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NEMO | I remember going out with Dad in the middle of the winter (back when we actually had snow!)with the Super M, no power steering, no 3 pt hitch plowing through the snow drifts to get a bale of hay from the field. We would drive a steel T post through the bale and wrap a chain around each end of the post through a clevis in the draw bar and drag it to the feeding area in the pasture. When Dad got his 706 gas with power steering and 3pt hitch, we thought we were in heaven. We would start cutting wood early in the fall so we would have heat in the winter. Our air conditioning was all the windows and doors open and fans on for a breeze. Now I live in a house with a high effeciency furnace and central air. Dad ran 100 sow herd all on dirt lots and in dirt floor barns. Funny thing is that back then, we did all those things the "hard way", yet seemed to have all the time in the world to do lots of things that were not farm work. Now we seem to do things the "easy way" and can't seem to find enough time for any thing else. I sometimes think that if I raised my boys back them if they would be more appreciative of what they have now. When I was a kid, my brother and I would take off in the summer and go down to the creek and play most of the day, be home in time for supper and Mom didn't worry. My brother and I would ride our bikes in to "town to the local country store for a soda and play with some of our friends before coming back home and Mom didn't worry. Even though we live far out in the country, if our boys are playing outside and we haven't seen or heard from them 30 min, their mother is concerned. Yes the world is a lot different today than "yesterday". When I first started working for a John Deere dealer, the only electronics on the farm equipment was the low shaft speed monitor and the dial-a-matic header control on combines and the Investigator monitor on the tractors. Now we have computers that steer, operate functions, collect and transmit data and control the engine, transmission and hydraulics. Someday, we will be farming from our livingrooms or repairing tractors and combines from our office. We are not that far away from there. Now what will be the fun in that? Darn it, there I went and got long winded again. God bless each and every one of you and be safe. | |
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Good old days.
