[AT] lessons

[charlie hill]

John,  I think you'll find that they remember quite a bit of it.
Most kids watch their dad's and other male role models
with cult like attention.  That's good as long as we are doing
stuff we should do and doing it right.  It comes back to bite us
when we let our guard down and do things they shouldn't see or learn.
grins.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2014 7:47 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: [AT] lessons

It occurred to me that without realizing it, I’ve began training my farmhand 
replacements. My son and his cousin have been keeping us company a lot when 
there is field work going on. Last fall and this summer that has really 
picked up. Finding age appropriate tasks is impossible someday, but we 
generally find something they can do whether it is helping to hook/unhook 
equipment, help move equipment to the fields etc. I don’t let them come 
around if we have any spraying to do, kids and chemicals just aren’t a smart 
idea.  My son has gotten big enough to begin handling bales of hay and 
straw, that is quite a blessing. I’m hoping he will learn to properly pack 
loads, time will tell. I had him with me doing some drilling this year. It 
was a bit hard for him to keep the drill straight. I finally figured out he 
was “correcting” too long when he needed to move the drill and would then 
have to correct the other direction. He does pretty well baling once I got 
through to him that you drive the baler and don’t worry about where the 
tractor is headed. When the windrow runs out, then you look to see where you 
are going! His cousin has the same steering issues. I was letting him drive 
the combine in wheat, he was constantly turning the steering wheel. He didn’t 
miss any but those were some mighty crooked rows of straw to bale!

Last week I had dad guide them to disassemble a couple of junk air cooled 
motors. One had a broke crankshaft the other  was a twin that had thrown a 
rod and wiped out tons of stuff. They completely  tore them down including 
the valves. Dad explained what each part was, what the timing marks were, 
why a part failed, etc. They will probably only remember a little bit, but 
it’s a start.

John Hall
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