Acquisition of an Oliver 23-B Plow

April 22, 2013

Doug and I had noticed, as we drove around Alamogordo, that many homes had antique farm implements residing in the front yards. I mentioned liking this idea and we began to seriously look for just such an item and visited several junk yards and antique shops in our search. One day when returning from a trip to Las Cruces, we spied this plow setting under the sign of a closed antique store on the highway. We stopped to examine it and determined that this was exactly what we were looking for. Looking around for a phone number on the door, I decided to go next door to a junk yard to inquire about the owner. The gentleman there was nice enough to give me her name and phone number and we immediately called her. After some negotiation, we bought this 450-500 pound Oliver 23-B plow and arranged to have it delivered to our backyard. I had decided that we had enough items in the front yard and that Ollie (as Doug had named her) would do well in our back yard desert setting. We estimate her age at about 90 years.

All or most all of her parts were rust frozen, but the wheels would turn. Doug spent a lot of time shooting penetrating oil in every place that would accommodate it and after a lot of physical labor, research and investigation on the Internet, Ollie became a workable plow again. Doug even dug a furrow for one wheel to set in and another hole for the right bottom (each plow blade is called a bottom) to simulate a plowing situation. He has written a 23 page description of how Oillie works which can be accessed at: http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/Oliver_23-B_plow.pdf

This is how Ollie looked when we found her

L to R: Doug, Al and his son, unloading Ollie to our back yard

Ollie, completely restored and ready to plow but missing horses.

Carla, in her plow girl outfit (yes, those are purple overalls) astride Ollie

As Doug was doing his research he came across this wonderful British poster from WWI

Thanks to Doug for the photos and restoration of Ollie.

This is all I have to say for now.