[AT] Working a tractor at night

[Billy Hood]

I like to plow at night and my son Brad, 15 at the time,  often ran until about 10 at night when getting dryland wheat ground ready in the fall.  He was working a half section of ground that was just east of the quarter we lived on.  He pulled the oneway up to the fence and decided to walk to the house rather than open the gate and have to mess with the oneway at about 15'. There was no moon and it was black as 3 yards up a bulls butt.  The quarter he had to cross was in native grass and had recently been root plowed/and or grubbed.  Just as he straddled the barbed "war" fence around the house, he heard more than two of the West Texas Diamondback tailrattlers buzzing all around him.  He had caught the crotch of his jeans in the top wire and could  not see any of the rattlesnakes, but sure could hear them.  He was raised around them, we hunted them, and kept some year round in an old cellar, but sure did not want to move.  He started yelling for someone to bring him a light and a stick.  It was about 75' to the house and the only ones home were his 12 and 8 year old sisters.  They finally heard his cries and came to the rescue.  The 8 year old red head took a shovel and moved the rattlebugs close to Brad and between him and the fence.  He got the snake hook and put 4 of them still around in the snake box.  I asked him what he would have done if nobody had been at home and he replied that he thought he could stand up across the fence until someone came home--no matter when.   Sister Kathy had been bitten on the hand in the garden the previous summer, but she was much better snake hunter than her older sister.  

Speaking of snake boxes, we carried a small one in the pickup nearly all the time.  One fall I was down close to Silver and saw 3 big boys sunning on the black pavement.  I did not have a box, so I put them in the driver side toolbox on my truck.  It sat on the side of the bed and ran the length of the box.  I got home and had to go to a school board meeting, so I told myself I could drop the 3 snakes in the cellar in the morning.  Next morning, my bride decided she needed some tool out of my truck and when she opened the box, the occupants set to buzzing.  It probably sounded louder coming out of a steel box, but she strongly suggested that if I ever pulled this stunt again, she would blow the toolbox off the truck, with me strapped to the lid.  From there on, if I did not have a box, or suitable container, I left the snakes in their natural habitat. 

Bear
BTW, that was the year of the snake in China and we sold our entire years "crop" for $9/# or more.  Better than farming as my son and I sold over $8,000 worth of the little darlings that year.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bustedtractor at aol.com<mailto:Bustedtractor at aol.com> 
  To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com<mailto:at at lists.antique-tractor.com> 
  Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 11:15 PM
  Subject: Re: [AT] Working a tractor at night


  I share your thoughts about working a tractor at night. However, the joys 
  diminish in a hurry when you run out of gas when you have a half a round of 
  plowing left. I was plowing with our D17 back in my youth. I had intended to 
  finish, but ran out of gas and I was a mile from home. While walking home, I 
  encountered a skunk on the road. I decided I didn't like working a tractor a night 
  nearly as much as I did some minutes before.

  I enjoyed meeting some of the ATIS guys at the Le Seuer swap meet back in 
  April.

  Will from MN
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