A lot of change is happening at work recently and as a result we are cleaning out spaces and finding fun toys...I mean tools...to play...I mean work...with. On top of that, our tractor is currently out of service, but work must go on. Luckily we found (what we thought was) a Dreg in one of the storage sheds.
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| A modern Dreg with spindly wheels. |
Flash forward a week and we needed to move a log from the hewing bocking to the saw pit. The log was a wet piece of white oak 10"x10" 13 feet long, so it was waaaaay heavier than four men wanted to lift, what a great time to try out our new set of wheels.
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| Rope makes pulling and steering a lot easier. |
What an easy job it was! If it wasn't for pulling the log up an icy hill we could have easily handled this thing with two men. Looks like a 17th century Dreg just topped the project list. It will make timber handling a fantastic exhibit rather than a dirty little secret we do before visitors arrive.
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| I get the easy job of taking pictures. |
I'm really glad you commented on my blog because that led me to find yours. Keep the post coming. I'm really enjoying them. I gotta say though, I'm pretty dang jealous of you for having a job at Plimoth. It was always a dream of mine to work at a place like Colonial Williamsburg or Plimoth Plantation or Old Salem. Well, now I'll just live it through your blog! :-)
ReplyDeleteWell thanks for reading. We do have a position open for an Artisan, in case you really are interested ;). It is a really great place to work, and the work is tough but rewarding. Luckily I have finally relocated, so I can get to the backlog of blog ideas that I have had but was too busy to write about while selling my house. Stay tuned!
DeleteHello Jason,
ReplyDeleteCan I suggest for your wood transport problems looking into the Mallejan.
Mostly for hauling with a horse but you can probably imagine one that would be suitable otherwise.
Much lifting gets done away with by the lever action of the boom.
Regards,
Ernest Dubois
Ernest,
DeleteI looked into the "Mellejan" that you suggest. That is fantastic! Some great images on Google images...although most websites are in German? or Dutch? It is very similar to the Dreg/Drug that both Moxon and Holmes have illustrated. The Dreg in this post was an old model that previous artisans had thrown together. The plan is to make a version that is authentic (ie. wooden wheels), loads the timbers onto the bottom, and can be pulled around by hand, unfortunately the 1627 plantation we are portraying is not believed to have any horses or oxen for draft work.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteYour settlers would have spent time here in Leiden, one of them was an ancestor of mine, and the neighborhood they stayed in partially remains I believe. In the time they could have seen a mallejan or two and picked up inspiration, adapting to their needs. Do you go from complete speculation of have you got clues to work from?
Regards,
E.DB
While there are a number of settlers that lived in Leiden before coming to Plymouth, most of them were not the carpenters and tradesmen that were constructing the houses that I am recreating (as far as we know/speculate). So while there is no evidence that the mallejan was brought over directly, there is a chance that a similar, English version (the Dreg/Drug, which does traditionally have a long pole for counter weight) was brought over with the carpenters and sawyers that we know were in Plymouth. The major problem is that there is no evidence of there being any draft animals (oxen or horses) in the settlement in 1627.
DeleteWhile we do use primary sources from the settlers in Plymouth, as well as other historical texts and documents, no one was kind enough to leave us details on how they went about building the houses. This leaves us making educated guesses about the houses and workdays, trying our best to correlate between pre-1620 England and post-1630 New England (both of which have surviving texts and dwelling houses).
So basically, we are using informed speculation.