)

OUCH!

 

[jdsarasin8194]

This house site was abandoned before the age of the automobile I believe. Plus, why would it be bolted to a tree 7 feet up?

Trees can grow

 

[Bramblefind]

Looks like this concept is too late for your site but I thought it looked interesting and maybe it will lead to something more likely-

http://www.google.com/patents?id=5EdjAAAAEBAJ&printsec=description&zoom=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

[GL]

Just because it's there doesn't mean it was being used for what it was made for...It looks to me like a piece of metal used to support something. Try looking around it on the ground in a radius for other bits of metal and debris.

I have lots of weird metal here that was used for things other than it's intended purposes. People in days gone by were very ingenious about using everything they owned for something.

 

[lincha]

oven door hinge?