Old stories

[cottonpicken]

Maybe and probably is just me but it seems the tone and emotion has gone negative here.

How about old stories from the old timers you spent countless hours with in tractor cabs.

One time my grampa said when we first got augers we didn't know we could unload a bin with it. Always thought that was interesting.

A shirt tail relative asked him what he thought about all the computers and tech in ag. He said I always thought hydraulics where the big leap my arm use to get pretty sore.

He use to always tear up talking about his horses.

Also said a few times he felt robbed not being born a generation or so earlier. That's one i may never get my arms around understanding.

Getting paid for gopher tails. I'd say I got robbed from that experience.

[farmaholic]

I don't sense a negative tone but since I usually am I probably wouldn't notice anyway.

Canola is creeping up.

Doesn't feel like were being robbed in the wheat market with a mysterious basis.

Yellow Mustard a little over 50 cents a lb.

Lentils at historical highs

Yellow peas a decent price.

Hopefully green peas get dragged up with yellows.

Cattle prices are still "good".

Fuel prices are down.

Canola seed costs were lowered locally

Flax prices aren't horrible.

Fert prices aren't insane.

Winter hasn't got here with a vengence yet.

We have some subsoil moisture replenished.

I'm healthy(I think), fed and comfortable and relatively safe.

Compared to my grandparents lifestyle, I wouldn't want to go back to their "good old days", other than I think they were simpler times......

[rockpile]

Ha,ha,ha! How about the countless hours with no cabs. Our first combine with a cab was a MF 510 which was considered BTO stuff in our hood. And our first tractor cab was on a JD 5010 in 1974, which my dad and I built. Turned out really good.
I was born in 1950 and grew up on a mixed irrigation farm just outside of Brooks. Cows, pigs chickens, lots of barley, oats and flax and most important was alfalfa since we finished our own calf crop. My first tractor job and I can't remember if I was 7 or 8 was driving a JD Model M with a 9 foot sickle mounted behind cutting alfalfa. It was clean and smelt so intoxicatingly sweet. Only downside was the mosquitos! I could go on for pages.
But I agree hydraulics were a game changer and along with that power steering. Also electric welders.

[Jay-mo]

My grandfather said one of his happiest days farming was when the last horse left the farm!

[cottonpicken]

Who told you to stop Rock?

History of the past and story telling involved is a lost art we should not lose.

In my opinion

One time we where trying to get the duals off and the damn bolts wouldn't budge. Grampa got out the heating torch and brother was adimit it wouldn't work. I never got in the middle of the two brother is smart smart grandad was tough tough both better then me in most ways. In brothers defence he was only in high school did another decade and a half ended up with a ring out of a fallen bridge some not many know what that means.

So anywAys the tires came off and a dumb old man showed a young brillant man something.

Moral of the story,young men need guidance,cradle to grave.

[Slapshot]

I have a little piece of that bridge around my pinkie too.

[RTK]

Engineer he was...

[Braveheart]

I grew up driving the 2 cylinder John Deeres. Drove a G, an 820, and Grandpa's R.

There was something about the smell of gas exhaust from that G that was so intoxicating. I loved that tractor and still own it. It still runs. We have it semi restored, but now wish I'd left it. Patina looks rich to me now.

I remember getting off the bus and racing out to deep till with the 820, pulling a 12' JD deep tiller model 650. No cab. Late falls. We had a heavy horse blanket to wrap around our legs to keep warm. Third gear in hard ground and hard pulling.

I was just wondering what I thought about out there all those hours. No radio of course. Singing would result in a mouthful of dust. No autosteer so that straight driving skill had to develop.

[fjlip]

Brave I did the same 820 and 12" with twisted spikes, 3rd about 4.5mph, worked it's ass off. 50 acres was a long day. Still paying for the exhaust NOISE. Started with an A, AR, M, 60, 620, 730, 830, 2010, then along list of J I CASE. All were open station till 1964, got a FIBRO Cab for the 820, only made the decibels louder, hotter, no AC. Much better when blowing snow with the Schulte rotary. Okay share something else guys...

[wakopa]

working with dad,his machinery broke down on weekends so i could get the wife i got.

[blackpowder]

Still have our 830. Make her work a little and you could see the exhast a foot anf half out the muffler. No wonder you head hit the pillow and you couldnt sleep for a while with chung chung chung in your ears. Biggest day I had was when 13. Dad in hospital again. 100 acres with a 13.5' Graeme Holme. To this day I never leave home without a water bottle. Still have the thermos Dad bought me. Has a ring worn around it from the brake pedal.
Where the hell did time go???

[wmoebis]

660 IHC pulling 18ft IHC deep tillage. Front wheels 2ft off the ground all the way up the hills, steering with wheel breaks. Black smoke pouring out then hit the top wheels come down and throw the TA ahead to lift front end one more time and watch the smoke roll out.

[Flatlander]

i remember harvests as a school kid. I would come to the field after school and it seemed as though Dad and uncle had not done many acres. Uncle always told me the machines ran better at night. I just thought they needed a trucker. Anyway one day they said the auger is in a wooden bin,fill it first. We combined and I dumped several loads in it. That night when we quit, Dad said how's the bin coming along. I said I had no idea. He said well how many loads since you put the last door board in. I said what's that. While mumbling he marched over to the door and undid the latch. It flew open and a lot of grain came pouring out. I had a hard time not laughing as I thought the grain may knock him over. Door boards were on the floor by the way. I think I was about 11. I'm glad I started young or I would never have made it as a farmer. Dad had to teach me quick because a farm accident took him when I was barely ready for what was ahead. Only after he was gone did I realize just how much work he really did. I thank him for letting me make lots of mistakes with money, management, time, etc. for had I started as an adult this farm wouldn't have made it.

[farmaholic]

I probably shouldn't post because I don't think I'm as old as some of you. Cut my teeth on 4020s with poor cabs and a 5020 with out a cab. But the worst experience was a 403 IH combine with out a cab. Hot as hell in the day and a snow suit at night in September. But the real icing on that cake was at night when the wind went down and that dam dust would just billow up from the feeder house and hang there, no escaping it. Went to school the next day and I had American eyes, Red-White and Blue and could pick coal from my nose. Must have looked like hell. During the day if the wind was in the wrong direction it was hell too.

Another favorite of mine was making slough hay in a slough surrounded by bush with an opening in just big enough to get the tractor, baler and hayrack through. Hotter than the hobbs of hell without a breeze....drank lots of water, in fact it seemed like I couldn't drink enough. Mosquitoes and horse flies were the extra bonus there.

Picked my fair share of rocks by hand too and cleaned up pushed bush piles full of rocks my forefathers threw in when they went by while working the land. No such thing as getting heavy equipment in and digging a hole and burying it-unheard of on our farm.

And then there is the treat of filling and emptying wooden bins, bins so small you can't even fill a tridem with what was in them. Just think, had to shovel the corners full when it was close to full...had to squeeze that last 75-100 bushels in, then the joy of shoveling out the last 200 bushels emptying them.

My god, then the Industry wonders why we're bitter and cynical when they want to steal our labour(grain) for nothing. Bunch of whining bastards.....

[SASKFARMER3]

First combine I ran and hurt myself on was a 55 Deere.
Tractor was a R, and a M spraying.and 4010 for most stuff. First four wheel drive was 7020 Deere can't hear today but was fun. Before was G1000.

Ah the past if you still have a old guy around quiz him or her lots they have so much knowledge.