Do you know what these are?

[Yeekim]

For some reason, I started wondering whether something like these would be recognizable on this forum? How many people here would know or could guess what these are (for)?

Pictures:

Spoiler :

Spoiler your answers - and if you did some research to find the answer, mention that too.

 

[Borachio]

No research.

Spoiler :

Mounting a horse or pennyfarthing

 

[Domen]

Spoiler :

No research. Probably for hunting ???

But in my country they look differently:

 

[Atticus]

Spoiler :

Farmers used them to upload dairy products to a truck?

 

[Domen]

Spoiler :

They seem to be located near roads, so I was probably wrong.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Spoiler :

I know it isn't what those are for, but I have built many things just like them and sold them to people with above ground swimming pools.

 

[Camikaze]

Spoiler :

I assume it's for mounting/dismounting a horse. See Robert Baratheon arriving in Winterfell.

 

[Godwynn]

Spoiler :

An elevated standing point as a nature/hunting lookout?

 

[BvBPL]

Spoiler :

Aren't they hunting stands?

 

[Crackerbox]

Spoiler :

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=et&u=http://www.hot.ee/h/habib/vPiimapukk.html&prev=search The image is from Estonia.

What I thought it was before doing some searching.

Spoiler :

In the country, some people sell products on platforms. It's on the honor system. Someone might bake a pie, or have grown some veggies, and they put a price on it. There's usually a box with change inside, and you leave the amount to pay for the item. People in the country are pretty trusting. It would be too expensive to wait around for customers.

How to find out just about everything with Google Image.

Spoiler :

Google Image uses special photographic tools that measure the image quality, size, data associated with an image, etc. If you save a picture and then drag it to Google Image, then it will usually find it. Why? Its engine has likely scanned that website before.

This is why for the sake of anonymity, you should NEVER use the same photo that you used on Facebook, for something anonymous elsewhere. By doing so, your anonymity is blown by a simple search. That tool has been used by job recruiters to uncover other things about applicants, for example.

Say you have a unique avatar that you use on several websites. That would be common for an artist who is proud of their work. Well using Google Image, one could track a forum member to another forum, and so it creates an electronic trail.

 

[Atticus]

Spoiler :

Farmers used them to upload dairy products to a truck?

Spoiler :

That was poorly written from me: The farmers upload just milk to the dairy truck. There's similar kind of structures in Finland, called maitolaituri (milk dock). My mother told that when she was kid they had to milk the cows and take the containers on the road side before going to school.

 

[Borachio]

^ Yeah. That, so far, seems the most likely explanation to me.

Spoiler :

Getting a milk churn up there must be quite awkward. But presumably the farmer has the churns on the back of a trailer as well.

 

[Yeekim]

Good job, Atticus! I guessed that Finns or Scandinavians would recognize them.

Yeah, its a

Spoiler :

milk collection point as they appeared in 1960s. Most country households would have one or two cows and they'd leave their milk there for a milk truck to pick it up.

Such trucks would make their round once a day and take the milk to be processed.
This system gradually fell out of use in 1990s, with the advent of new food safety regulations.

Domen -

Spoiler :

yeah, we have hunting towers similar to your pic. This, however, was not.

People are still welcome to post their guesses before looking at the answer. Let's see if there are people from other countries to get close.

Alternatively, if you can think of structures/tools/household items which are or were widespread were you're from but the purpose of which might not be readily apparent for others, feel free to post them in this thread.

 

[Leifmk]

Spoiler :

Collection point for milk was my guess as well; structures not dissimilar to this used to be all over the place in Norway and they doubled as bus stops and general meeting points. The actual structures were mostly gone before my time (obsolete since dairies started collecting milk directly from farms in refrigerated tanks ~fifty years ago) but the term survives as a near-synonym for, I guess, minor bus stop out in the sticks.

 

[Mise]

Spoiler :

It's a set of stairs with a platform at the top.

 

[Borachio]

^ That earned a "Tsk!" out loud from me, Mr Mise.

Still, it was quite funny.

 

[classical_hero]

Spoiler :

It's a structure made out of wood.

 

[Borachio]

^ Not so funny the second time.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Spoiler :

Collection point for milk was my guess as well; structures not dissimilar to this used to be all over the place in Norway and they doubled as bus stops and general meeting points. The actual structures were mostly gone before my time (obsolete since dairies started collecting milk directly from farms in refrigerated tanks ~fifty years ago) but the term survives as a near-synonym for, I guess, minor bus stop out in the sticks.

Spoiler :

Since they are obsolete in regards to their original function, I suggest setting up an above ground swimming pool next to them.