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LYND

If you're in the market for a sod busting implement, a cattle de-horner or even in need of an extra hammer, this sale is for you.

The small tool sale of Frank Green, who died last year at the age of 90, is Monday at the Green farm about 15 miles west of Marshall on County Road 4 (five 1/2 miles west of Lynd).

"Thousands of items will be sold," said his nephew Bruce Prairie of Marshall. "There's a 32-foot flatbed trailer that is completely full of tools stacked up."

There will be 11 hayracks of miscellaneous items - hundreds of hammers, hundreds of wrenches, said Mike Prairie of Arco.

Green started collecting when he was 10 years old. He hung onto what he bought. Now all his collectibles, mostly farm items, are being sold.

"I had no idea he had this much," he said. "I knew he had a lot but - my God."

The Hawley Green family, Frank's father, originally had 1,100 acres on the edge of Island Lake Township. Hawley Green was born in 1886. When he was a young man, he was given the farm that eventually went to Frank.

"Frank was born in that house and lived there all of his life," said Green's nephew, Bruce Prairie.

In the wintertime, Green would go to three or four sales a week, said Bruce Prairie.

"Saling was a hobby of his," he said.

Ted Deutz said he's been in the auction business for 55 years so he was well aware of Frank Green.

"If I didn't know what something was, Frank did," Deutz said.

"The first thing he bought (when Frank was 10) was a sled," Bruce Prairie said.

Not all of the items have held up well over the years.

"We took at least 20 tons of just junk to Becker's," Bruce Prairie said. "Odds and ends, broken pieces, old rusted bolts and screws."

Green's nephews, Bruce, John and Mike Prairie, started sorting the items in May and the first of July they got a crew together - Roger Green, Nathan Green, Wilfred Byers, Phillip Byers and Rolland Winter.

"Wilfred was a great help in identifying stuff," said Mike Prairie.

If you still farm using horse labor, there is equipment for sale.

"There are horse tongues (a piece that attaches the horse to the plow), horse cultivators..." Bruce Prairie said.

In addition to those old pieces of farm equipment, there are at least three sod plow lays - "very rare," Bruce Prairie said.

There are cattle de-horners, one from 1892 and one from 1898. And an old cast iron tractor seat, a Deering.

"They very seldom made seats out of cast iron," said Bruce Prairie.

Non-farm items are available as well, including a Rue washer made in 1904 in Mapleton. It's beyond an antique and would be classified as primitive, said Mike Prairie, who is also a collector. Another item that is considered primitive is a tin oil lamp. There are a couple of ice boxes. A block of ice goes in the top and the refrigerator is on the bottom. One is called the "Coolerator" and it was made in "U.S. America." The metal plate brags that it "maintains a constant temperature." A parlor furnace - Allen's parlor furnace, made in Nashville - was used in a shed for heat. The Coolerator was used to store parts as was a wooden wardrobe.

Many items were packed into a shed.

"I haven't seen this wall (in the shed) in about 45 years," said Mike Prairie.

There are a couple of signs that say Marshall's Best Flour.

"That closed up before World War II," said Bruce Prairie.

The Prairie brothers gave one of those signs to the Lyon County Museum.

Another Marshall company, the Warner Trap Company, manufactured Little Jimmy's rat traps.

"Nobody's ever heard of the company," said Bruce Prairie.

Many spades and shovels, post hole diggers and a huge collection of double-bladed axes, hatchets - all sizes - will be on the auction block, said Mike Prairie.