[AT] Hottest tractor

[charlie hill]

Yep farming is full of irony isn't it.

Tobacco is much like a vegetable crop.  Once it begins to ripen it's got to 
be harvested.  That particular year, I think it was 57 or 58 maybe, when it 
rained the whole month of July we burried a Super A Farmall to the top of 
the seat, on top of a hill in a sandy field.  It got stuck late in the 
afternoon and spun down to the axle.  We left it overnight intending to dig 
it out first thing the next morning.  When we went back into the field it 
had slowly settled down in what was by that time quick sand.  About 2 weeks 
later it got dry enough to dig a big hole around it and drag it out with a 
wrecker.  I sure wish I had a picture of that now.

The tobacco that was planted all around it was not lost.  It was carried out 
of the field on foot.  The quality was not good but we saved it.  I keep 
saying WE, actually I was just a small boy of  7 or so but I'll never forget 
that summer.  I guess some folks reading this might wonder about a 7 year 
old being out in that kind of weather and doubt what I'm saying.  I promise 
you, I was out there all day long every day that summer, soaked to the bone, 
sitting in the seat of an Allis B.  That's just the way it was back then. 
Now a kid can't even drive a tractor until he's 14 or something like that.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ralph Goff" <alfg at sasktel.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 4:06 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Hottest tractor


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "charlie hill" <chill8 at suddenlink.net>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 6:13 AM
> Subject: Re: [AT] Hottest tractor
>
>
>> Ralph it gets a lot colder where you are and a bit hotter where I am.
> .
>> About the only thing worse than sitting in a tractor seat in the pouring
>> rain all day long is bending over between those  tobacco rows all day 
>> long
>> in the same rain storm.
>>
>> The heat from a muffler and the exhaust gas comming out the top feel
>> mighty
>> good when your hands look like bleached prunes and your clothes are 
>> soaked
>> in tobacco juice (nicotine) laced rain water.
>
> Its headed for the high 80s here today.
> I've warmed my hands on the muffler too Charlie. Spring or fall could give
> us some mighty cold days for seeding or harvest operations. Sitting up in
> the open wind on the Cockshut 50 or 730 Case would eventually have a 
> person
> thoroughly chilled. Those were the days when the bushes were appreciated 
> for
> the bit of shelter from the wind.
> Rain was not often an issue as usually once it started to rain it was too
> wet to keep working. Sometimes we'd push the limits trying to finish a 
> field
> and stay out if it was a light drizzle.
> Reminds of my Dad talking often of the drought of 1961. He and a neighbour
> had cut the roadside hay as there was a real shortage of feed that year. 
> It
> was mostly clover and when they went to bale it the only significant rain 
> of
> the summer came up in a thunderstorm and soaked them and the hay. What
> irony, not enough rain and too late to save the crop but enough to spoil 
> the
> hay.
>
> Ralph in Sask.
>
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