Harvest Memories....

[redleaf]

No A/C, no heater, no radio, no power steering, brakes may or may not work very well, window may or may not roll down/up, .......

[sofa.king]

Yup those are all good memories because back then it was just normal. Don't think I would want to go back though.

[sumdumguy]

Lots of vivid memories of mom hauling grain late at night with me, the youngest sleeping on the truck seat. It is dark-dark, gotta wakeup to help her back up and oops too far, she backed over the grain auger. The combine fills up but no trucker. The old man comes barrelling to the bin and supremely loses it. Dad bought a farm with junky yard - lots of "fond" memories of that dive.

Crickets churping, school starting but not for me. Its 1964, I spend fall breaking up flax piles with a pitch fork because the wind rolled them into mountains, bigger than the combine. We combined 250 bushels a day with the neighbour's Case combine with a hand clutch feeder house which was a way ahead of its time.

Always, city relatives come out for harvest, best memories of cousins, chopping the heads off with 2 nail logs, the first fall chickens for harvest dill creamed chicken. Our city cousins screaming as the chickens jumped around, sometimes with only one wing.

[MBgrower]

12 years old, trying to move 46' 7" gas auger from one wooden bin to the next in a rutted yard. Using 2x4's as leverage to get the auger tires to roll over the ruts. Really makes me appreciate never having to push pull, or hand cranking an auger anymore.

[danny W1M]

farmaholic et al boys, you sure are bringing up memories. farma, we had a IHC 402 so had a cab on the tractor, which was a great blessing. Except for it not having air conditioning on the hotter days, and trying to keep the dust out. It looked very much like this one, even the pickup not being as wide as the header.
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Those damn B&S pull rope engines, makes a boy into a man PDQ.

My dad put 4" flighting in the back bottom of the old wooden box so mom and us kids could clean out the corners of the truck box as of course they didn't have big swinging doors then, only the gate an' shoot. One side had left-hand flighting, the side had right-hand flighting. Shaft came through the wood on the drives side with a crank to turn. Handle would fold against the box when not in use. Pretty nice idea.

Started swathing around 11 years old with an 18' CCIL pull type swather. Best swather ever, for keeping the corners square(important for pto combines) and NEVER leaving stems standing or partially cut off, in the corners. Left the fields beautifully cut when finished. Dad broke fields open for me, as you had to swath the first round backwards, because often no room between the fence or neighbours. A few years later we got this old IHC(I think) sp swather to open up fields, that steered by pulling levers forward or backward. Was a brut to operate, but better than having to drive through the crop to open fields.

[Stampsguy]

Now that brings back some memories.
First time got to steer a combine, Massey 21, now that was a joy to ride on, with a bit of old canvas around the operator platform trying to suck in some heat from the motor down below.

Oops. Have to correct myself, that was a 27 Massey. I'm not that old!

Remember when an uncle bought a 92, WOW could that thing go, 2 laps to 1 of the 27. Does anyone remember riding on the gas tank which sat flat behind the grain tank. Great place to ride and relatively safe too. That machine seemed so huge back then, now when I see one I wonder how harvest even got done.

I think it was times like that which gave me the urge to farm.

[Partners]

This is awesome..more slightly older guys on here than you think.
We all started driving cabless stuff ..hauling grain from 2-403's with 730 jd and a hopper box.into those 1000 bushel square bins with a wire in every direction inside.then they still bulged..jumping off the tire on a versatile auger with rope start because motor seemed 20 ft off the ground.then graduating to driving the 403..big day in a boys life.then the 815's with a cab..that had a fan..no heat or ac.
Maybe this is why we still farm because we have seen and changed so much.

[Horse]

Yes I member most of what you all say but I wouldn't trade those memories for anything,mabey partly because we were young then. While doing all that we had cows to milk stock to feed, and yet I think we had more leisure time, quick run to river for a fish or 2,time to have a visit with neibor across fence, but I never had more than 2/300 acres, most yrs less than that. I think the Massey 92 was the end of slow and peaceful harvest,I was moving down the road on an 101 ih and fella was combining with super92 I couldn't pass him althow I was on road and he was combining,i said aren't you throwing a lot over he said yea but there is lots going into tank. That was one of thru first btos in our area his wife said damn she sure missed the horses because at least they needed rest, she was taking 5 meals a day to field. Sure was a hard but simpler life,i miss it.

[pourfarmer]

Mid 80's. My dad was working away due to grain prices being poor and interest rates being high. The only year he wasn't around for harvest that I can recall. I was 10 or 11 helping mom harvest wheat in a white 8600. It was dark and Mom wanted to run the combine for a bit, sounded great to me, well she forgot about the rear steering and swung the back end of the combine into the hood of the ford 3 ton truck smashed it up good. She cried and cried. We went out early the next day and straightened it out as best we could and finished harvest with it. Wish I still had the truck, however I was glad to see the combine go.

Safe harvest everyone

[GDR]

Younger than lots of you guys but grew up behind the times I guess since I've been there for most of those things other than the cabless combines that must have been nasty.

I often remember the year we combined in a chinook on boxing day with ih 315, grain so tough the unloader wouldn't work full so we drove truck beside the combine for the whole field.

Also used wood shingles to shim the tailgate spout where you needed it.

[farmaholic]

Lol... sharp turn, 850 MF chopper rail meets chevy half ton....nicknamed the gash! Was there when it happened, dad did it. Just took my sons hand and walked away....no combine damage or anyone hurt.

[farmaholic]

What are the young farmers of today going to reminesce about....having to actually physically drive the machinery themselves? I think technology cor autonomously pulled grain carts exists

[samhill]

One other thing

You guys all forgot to mention,
Unloading on the go to 127 ihc or 92 or whatever, nursing that gas pedal, and the box getting fuller and fuller, and oh crap!

[rockpile]

Yeah, the heat, dust and mosquitos bring back memories. But on the pleasant side - shutting down late at night and see all the stars and the Milky Way from horizon to horizon. Also, the harvest moon coming up in mid to late October. Also having to shut down one afternoon when a cold front blew in. So strong you couldn't fill the hopper nor dump into the truck. Went home about 3 and drank beer!

[sumdumguy]

You guys all forgot to mention,
Unloading on the go to 127 ihc or 92 or whatever, nursing that gas pedal, and the box getting fuller and fuller, and oh crap!

Unloading on the go when the truck driver is eleven years old and can't see over the truck steering wheel, not to mention the fact that the gas was being pushed by one big toe. i was driving tractor for chucking bales when I was 7, and they still yelled at me when I drove over a bale or two. Drove that Allis Chalmers WD45 right into the hay stack. Bet you younguns never heard of an AC, not an air conditioner!