[AT] Hey Ralph!

[Dean VP]

Charlie,

Thank You. Now that you remind me , yes, that is how it worked. I was just having trouble thinking
that the mobile welder would have cables that long.  That is a lot of welding cable.  I'm pretty sure
all the pipe was galvanized pipe on the farm. Way before plastic pipe was ever used.  I suppose that
was a common task for the mobile welder every winter so he was geared up for it. I've been off the
farm since 1958 so a lot of this stuff is starting to get a little (really) fuzzy.  I've tried to
forget some stuff. But every once in a while a conversation like this will trigger really old
memories.  One that I remember, that I'm sure a lot of people will not believe, is when we had
blizzards, which was quite often in those years, Dad would tie a rope between the house and the barn
so we wouldn't get lost.  Way too many famers lost their lives due to blizzards.  But the good side
was when we could take an old car hood, a rope and a horse and saddle and go like the dickens out in
the field using the hood as a sled.  Got to make the best out every situation. 

Dean VP
Snohomish, WA

If we can employ guards with guns to protect money, we can and should employ guards with guns to
protect people. Bernard Goldberg.

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
charlie hill
Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2015 5:37 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!

Dean,  I've seen the welder type pipe thawing done many times in industrial 
plants.
As long as the pipe is steel or some other metal all you do is hook the 
ground to
one end of the pipe and the stinger to the other end of the pipe and crank 
the
welder up.  The resistance in the pipe causes it to warm up just like the 
elements
in you electric heater, just not that hot.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Dean VP
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2015 8:25 PM
To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!

As I recall in the 1940's and  1950's  the frost line in NW IA was several 
feet deep. The last winter
we spent in IA we had 26 days in a row where it never got above zero with 
typical night time
temperatures in the -40 range.  How deep the frost line went was very 
dependent on how deep the snow
was on the ground as it acted as an insulator of sorts.  We usually had 
around 400 head of feeder
cattle  as well as Milk Cows on the yard 24/7/365. So had to have a ready 
supply of water.  The well
that fed the farm was across a gravel road and maybe 200 to 300 feet from 
where the cattle tank as. I
distinctly recall that supply pipe freezing up a few times and it was buried 
several feet deep.  I
don't remember now how deep but I want to say at least 6'.   No water was a 
disaster with that much
livestock in the yard. So Dad would hire a local mobile welder to thaw out 
the pipes.  It isn't clear
any more to me how that all worked but it did and we had water again.  It 
was very common to thaw
things with baling wire and a cob that had been soaked in Kerosene. I don't 
recall the little propane
torches being available then.  Just the Kerosene blow torch and soldering 
irons. Man I'm really old
that is almost 65 years ago. And yes we had running water and indoor toiles 
after 1948 and even had
cars and tractors that ran on gas.
.


Dean VP
Snohomish, WA

If we can employ guards with guns to protect money, we can and should employ 
guards with guns to
protect people. Bernard Goldberg.

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com 
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
charlie hill
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2015 5:30 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!

The frost line here is published at 8" but I don' remember the ground
freezing that
deep since I was a boy, more than half a century ago.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2015 6:04 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!

Rare for the ground to freeze real deep here. Often times it will over
night, but thaw on top by mid-morning. I guess the fields were fairly flat
or he would have had trouble with the picker dog-tracking?

John


-----Original Message----- 
From: Don
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2015 9:57 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!

On 11/20/2015 8:18 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> Ralph,  is there any chance that just after the freeze up you can get in
> the field and harvest it before it gets snow covered?

Sometime in the mid 50s we had a very wet fall so could not get in to
pick the corn.  This was before combine shellers, we used a two row
picker and stored corn in a crib.   My uncle made skids out of old dozer
blades and when the ground froze enough we used his D4 to pull the corn
picker.  It was not many years later we bought a picker sheller.

A huge corn crib we built was still standing when we visited the farm
last summer.

-- 
Don Bowen       --AD0NB--

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