I remember when....

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
I used to get up in the AM and say "I'm gonna work on the old tractor today" and it was something I did because I wanted to. Then I started cutting hay with the fool thing, this year I spread out yet again and planted some corn, just in time to see the bottom fall out of the market. Today I get up and say "I'm gonna work on the freakin combine today". Kind of funny how it stops being something you WANT to do when it becomes something you HAVE to do. Just been a long hard summer, I guess. Still enjoying the adventure though!
 
Yup -

then your wife adds a couple draft horses to the mix and suddenly there's a 1000 bale minimum - no matter what, or else there will be a $6000 hay bill for the year.

It goes pretty quickly from from a fun little side job you don't have to worry much about to constant fixing and praying that nothing else breaks.
 
I remember when I worked swing shift, and would get up early in the morning after getting to bed around 1:00 am. I did this for years to do my discing, and mowing business. After retiring from 36 years at the factory. I get up anytime I want, and do my jobs when I want. Stan
 
We went from 1000 to 10000 square bales of hay done by ourselves, somewhere around the 2000 bale mark it stopped being as fun.

I contemplated planting some hay ground to grain for the straw but that means adding a drill and a combine which I'm not excited about.
 
I know how ya'll feel. I enjoyed restoring old tractors and equipment. After I retired a few years ago a fellow talked me into restoring his tractor. Now it's a job, and I have to talk myself into working on it.
 
Yep,I hate working on the stuff I use but if it's some old thing I want to "restore",and I use the term loosely,I do it for recreation. Even though there isn't a whole lot of difference between the stuff I use and antique collector stuff. I think it's a matter of deadlines.
 
remember working 18- 20 hrs a day for years on end.
8 hr on the job, the rest working the farm.
Today it's just working the farm and i spend more time thinking about what to do than actually doing it.
I fix what needs fixing cause i have to, not anymore cause i want to.
I won't restore a tractor cause i find it a waste of time and $$, the damm things never pay back what you put in,.. besides i got no time for it anyway with all the the time i spend just thinking nowadays.
 
I remember when I worked nights on the 12 hour German shift. Work Mon & Tues off Wens & Thurs and work Fri Sat and Sunday. The next week Off Mon & Tues work Wens & Thurs and off Fri Sat and Sunday then it would start all over again. Got to the point I had to make the days I worked on the calendar, Lord only knows how many times I woke up thinking I was going to be late for work or drive to work only to find it was my day off. This was really bad in the spring and the fall when crops were going in and combining in the fall. I swear there were days I didn't know if I was coming or going, I felt like a zombie! I did this for 8 years when they switched us back to 8 hour days and I loved it. I don't miss those days and to tell you the truth I don't want to remember those days! Bandit
 
Right now I'm a little down about the way my body is falling apart and my attitude shows it. LOL

When we age to the point where the body starts hurting in half a dozen places we tend to lose our enthusiasm for working those long hours. We are cautious about moving in certain ways because it might hurt. I used to work seven days a week here on the farm, getting out the door at 7 and staying active on into the late hours. I used to walk nine holes of golf at the end of the day if the hay baling finished up early enough. That doesn't happen anymore.

The other day I stood in the shop working on a tractor till 9 in the evening and later in the night, more towards morning my hips got to hurting laying in bed, so I got up early. Was doggy the whole next day. That stuff dampens the enthusiasm a bit.

Today a neurologist told me I'll basically have to live with the buzzing in the right arm and hand and the pin pricks in my feet caused by scar tissue rubbing on a frayed nerve in my neck. To top it off he pointed out in the xray all the arthritis between the vertebrae.The enthusiasm to get going went down even farther! Well, gotta get back outside to get something done-sitting on the riding mower. LOL
 
With a couple draft horse you can stop at the Amish auction and get a horse drawn mower and a buck rake or a 4 bar pull type drawn by sulky or long tongue one with seat on it for the hay, a couple horse drawn hay racks also. Small tractor and a JD 14 or 24 model baler is your driving, baling- since it is wife"s draft horses she can do the cutting and raking, then do the baled on ground bale tossing and wagon stacking while horse do the slow walk down the rows of bales- or she does the stack on wagon while you toss from ground. You"ll both get healthy excersize, share interesting moments with hay and horse for a couple years--then either horses will go, one of you will to another farm or you"ll join a Mennonite church. Teasing Alert! RN
 
I look at it this way when I'm working on a piece of equipment I'm 'making' $75 hr because thats what the local dealers charge and its a lot more than I'll ever make running it.
 
We were actually already doing a good amount of haying before the horses - some for our goats and a couple cows - but it was always kind of just for fun. We also help a friend and sell the hay. Many thousands of bales per year.

We've got equipment, but it's all old. Since it was all for fun it didn't matter much if something was down for a while.

But now, even though 1000 bales isn't a huge amount - it's enough to make the job much more serious - and reliability much more important.

Just agreeing with the original poster that it's funny how it creeps up on you.

I do have amish friends in ohio I visit a couple times a year - there have been times that it's hard to come home!
 
I hear ya...I used to be a "hot rodder" back in the day...always had some kind of project going that I'd work on after hours. Even when I was turning wrenches for a living, I'd still go out and work on whatever old car or pickup I was working on at night.

Then...I got into stock car racing..bigtime...raced 3 nights a week, and in order to be competitive I was in the shop wrenching on the race car the other nights, usually till 2AM at least. It got to be exactly like a "second job"...except it didn't pay well lol. I did win enough to about break even, but it took it's toll on me as far as wrench-turning goes. Gave that up about 3 years ago.

Nowadays, I'm usually content to be in the house after supper, and going to the shop to "work" on something just doesn't sound too fun...well, except on the rare occasions I drag a new old tractor home..
 

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