This big chunk of sandstone rock is a grain grinding stone once used by Native Americans. It is also known as a metate and flat mortar stone. The three smaller rocks are grinder stones. The dimensions of the grindstone is roughly 18″ x 18″ x 4″.
The grinding stone was given to my dad many, many years ago. I don’t know who gave it him, and I don’t know its original location. One of the grinder stones was with the grinding rock when my dad got it. The other two grinder stones were found on my in-laws’ farmland in a freshly disked field long before I married into the family 31 years ago.
The side-by-side pictures are of the grinder stone that is in the best condition. The left picture is holding it on its side. The right picture is holding it flat.
This is Dusty photobombing.
The mailbox belonged to my maternal grandparents. My mom says she remembers playing in it before it was put on the post. She says it is her earliest memory. My mom somehow ended up with this keepsake after my grandpa died in 1974, and she carted it around to all the places she and my dad lived after that. She gave it to me a couple of years ago, because I’m sentimental about 80-plus year-old mailboxes. 😉
The wheeled garden implement is a manual walk-behind iron row furrower | push plow | garden plow | cultivator plow | two-handed farm or garden plow…choose your descriptor. Some twenty years ago, my adult kids bought it from a second-hand shop and gave it to me for my birthday.
John at Journeys with Johnbo hosts Cellpic Sunday.
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
Lasterday Stories
writing through history one romance upon a time
Interesting photos! On a curated hike a few years ago, we were introduced to some metate near a Native American historic village site. A large rock outcropping that was too large to move had a section hollowed where it had been in constant use grinding food. I’d never seen a stone that was not moveable for this function.
Thanks for sharing your images, Kaye!
That is fascinating. Ingenuity: a stationary communal kitchen tool. 😉
Dusty is doing a great job modelling 😁