1000th load

[Jagfarms]

When we used to custom truck we liked the loads 10 miles or less
Got 12 loads in one day with one truck
No line ups was blizzarding but not bad enough to stop us. Just load abs drive right into terminal and dump
I think that was a record for us

A few other things I remember

5 bin buts was the most bins we cleaned out for one truck load

[Ronski]

When I do bin bottoms I preload gravity wagons and single axle, 1100 bushels augered from there into super-b then finish the load from a full bin. I hate to keep truckers waiting (and use the same company all the time so when something does go to shit they are pretty understanding)

[Jagfarms]

When we started trucking there was not the bin set ups they have now. That was back in the last millennium.
Lots of farmers were still using wooden bins and most grain augers were 7 inch augers with out movers on them.
Things sure have changed a lot in the last 20 years on most farms. Don’t see many wooden bins any more.
We still have a few but have not used them since we got a grain bagger.

Lots more hopper bins now and big capacity grain bins.

We mostly did local hauling 50 km or less. We cleaned bins as part of our service. Only slept in the truck a couple of times the 12 years we trucked.

[bucket]

1000 b trains of grain hauled since moving to SK...




Damn near enough to fill a boat.

376,000 km.

I missed the joke Klause . ....you are on pace with the railways filling a boat....well done

[farmaholic]

Ironically we are in the process of cleaning up old yards and our own. Last fall we torched old wooden bins in two yards we've owned for a while. They would have been able to be used for storage in a pinch. Currently, like a couple of days ago, we burnt five out of our own yard. Dragged them off the railroad ties I put under them when I was young and full of energy. They were in pretty darn good shape except the roofs were at the point they would have needed to be tinned. Old outdated stuff. But still kinda sad to see them destroyed after the years of effort trying to keep them in decent shape. We even build shoots to stick augers into to get more grain out without shovelling so much. Seven inch augers...lol. Now it's mostly hoppers with a ten inch load out and a thirteen inch to fill them. Trailers that hold as much grain as the wooden bins...and more. How many back breaking bushels did I dig out of the corners of those old bins? Surely some of the best could have been kept to store "stuff"....but the young generations seem to lack seeing "value". Easy come easy go....scares me!

Consolidating bin bottoms....I did it too. When the custom trucker took the "tops" off and left, I would vac out the bottoms, load it when he got back and top off from a full bin. I didn't want to be that yard nobody wanted to haul out of. I think he appreciated it.....he never turned down my work.

The old wooden structures out lived their useful practical purpose of storing grain....remember how many one ton truck loads it took to empty them? And shovelling them out through and around the cables/rods used to brace them together. And then using heavy cumbersome grain vac hoses.....nothing was "easy" when it came to using wooden bins. Hell, I even remember going in and shovelling them "full" when there was a good crop and space was at a premium. On the bright side.....what I shovelled in didn't have to be shovelled out! Lol. Then when emptying them...going in and cleaning off the top wall plate where the wall and roof met. And then sweeping them out so clean a mouse wouldn't survive a week in them.

I don't think I'm lamenting the loss of them as much as reminiscing using them. Maybe I am lamenting the fact that I am slowly, but surely, approaching the end of my practical usefullness like the old wooden bins. I see my father as an observer today. So interested in what's going on out here but relegated to the sidelines. Probably wishing he could be more actively involved but is resigned to watch from a distance....tomorrow he will turn 83. Happy Birthday and thanks for everything. ....when it came to his family...the most generous man you could ever want! And as those wooden bins are reduced to ashes and a pile of nails.....I just can't help but to think a little part of him was lost too.....

Take care....

[grassfarmer]

I can identify with your post Farmaholic, similar feelings and a Dad that is 84 and in declining health. Realizing ourselves that another generation has come along - we are no younger the young guys. As the saying goes "Time waits for no man".

[the big wheel]

That brings back lots of memories. There should be a farm with flat bottoms, trucks with no hoist, 6 inch auger pull start. Milk cows, calving cows, square bales etc etc. And some of these younger kids that think they have it rough at home should spend a weak or so earning their food of which they'd pick and cook their self.
What torcher they would think. Lol

[foragefarmer]

Farma

I can relate very well to your story with the exception when it comes to burning buildings that can be salvaged. If all they need is a roof or some repair I fix them. There never seems to be enough storage on a farm. Not sure in your case you needed them all, but to keep a couple if they are not in the way with only a roof to be fixed, I would have fixed them myself personally.

Not to mention the price of lumber and the workmanship that went into old buildings, not judging your decision just expressing my my view on old farm buildings.

[Jagfarms]

Some of the old wooden bins have lots of sentimental value. The ones we have my grandfather and his brother built back in the 1940s and 50s.

I heard the stories on how they drove the grain truck out to BC and picked up the lumber to build these bins.
All built with hand tools. Pretty amazing when I think about it.

We still have the bins for now and try to keep them maintained. We won’t be sticking a bunch of $ into them and it will come to the time when we may have to demolish them.

[farmaholic]

Farma

I can relate very well to your story with the exception when it comes to burning buildings that can be salvaged. If all they need is a roof or some repair I fix them. There never seems to be enough storage on a farm. Not sure in your case you needed them all, but to keep a couple if they are not in the way with only a roof to be fixed, I would have fixed them myself personally.

Not to mention the price of lumber and the workmanship that went into old buildings, not judging your decision just expressing my my view on old farm buildings.

I hear you loud and clear forage. I'm beginning to wonder if laying gold bricks for others to walk on is such a good idea! In a sense, it is a test, of knowing the value of things and appreciating the work and efforts of those who went before them. I never heard even a suggestion of "repurposing" the old bins.

Accumulating useless stuff can be onerous. When we get rid of machinery that we no longer use.... the parts and related items that serve no purpose get given with the machine or sold to someone else. But there are tonnes of useful items and stuff that "some day might come in handy".

Not "wanting" is dangerous. There was a time, when I started farming, there wasn't alot of money around here. When I think back, I wonder why I stayed. I even worked off the farm for 9 years part-time and that little bit of extra income helped to pay off some of the first land I bought! I know what tight is!

I came from a long line of savers.... people with depression mentality, not mental health depression, economic depression.... I am somewhat inflicted myself. I'm only the third generation from those trying times.

Mark my words forage, what we are doing definitely doesn't feel right! Anyway, not by the way I was raised! We got ahead by making due, not always having the most up to date machinery and vehicles when we had land payments(especially in the beginning) and actually "using" those old wooden bins longer than anyone else used their's around here. Also having livestock, get up do chores, drive to work, come home and do chores, repeat. I didn't have to "look" for things to do. Besides, there's always something to do if you want to work. And not throwing anything of "value" away. I've earned what I have today but....