Years ago while cleaning a wheat slug out of a pickup head, one of my great uncles chewed my a$$ for having the rest of the machine running while I was standing in the header....really made me think. Saturday my brother was running the combine and I the grain cart...we usually get along pretty well, but sometimes when I make suggestions he doesn't like it. We were trying to combine around a slough hole and the head kept filling up with dried out kocia(tumble weeds). The first time I was on the ground pulling stuff out and he was in the head. I says to him "I can't believe you're not shutting the machine off when you're standing in the head like that. All it would take is for that clutch to let go or a wire to short out, whatever." He gave me a frazzled look but bygolly next time he stopped he shut the whole machine down....including the engine.

Yes, I  know noone got hurt in that story, but it's one of the more dangerous things I've seen. I'm guilty of the typical farmer stuff, stepping over PTO lines and such. I'm very good about keeping all shields in place here though. Uncle and father have a tendency to take them off like in the old days but I usually talk them...at least dad into putting them back where they belong. One bad thing I catch myself doing over and over again is walking across the swing away hopper. Our westfield has a good cage over the hopper, and when we're using our Batco driveover I'm guilty of walking across that guard all the time.