Open tractors , and dust in your eyes

Bruce from Can.

Well-known Member
We had a beautiful day here in Central Ontario yesterday . I spent the day out on my
1030 Comfort King , Case , working some dirt before planting . It was great , sun
shining with just a light breeze, perfect day to enjoy a open tractor.
This morning my eyes feel like two burnt holes in a blanket. Didn't notice the dust
very much yesterday but, boy my eyes are crusty on the edges and feel dry and sore
this morning. Guess I have been sitting inside of a cab too long, lol .
Any of the rest of you fellas find this ? I used to get to where I hated to run the
square baler because of the crap and dust I would have to pull from my eyes the next
morning . Bruce
 
With some allergies, and associated inconveniences, I probably wouldn't be farming if I didn't have a couple of cab tractors, and combine. Dust from the ground usually only ever bothered me in Sep, getting ready to plant wheat. I never could take the cold. if I get really chilled, I get really sick.
 
Ski goggles. Get the best you can find. Anti-fogging, etc. Tinted for day time and another clear for night. Your eyes are precious.
 
Just the wind bothers my eyes, don't even need to be dusty. For me a cab makes the day shorter and much more enjoyable.
 
Are you sure you didn't sun burn them? I burned mine welding one time. Felt like I had sandpaper in my eyes for about three days.
 
The other replies just reminded me- I never used to wear sun glasses. Never liked them, only a baseball cap with a brim was necessary. But a few years ago I noticed myself squinting on a bright (unusual here in central NY) day. Eye doc said "your eyes are trying to tell you something". So when I saw a display at the local supply place, I tried some out. "Stihl" branded, for running string trimmer, etc. They fit snugly around the head, don't distort colors, and provide both light and debris protection. They're great!
 
Yep, square baling with a 630 Case diesel. Use to bale thousands of square bales. Sitting down low going north with a south wind, could hardly breath or see....
 

My eyes will bother me after exposure to a dry windy day. I keep eye drops on the bedside table, a drop in each eye and they feel fine in the morning. There are various kinds in the drug store - nothing special.
 
Open tractors are for chores on nice days, anymore. I used to chore with open tractors for years rain or shine. Last year was the last straw. I was square baling with the 4020 because all of the other tractors were dualed up. Headed south with the temp 100 and a breeze out of the south - I literally nearly cried when I realized I had over 3000 left to go. I'm too old for this! This winter I bought a nice 86 series IH with singles on the rear. It will never see tillage again - it's for raking and baling. Life is too short to spend summer days like that. Give me air conditioning. I'll pay the repair bill.
 
I remember baling a big clover field for my neighbor one windy day. The wind was hot and out of the south, and the windrows were raked north/south. I had caught a real nasty summer cold, and I thought I was gonna die when I was heading north. I'd be covered with clover chaff, eyes running, every breath in agony. I'd recover a little heading back south, all the while dreading the turn at the south end to put the wind behind me again. A promise is a promise - I was gonna finish that field if it killed me. I was so sick when I got done that I just parked the rig in the edge of the field and asked his wife to bring me home. I don't get sick often, so I think that was the most miserable day that I've ever spent on a tractor.
 
I like my Farmall M's for that reason, up out of the dust. Still can't bring myself to buy a cab tractor. I have an old aluminum cab for an H or M, don't remember who made it, but I've never put it on in thirty years.
 
I remember years ago baling hay and cultivating all day long with open station tractor. I would cultivate beans & corn with John Deere A all day with no shirt and would come in at night covered in dust and eyes would be mated shut in the morning.
 
Everyone of my tractors is open station, of course I don't make a living with them either. I think the worst is round baling, especially if you are baling for someone that normally bales their own and their baler broke down. You eat lots of dust. My eyes don't bother so much, but man I hack black stuff out of my lungs for the night.
Just think, less then 50 years ago, you very seldom saw a cabbed tractor, and if it did have a cab on it, there was no AC.
 
Yeah, dust in your eyes, in your hair.....wait, I don't have that problem any more....there are some advantages to ageing! Ben
 
I have to say I am very lucky. I have mowed & square baled about 30 years now. Nothing but a shade umbrella. Not even 1 sneeze. However, my wife gets hay fever so that is a different story. But when I am in the hay mow stacking, the alfalfa dust will goo my eyes up that night. I did disk and plant 4 acres of hay 2 weeks ago. Ground was dry so I wore a dust mask. I did not want to suck in a lot of earth.
 
Bruce we all are showing the collected effects of working as we age. Your dust in the eyes is just another example of that.

I will second using a good pair of wrap around classes. They will deflected the majority of the dirt. I do not like shaded sun glasses but do wear clear safety glasses to help with the dust. In the winter I use ski googles/face mask for the dust when loading the feeder wagon and the cold wind. Looks funny but sure does help.

I love working an open station tractor when the weather is nice, not too hot or cold. I like hearing all the sounds of working. The bump,bump of the square baler plunger, the snap of weeds going through the disk, the smell of fresh worked ground, the smell of curing hay when raking. All of those are just part of the "reward" of farming. Another "reward" is a cab tractor when it is ninety degrees and dusty running the round baler. Also spreading manure in the middle of Jan. with the wind howling and light snow falling. Then those cabs are worth gold.
 
Saw that coming when I worked helping a farmer and long time friend, doing spring planting, on an open station 3150 JD. I just wore a pair of goggles and a dust mask. I took a break as needed, and it worked quite well. A tractor with a cab is certainly nice, but it has to have A/C to be comfortable. All the other tractors he had, did have cabs, A/C etc. though the JD 4440 A/C was needing some repair that spring, we had to use it without for a little while before it was fixed. Does not take much sunlight and run time to get hot in there.
 
I did custom baling when in High School. One customer wanted all the growth he could get from his clover before cutting. I looked like a wooly worm when I would get home. Mom would come out and hose me down before I could come in the house. Combining clover seed was about as bad. Dad run the combine while we cut out the sweet clover with a corn cutter ahead of the combine while fighting bumble bees with a wood shingle. All hot a dirty work. I loved it at the time.
 
I noticed the last few years If I don't wear a dust mask I lay in bed and cough. Sometimes I just don't stop and put on that mask, for what ever reason. I think If I hold my breath until the dust clears it will work. It doesn't. I even started wearing plastic goggles, or I end up like what you are talking about a visit from the sand man. Dad ate dust all his life farming. in the end it wasn't the dust that got him it was alzheimers that took his life. Stan
 
We never had a cab on anything, even the old 101 combine.
In the 60's I had fairly bushy sideburns. After a day of
disking in the wind it would feel like someone had been
yanking hard on them all day long. gm
 
I usually wear shatter resistant -poalarized sun glasses that sit around my cheeks fairly tight to keep the dust out. I should wear a dust mask but I don't. I usually only have trouble with round baling, and usually a few good shots of whiskey cuts through all the dust you inhale (don't know if this alway helps but after a few shots I usually don't care).
 

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