The Back of the Old Grease Shed

Grandpa Cles purchased grain sheds during the war. It was a time, when quality metal products were for the war effort, and that was if you could get anything at all.

This old shed was one I never remember being used to store grain.

There were wooden floors, and the entire inside was full the barrels of different oils--transmission and engine.

There was never a time we didn't check the oil in an engine before starting it. And we greased the machinery every morning too.

You had what we called a grease gun, which we used to do that. You unscrewed the top of the unit, stuck the metal column into the grease, and then pulled a lever on the back until it locked into place. Suction filled the gun. That was something we did almost every day, usually early in the morning.

There was no light on the inside of the shed, so we did it mornings. You wanted to do that when there was plenty of light to see what was inside on the floor.

On the northern side was once a 500 gallon fuel tank. When our tractor only held a small amount of diesel, it worked well, but eventually our large tractor had a 500 gallon tank. By then, it was something that necessitated the use of an electric pump, but most importantly, we had to expand things, which included the purchase of a 5000 gallon fuel tank.