[AT] Farm show observations/ Farm Memories
charliehill
charliehill at embarqmail.com
Wed Feb 11 05:20:34 PST 2009
Travis I spent many similar days in the seat of a D-10 Allis. On Saturdays
or when ever school was out I'd often leave the barn with it in the dark
and come back in the dark with the blue flame from the "Power Crater" engine
leading the way.
You forgot to mention the sea gulls. I never could figure out where they
came from. Not a seagull in sight until the first farmer plowed 2 or 3
rounds and then there they were, dozens of miles from their normal hunting
grounds in the sounds and rivers.
I remember an ice storm about that time. I wouldn't have remembered that it
was in 68. It was sure enough bad. We were on CP&L power (for those not in
the area that's Carolina Power and Light, now Progress Energy)
and our power was only out for a day or so. One of my best friends lived
about 10 miles from me in the edge of Pitt Co. They were on Greenville
Utilities. Their power was out for about 3 weeks if I remember correctly.
I guess back in those days the power companies didn't have the mutual aid
agreements like they have now.
----- Original Message -----
From: <yestergears at intrstar.net>
To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 9:22 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Farm show observations/ Farm Memories
>
>
> Charlie:
> That sounds a lot like here during the storm of 1973. Highway 24 runs
> through Turkey where I live and it was a rut. We also did as
> you said, push one out of the way to get the other by. My dad kept the
> 140 at the house so that he could go back and forth to the
> farm. He pulled a lot of " skilled drivers" out of the ditch. He told
> the story that he went to the local store and saw a friend of
> his fall on the ice and slide under the edge of his truck. As dad walked
> by he said "Arthur, you want me to hand you a wrench?" As
> luck would have it when dad left the store, he slipped and fell as well
> sliding under the back of his old IH pickup and Arthur was
> walking out of the store, he went to his truck and got a cresent wrench
> and handed it to dad . They both had a good laugh. Fortunately
> neither got hurt in the falls. The '68 ice storm was worse, the 140
> wouldn't even go in it. Roads had over an inch of clear ice on
> them. Nothing moved till it thawed.
>
> This time of year I begin to get that urge to climb on the tractor and
> start turning dirt. I have fond memories of "breaking Land"
> with the Farmall 140. Weather was so cold you were bundled up but the
> smell of that freshly turned earth I will always remember and I
> love to smell it every year when the farmers start working land. I loved
> to ride the 140 especially in March when the weather would be
> warmer in the daytime and at night it would be cool enough you would
> freeze going with the wind and then warm up on the trip back up the
> field going against the wind when it was blowing the heat off the engine
> back at you. I loved the sound the tractor made lugging under
> that two bottom plow in that black dirt and having my face warmed by the
> heat coming off that muffler. When you were putting the
> Farmall through it's paces, the center section of that muffler would have
> a spot that would be cherry red. I had nothing but the land,
> tractor and my thoughts. That was a pill for stress relief! Before I
> was old enough to drive, my dad would leave me at dark after
> supper and let me plow with the tractor and come back for me about 9:30 or
> so. Fond memories!!
>
>>------- Original Message -------
>>From : charliehill[mailto:charliehill at embarqmail.com]
>>Sent : 2/10/2009 7:22:55 AM
>>To : at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>>Cc :
>>Subject : RE: Re: [AT] Farm show observations
>>
> >Oh yeah Travis. Old (orange) habits die hard.
> I went to Trenton but didn't stay. There was a nice D-15, a rough D-14
> and
> two 3 bottom AC plows that I would have liked to have but money is funny
> this year so I left before they were sold. It was a pretty good sale this
> year. I think the salvage yards got most of the junk last fall and there
> was actually some equipment and running vehicles on the sale this year.
>
> I remember those weather events well. Particularly the 73 snow. In the
> areas protected from the wind where there was no drifting we had 19".
> After
> 3 days we made our way out to Hwy 70 on foot. When we got there we found
> one track open in the east bound lane. There were cars and trucks trying
> to
> go each direction in that one track. Traffic backed up as far as you
> could
> see. Everyone was out of their cars. They would push one car off into
> the
> snow bank, drive one past it going the other direction , push it back out
> into the track and start again. It was a mess.
>
> It's hard to remember now but 25 years ago there weren't that many 4WD
> vehicles around. No one had even tried the west bound lane. We were out
> there in the road trying to help the traffic jam as best we could. All of
> a
> sudden I looked down the road and saw a white fog billowing up in the
> distance. As it got closer we could see that it was a Chevy Blazer, about
> a
> 68 model, green and tan. It had big tires on it. In the front seat were
> two men wearing overalls and caps. In the back seat was a man wearing
> what
> looked like a wool top coat and holding a brief case in his lap. That
> Blazer was cutting it's own path in 19" of snow at what appeared to be
> about
> 30 MPH.
>
> We figured that that truck belonged to some fishermen down east in
> Carteret
> Co and that some guy with plenty of money (guy in the back seat) had found
> them and paid them to get him somewhere. Believe me they were getting the
> job done. I knew right then that I'd own a 4WD truck some day!
