Another opinion question, memory lane........

If you could pick 1 implement to restore and display with each of your tractors, what would it be?

It is a close decision for me, but I like sickle-bar mowers. Not sure why except that I liked mowing the best as a younger child on the farm. I guess it was because Dad emphasized how dangerous the sickle-bar was. The thrill that he let me mow probably had something to do with it too.....We had a cat with 3 legs thanks to that mower. A can remember mowing around dusk, and seeing the herds of deer coming out of the woods, probably drawn by the smell of fresh cut hay. As long as I stayed on the tractor, they would eat as if nothing was wrong. Stop the tractor and get off, and they were gone in a split second.

I also remember grinding the rivets off, and replacing the knives. My job was to use a ballpien hammer to install the new knives. Dad would take the window out of the workshop so the knife bar would fit through it as the grinder was bench mounted. One year, we took all the knives off and sharpened them. We didn't have the hand grinder that mounted on the bar, so we took all the knives off, and sharpened them. I guess the rivets were cheaper than my labor!!!!!

Plowing was my next choice, as I liked the smell of fresh plowed ground....not as much as the smell of fresh cut timothy hay, but still a wonderful smell and great memory. Flocks of birds would follow along eating the uncovered worms and grubs as I would plow. I also remember plowing up a fox den with cubs. I wanted to keep them, but Dad had a fit......grumbling about chickens.....they somehow disappeared before I could return with a box for them..... LOL.


Once again, no one is right and no one is wrong, just looking for a fun post, and some of your favorite memories.

I am to young to have such great memories being that Im still in High School. I have fond memories with my grandfather and a Case SC and mounted culitivators making the yard wider. He let me drive and ever since then I loved mounted cultivators even though they are a pain to put on. I still use the Case to cultivate corn and I have cultivators coming for my H. My second choice would be plows. I learned plowing from a Pennsylvania state champion and a fifth place national winner.

Plowing was one of my favorites as that meant all the crops were in and most of the stress was off.
I would be in my own little world with the whine of the transmission making a beautiful tune, the exhaust glowing orange at night so you could almost see through the muffler, that smell in the cool night air of the fresh tilled ground.
Then, turning around to make another lap, and seeing a cloud of dust and the headlights of the old Pontiac coming up the end row, meant Grandma was bringing something something good to eat and drink.

As much as I hated it at the time, I guess the two row cultivators on the H.

Later we moved up to two front mounted, 4 rows. We used the M Farmall and the 706. Now I liked cultivating with the 706, we put a narrow front end under it.

Gene

As much as I hated it at the time, I guess the two row cultivators on the H.

Later we moved up to two front mounted, 4 rows. We used the M Farmall and the 706. Now I liked cultivating with the 706, we put a narrow front end under it.

Gene

234 mounted corn picker for my 400. My dad and uncle had one mounted on a 450D. I liked getting out of school to help pick and shell. I remember they never took the M&W Super Snoot off of it and I always thought it looked cool sticking up above the hood.

Well, I spent half ( summer breaks ) of my pre-teen and early teens years on my grandparents farm in Georgia but we didn't row crop. They raised 1500 chickens for eggs and roasters, cattle and horses so hay was all that was grown, about 250 acres worth and about a 2 acre garden. I just recently bought the acres I've lived on ( rented ) for twenty years in Iowa and raise horses and dogs. I've gotten very involved in plowing. It's relaxing and frustrating. I have a nice Oliver semi-mount plow to go behind my Oliver tractor ( which isn't as nice ). I have rusty IH plows to go behind my rusty ( and disabled ) Farmall M. I also like raking hay so I have a average looking Oliver rake too. Raking hay would be perfect if I had a dead quiet electric tractor to do it with ...Randy

I loved discing w/ our old 21" AC wing disc. Man oh man, did I feel like I was covering serious ground back then. (mid 70"s) It was WAY better than cultivating, which I HATED. Seemed that i"d go a hundred yards, and have to stop to cut out sweet potato or morning glory vines and I never seemed to get done.
I"d carry an old Winchester model "06 pump .22 and a box of shell. It had been my grandMOTHER"S rifle, and I still have it in my gun safe. I was murder on black birds and the occasional ground hog and that made the day go by much faster.
My second favorite thing was a toss up between mowing hay and raking it. Mowing had that fresh smell that you can never forget, but raking was artistry in my opinion. Being able to manipulate the hay into just the right size windrows without leaving a tad of unraked hay anywhere in sight always left me feeling good.
Life sure was simple then and memory tends to omit the bad stuff.

A plow or a grain drill for my Super M-TA.