[AT] Rain at last

[Cecil Monson]

> Still, if I had to work the big acres now with the machinery my father used
> I doubt I'd be farming. Shivering  in the unheated cab of the 970 Case last
> week picking rocks wearing parka, and full winter regalia I just had to
> wonder how the old timers endured sitting out on an open tractor in the wind
> and 30 something temps .
> I read the journals and look at the old photos of my parents and
> grandparents life on the farm over the past hundred years. Every day I walk
> and work on the same ground my grandfathers did and that means a lot to me.
> Not just a living but a way of life. Thats a tired old cliche but it

	Ralph, there is no question about the fact that we got cold
running those old tractors. None of those we had on the farm in
Minnesota when I was a kid on the farm had cabs or any kind of weather
protection at all. I remember getting so cold doing spring plowing that
it took all night to get warm again after the day was done. The wind out
on the prairies blows all the time in the spring and there was no way to
dress to stay warm. I mentioned plowing because it was the worst just
because it had to be done first as soon as we could get into the fields.
As I was the "plowboy", I was the one who sat on the McCormick Deering
10-20 all day long. At least on the 10-20 I could stand up and move some
where on the little Ford 9N we also had, you had to sit right there in
one spot all day.

	By the time the plowing was done and most of the discing, the
sun seemed to get warmer and the winds switched to a more southerly
direction or something and it wasn't so bad. Most of the rest of the
work in the springtime from planting time on was just fine.

	Fall weather was sort of tough at times, especially when we had
corn to pick and my father felt there were storms coming. Those light
weight low powered tractors (conpared to modern equipment) were at a big
disadvantage in snow and icy going especially if it was muddy underneath
as it always seemed to be in the fall. So, we kept at it sometimes day
and night trying to finish the picking before the snows came. It wasn't
the same though and seemed easier to stay warm. Maybe the air was dryer
or the mounted picker shielded the driver more or there was more on and
off the rig when picking corn as I don't remember it being so hard to
stay warm as it was in the spring.

	The generation before mine had it even tougher. When I was a
little kid, I remember my father hired a neighbor to pick corn for him
and it was all done by hand with a team of horses and a triple wagon
box with a bangboard. This guy picked a triple box of corn in the
morning, was back in the yard in time to shovel it into the corncrib
before lunch, had lunch and then went out and repeated it in the after-
noon. He left for home well after dark every day. They must have been
long hard days too. It involved a lot of walking and a lot of arm and
wrist work to snap and husk that many ears of corn by hand in a day.
One thing for sure, it was a helluva lot more work than sitting in the
seat of a tractor with a mounted corn picker not 10 years later. If I
am not mistaken, a triple box held 60 bushels of ear corn. Could be
wrong and if so someone can correct me.

	Those were the "good old days" we all remember. We forget the
hardships and mostly just remember the good stuff until someone brings
something up that reminds us of the other times. It is a good thing I
was young. I'll bet it would have been tough on the old boys.

Cecil