Thoughts (maybe OT)

I read a post on here a day or 2 back about plowing standing corn stalks. It reminded me of a time back when I was a teenaged kid plowing corn ground in the bottoms with a 3 16 Fast-hitch plow hung on the back of a ramped up 460 IHC. Like many farmers of the time we just ran a disk over the ground once and started turning it with the plows.
Don’t ask me why, but what I remember about this day is plugging one of the bottoms between the coulter and the moldboard. That in its-self isn’t significant. Unplugging a wad of packed dirt and stalks wasn’t something I was a stranger to and most of you folks have sat there on the ground by an old plow and done that too.
When I thought back to that time I could actually smell the freshness of the dirt I had turned up. There isn’t anything quite like that aroma and piddling in the garden now-a-days, while close, just isn’t really the same.
On that day or another one a lot like it, in that same field bordering Big Creek in Cass Co. Mo., a mangy coyote had ambled across the field a few yards away, accompanying me on one crossing, not being afraid of a running machine with a human on it, but stop and turn it off, he would no doubt have run as they always do.
Anyway, what really bugged me about that memory and other similar ones was that while I still have and appreciate them, my kids will never experience the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, etc. of life growing up on a small family farm of the 1950’s and 60’s in the Midwest.
This site brings those things back to me in a way that only nostalgia can, not that the ideas and tips from other people aren’t great too. Guess I’m telling you all thanks, on this beautiful, sunny, country morning here in SW Missouri. gm

If I can get it pulled off (finding an 18" 6-bottom spinner), I'm going back to plowing everything. Makes a world of difference in weed control.

Topping sugar beets by hand, loading potatoes on the truck until she groaned and my dad telling me, "whatever you do in life, don't try to dig it out of the ground for a living".

And I too remember the plugging plows on those cold days. That's when I started disking twice at two angles and yanked the silly coulters off to cure that issue. :>)

Allan

I was raised in the sand, loved to plow with a moldboard. Raised peanuts. My memories come from the 40s and 50s rather than the 50s and 60s. One of my favorite sound, sight, smell memories was generated breaking land on cool crisp moonlight nights after school. I can hear the little 9n humming in my ears now. It is strange, the mundane things that linger in your mind. Than there is the sweet smell of the pretty girl down the road when she got on the school bus in the morning. All far, far, away and long ago.

Well said, Gary. I never actually farmed but used to help FIL back in the '70s. We were cutting firewood one day and I mentioned how I liked the aroma of freshly split hardwood. He said "Me too, that and the smell of newly plowed ground." Your post brought back fond memories.

Yes, we always took the coulters off to plow corn stalks too. Made a big difference. Still like to plug if you started too early in the morning & the dew was still on.

I was at a plow day yesterday thinking about plowing corn stalks without coulters. I've never tried it, and every plow there had them on. The trash is so heavy now, compared to what it was 40 years ago, that I would think it would be a problem without a modern plow. This ground was disked well, and I only plugged a few times all day, but I would like to try it without the coulters sometime.

The last time I remember unplugging a plow was in heavy wheat straw. While digging & kicking the straw- out came a highly irate copperhead. That got my heart pumping.

Never used a plow, but had a disc ball up a few times in ground that was just a little too wet for the scrapers to keep the blades clean. I grew up on a small farm in the 50's myself. Miss those days. All the farms, and farmers are gone now. Stan