[AT] taking the day off

[jtchall at nc.rr.com]

Dad’s had a lot of health problems lately so I’ve been running wide open at night and on the weekend with the farm work. I hauled my last load of corn yesterday morning and decided to take the rest of the day off. 

My son has taken an interest in hot rods and muscle cars lately thanks to shows like Counting Cars and Fast n Loud. Its not tractors but at this point I’ll take what I can get regarding him and old iron. (he has taken an interest in riding and driving the combine over the last year).  He’s already eyeing my 66 Mustang. We went to a local car show that was pretty much open to anything muscle regardless of age, with just a couple of original restored vehicles. Very nice cars overall. Then we went 10 miles away to an antique farm equipment show. Saw the usual array of antique farm stuff. Met a fellow form Central America who was very interested in the primitive methods of processing corn. He was from some of the mountainous regions and evidently corn is a major part of their diet. He was looking at the hand fed silage cutters with the big knife you operate by hand to chop the corn as well as the hand shellers, both Blackhawk and standup versions. He talked about a lot of people still shelling the corn by hand, literally. Animal feed is done by chopping it into pieces with a machete. I should have spent more time to find out how they ground the corn. Amazing how what we consider obsolete technology still works in some places.

I’ve always like BIG old trucks. Saw one of very old vintage so I had to check it out. Turns out it is the oldest know Corbitt to exist, 1920 model. What makes Corbitts so interesting to me is that they were made less than 60 miles from here. This one in particular never was owned by anyone outside of the county it was built in.  Corbitt collectors will be having their show in conjunction with a BIG car show in 2 weeks—I need to work hard to clear my schedule if possible!

If you are interested in Corbitt try this:

http://www.corbitttrucks.com/index.html


To finish on a tractor note, I found this website from the Corbitt site, looks like I may have to plan a road trip this fall/winter:

http://www.keystonetractorworks.com/contact-us/

It s a couple hours north of here so it looks to be a good Sat. trip.

Until then there are cornstalks to grind up and harrow and then I need to get the combine ready to cut grain sorghum.

John Hall