How old am I? Well, my family had a combine like the one pictured here.
Fortunately, my grandfather figured how to rig it to be pulled by a tractor instead of a team of mules. It did not have a grain tank to collect the corn, wheat or whatever; instead the grain came down a chute to a divider where the operator stood, holding a burlap bag on one side to be filled. When the bag was full a switch was thrown and the grain passed to the other side of the divider into another bag while the operator manually tied off the first bag and threw it down a tin slide to the ground.
After a full day harvesting it was not unusual to have 400 or 500 full bags of wheat on the ground, and we had to load them onto a wagon to take back to the barn before nightfall so it would not spoil. Of course barley and wheat were harvested in June or July so the temperatures were always a cozy 95 degrees or thereabouts. And to think we only had a bath once per week, usually on Saturday nights!
Your friend,
Slim
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Monday, July 29, 2024
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How old am I? Well, my family had a combine like the one pictured here.
Fortunately, my grandfather figured how to rig it to be pulled by a tractor instead of a team of mules. It did not have a grain tank to collect the corn, wheat or whatever; instead the grain came down a chute to a divider where the operator stood, holding a burlap bag on one side to be filled. When the bag was full a switch was thrown and the grain passed to the other side of the divider into another bag while the operator manually tied off the first bag and threw it down a tin slide to the ground.
After a full day harvesting it was not unusual to have 400 or 500 full bags of wheat on the ground, and we had to load them onto a wagon to take back to the barn before nightfall so it would not spoil. Of course barley and wheat were harvested in June or July so the temperatures were always a cozy 95 degrees or thereabouts. And to think we only had a bath once per week, usually on Saturday nights!
Your friend,
Slim
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