>
> The roads were so bad that DOT was completely overwhealmed. 3 days had
> gone
> by and a major US 4 lane highway hadn't even been touched. We called a
> friend that had a wrecker to come get us and he couldn't get there.
> Finally
> a man on our road ran out of fuel oil in his furnace. He called an
> emergency number and they sent the national guard motor grader to clear
> the
> road so the fuel oil truck could get down it.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
>
>
>> Charlie:
>> You still have a soft spot for those orange tractors? Did you make the
>> sale in trenton this year? I don't get to keep up here as
>> much as I used to. Teenager running me ragged along with a mom with
>> alzheimers and working for a living just isn't enough hours in a
>> day.
>> I've seen ponds frozen over here that I haven't seen since I graduated
>> Tech school. At least 20 years. It is a thin layer but they
>> were frozen before the 70 degree days. I remember an ice storm here in
>> 1968 I believe it was. We were without power for a week. CP&L
>> couldn't get out to work because of the ice on the roads. Then in 1973,
>> we had two snows one in Jan and one in Feb that were over 12
>> inches. It sleeted then snowed then sleeted over that. Dad had the
>> farmall out with the servis blade cleaning driveways for him and
>> the neighbors. We had to walk to the farm to get the tractor ( about a
>> mile) drifts were so bad you couldn't see the road etc. He
>> drove home really slowly actually dragging the road part way lol. Beat
>> the state by about 4 days. He was afraid the pepper beds froze,
>> but they came through it great under that blanket of snow. He didn't lose
>> a plant as we could tell.
>> Travis
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>------- Original Message -------
>>>From : charliehill[ mailto:charliehill at embarqmail.com]
>>>Sent : 2/9/2009 8:59:15 PM
>>>To : at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>>>Cc :
>>>Subject : RE: Re: [AT] Farm show observations
>>>
>> >Hi Travis, yeah we had about 1" on the 20th over at the farm my mom
>> >said
>> they had about 3". Last week we just got the ground covered good and
>> that
>> was it. It's been about as cold a winter as we've had in 20 years I
>> guess.
>>
>> Charlie
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>
>>
>>
>>> Hey Charlie!!
>>> It snowed like mad here last week for about an hour. Dusted the ground
>>> and cars up good but that was it. We had about 5 inches on
>>> Jan 20.
>>> It has been cold though.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>------- Original Message -------
>>>>From : charliehill[ mailto:charliehill at embarqmail.com]
>>>>Sent : 2/8/2009 6:09:28 PM
>>>>To : at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>>>>Cc :
>>>>Subject : RE: Re: [AT] Farm show observations
>>>>
>>> >John I think Travis had some snow in Turkey also. I know we had some.
>>>
>>> charlie
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Great to see you posting Travis! We had snow 2 days last week, and
>>>> today
>>>> I
>>>> have been outdoors with no coat or hat--its over 70 deg.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: <yestergears at intrstar.net>
>>>> To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>>>> Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 8:55 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: [AT] Farm show observations
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> John:
>>>>> Joe Ertl is making those pedal combines. They are Scale Models
>>>>> Brand.
>>>>> Same company making the older farmall pedal tractor models.
>>>>> 806, H, M etc.
>>>>> How are things in Bahama? I'm glad to see it warm up in Turkey!!
>>>>> Travis
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>------- Original Message -------
>>>>>>From : John Hall[ mailto:jthall at worldnet.att.net]
>>>>>>Sent : 2/8/2009 7:55:17 AM
>>>>>>To : at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>>>>>>Cc :
>>>>>>Subject : RE: [AT] Farm show observations
>>>>>>
>>>>> >Went to the N.C. Farm Show last weekend and noticed a few things of
>>>>> interest.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) John Blue sprayers are not much different than they were 60 years
>>>>> ago.
>>>>>
>>>>> 2) Bobcat is building small tractors.
>>>>>
>>>>> 3) Montana is building 2 lines of tractors. One is green and looks
>>>>> modern,
>>>>> the other is blue and looks like Ford's from the 70's or '80's.
>>>>>
>>>>> 4) Somebody finally decided to build a pedal combine. I can just see
>>>>> the
>>>>> average 4 year old driving it--considering the rear wheel steering.
>>>>>
>>>>> 5) Monsanto keeps an actual cotton plant in their mobile display unit
>>>>> since
>>>>> so many folks around the country have never seen one. They actually
>>>>> take
>>>>> it
>>>>> into the motel at night!
>>>>>
>>>>> 6) I lost count of the number of outdoor furnace makers. Maybe had
>>>>> something
>>>>> to do with the economy.
>>>>>
>>>>> 7) The second biggest piece of equipment on the farm (besides a
>>>>> combine)
>>>>> is
>>>>> a self propelled sprayer. There was only one combine at the show but
>>>>> at
>>>>> least 4 of these contraptions. I know one of them had 5 foot of ground
>>>>> clearance. These things have come a long way since JD and Spra-Coupe
>>>>> were
>>>>> making 3 wheeled models.
>>>>>
>>>>> John Hall
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> AT mailing list
>>>>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> AT mailing list
>>>>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> AT mailing list
>>>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> AT mailing list
>>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> AT mailing list
>>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> AT mailing list
>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> AT mailing list
>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
More information about the AT
mailing list