Really no purpose to this post but a short story :)Went up to pickup some straw from Rudy this weekend. He'll tweak the last penney of life out of equipment. He's 72 now, and took over the farm when he was 18 when his father died suddenly. Farm is basically a sideline now (his main business for a while has been antique house parts...which started when he tore down a house as a demolition contract in '68 then found he could sell some of the old timbers...). Social Security check replaced the Milk Check when he turned 65. The corn land was leased out, but Rudy and his son still run steers & make hay to keep the tax exemptions up. We chatted for a bit. They had just put a new part on his hay baler that morning -- dealer claimed it was the last new part in the nation, and they overnighted it up from Mississippi. Now Rudy was waiting for his machinery doctor to come up and adjust everything just so. Some customers came out of one of the coops (you'll understand if you view the link!), so I went across the street to find his son and get the straw. Then I saw the baler...goodness, I didn't look at the model #...but it had the pre-1968 paint scheme on that old guy! No wonder they had to get parts from Mississippi!
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