Harvest Time!!!!

[fjlip]

Or MICE scatter every time you opened the door! Full of cob webs and that wood/grain mix smell, still strong in my mind. Hammer the door boards and crawl out the top hole. Shovel in dust to fill corners! The good old days, simpler, slower, low cost, yup ignorance was bliss.

[farmaholic]

LOL. Dating ourselves. But I've been there done that. IH 403-no cab, go to school the next day with the reddest eyes in the grade. IH 4000 cabless swather, swatted alot of bugs and ate allot of dust. Wooden bins, shovel corners full. 1 ton trucks. NO air conditioning anywhere. And sometimes I ask myself what attracted me to the living. Things have gotten remarkably better but our "awareness" of the parasitism has gotten in the way. It isn't the most enjoyable time of year for me, stress. Do your damnedest to get it off in good shape and have someone pick it apart or offer piss poor prices.
Gotta Go....

[freewheat]

HaHa! Good stories guys. Keep 'em coming.

Yep Hobby, I swath only canola and straight everything else. I use a macdon 1900 pull type, which indeed lays a nice swath, and since I got the roto shear it is pretty fail proof. slower, and round and round is never fun, but for a total capital outlay of about 3 bucks an acre for this machine, I think I am competitive with the new sp guys.

Heading out right now in fact to cut my first field. I hear you on the whole always behind on stuff. A one man band does this to you. Except my neighbor who farms about 900 acres. He has more and better equipment than most anyone around. He never gets behind, cuz he is quite wealthy, and has enough machine power for probably 4000 acres, no joke!!! lol! Not having to buy 7 quarters of land, but have it given to you allows a lot of leeway in this business...

[blackpowder]

Any of u guys want, I got an excellent 1920 PT for sale.
Did Thoreau say "we are the sum total of our experiences"?
Envious of some of your stories, not so much of others. I have occasional help that are my senior by a generation, but not related. I get enough laughs working with them to get through. I just feel honoured their helping me. Hope I'm as funny to the younger guys I hire sometimes.
The stress changes as you make none or all of the decisions.
I know what no crop is like, but getting stuck 3times a day would put me over the edge.
However, if your family is with you, and your ratios are good, my sympathy bucket is leaking.
I was taught there is nothing more in life than the farm. My kids will have no idea of what a farm is.
So I try and pass something on to a 20something who's interested.
Play safe and laugh a little!

[Choice2U]

Grew up in west central Sk. Remember swathing flax in the late 70's (high school) in October with a versatile 400/4400 with no cab. Froze going against the wind and sweat with bugs biting your head going with the wind. Sister 2 years younger drove the 1960 chev with wooden box with role tarp under the unload auger of our 750 Massey. Told her she was too close so she backed up and ripped off the metal role tarp cover. I still haven't told her to this day that I should really be blamed for that one. Started "farming" 6 years ago by myself (now 53) and finally got a friend/neighbour to help the past year as doing it completely by yourself is not alot of fun when you have to fix stuff or move equipment. Sept 1, 2014 at 6 PM will be 30 years after my dad was killed in a farm accident. I have fantastic and awful memories of harvest. Please play safe out there.

[hobbyfrmr]

Everybody had a mf 750! Or a 760. We had a 1953 2 ton and a 1956 2 ton. I retired them around 1992.
Similar thoughts as others. Growing up around it was pretty exciting. Trouble is i didnt know about the industry. After 13 years and a few management classes behind me, I could clearly see the industry motives. I really got disgusted with all of it. I made the shift to organic an no regrets. Its a "kinder" market. Not encumbered anymore. Balance sheet is tipping towards me.
I cant recall the specific year 2005? I had seeded 1800 acres, I was combining milling oats at $1.85 . It was a respectable 110.bu/acre. I was still counting trucks to see my living profit. The last 2-5000 bushel bins before taxes were mine to live on.
Not my exact words at the time, but, when I get nostalgic I think, "**** all that"

[Hopperbin]

What do you mean **** all that?

[hobbyfrmr]

Piles of grain, building bin yards input creits maxed workng old machines over more acres chasing economies of scale in a low price environment , no financial backing and no assets. Then the elevator shmo looks at the samples like he just put his hand in a pail of battety acid! All for 1000.00/month take home.
Followimg AV suggests the industry has not changed. I do understand large scale operations and it looks like its working well around here.
Farming can be fun, but its a hard way to make an 'easy" living.
Basically Im lazy.

[mbdog]

choice2u...my point was not to diminish safety or farm accidents, cause they happen. Won't try and explain myself further, but I will echo your words "play safe out there".

[fjlip]

It's fun if it's NOT your skin in the game. Retired BIL works for a BTO, 9am to 9pm, does no setting, fixing or servicing. Do as your told on 2 way radio. Huge new equipment. Says it is fun and NO stress.
12 hrs and get paid rain or shine, frost or heat in cab all day, just bring lunches/drinks.
It's the wheeling dealing buying and selling that always f*ck up my fun times farming.
Like hobby says, most days getting tired of this merry go round, abused by all sides plus Mother F*cking Nature. But... a profitable harvest and we all want to try another year! Slow learner...

[mbdog]

fjlip...sounds like your in same boat as me. Had to chuckle. Harder to find help these days that knows how a grease gun works, let alone use it. Or fix anything...or even try. "You're asking me to do what? With a what? When? If your an old farmer, or grew up on a farm...you just did, tried and used your noggin. I'm sure a lot of farmers out there will agree with me...help is out there...good help hard to find...help without a "basic" skill set... is only getting larger. Not criticizing, just pointing out this sad fact in todays world. My point about tough people coming off the farm "back then" still stands. Whether a person continued with the farm or not, you were just stronger than most.
Good help makes the job funner and I fully appreciate them. Babysitting premadonnas....not so much fun. Having these people in a hazardous ituations....that's stress.
Sad sign of the times.....
But on a lighter note and keeping more in line with the thread....Had this tough old bugger helping us out one time...I was driving, he was shot gun. Doing oats...dad overfilled the box with oats...no shovel. This old bugger got in those oats and "wallowed" out the pile so we could go dump. Still remember the hair on his barrel chest was unreal thick and grey, and there he is swimming in oats. Unreal....I nearly puked. Anyway, got told to take to town...old bugger got in the passenger seat...I looked at him and he looked at me, and off we went. I was 12 or 13. He was a great old bugger.

[tizhot]

Family farm that sometimes used to be done by my birthday in early Sept. I remember having Bday cake in the field and watching those "big" 914 combines crawling through the low spots. Dad clutching the tractor to get throuigh. You watch the round thing that spins. See the red mark that tells you everything is working fine!! Ha how i remember the first time I got to drive and how I was more concerned with how loud the radio would go instead of listening to the song the 914 was playing. Now teaching that to my kids. Dont have the stereo too loud you have to "listen" Proud day yesterday when I was able to leave the boy on his own cutting hailed out peas with a 40' head. He did well not perfect but well. Told him he did great and I was proud! Long ways to go we just started due to having things pushed back with major hail but even with that I was excited to get going. Harvest on boys! Good luck.