My journal entry for Saturday, July 13, 1968

[Soapweed]

My journal entry for Saturday, July 13, 1968

Dad got up real early—before daybreak—and went down south. He got back about 9:30, after checking the Leach Place and both ours and Uncle Stan's Fuchser Places.

After chores and breakfast, the hired men and I worked in the shop until the dew dried up so we could hay. Lloyd sharpened a couple sickles, Doug sorted bolts, and I straightened up the red shop.

We went out to the hayfield and put an arm on the stacker. Then we raked, bunched, and mowed until Dad arrived.

I finished mowing a little patch west of the branding corral, and then moved to the home meadow. I about completed a land of wild oats grass before dinner.

We came home for dinner. I read The Gordon Journal until 1:00.

The stacking crew had kind of a bad afternoon. The sweep tractor conked out again, and Lloyd put the rake temporarily out of commission. He tried to wiggle through a small gate, got stuck, and the tractor stalled. He unhooked the rake and broke a tie-rod on the tractor while pulling it out.

Harry Miles, a mechanic from Martin, came down to fix the sweep.

I about got everything mowed north of the ditch in the home meadow. We did chores and came in to supper. The hired men took off for the week-end, and the rest of us watched a Miss Universe pageant on TV.

 

[redrobin]

I gather from your diary entries that eating ment something to you and that in your early years your equipment was junk. :lol: Seems like the cow side of things went pretty good for y'all.

 

[Soapweed]

I gather from your diary entries that eating ment something to you and that in your early years your equipment was junk. :lol: Seems like the cow side of things went pretty good for y'all.

The tractors were fairly new, all things considered. Our oldest tractor was the 1948 IHC "M" which pulled the stacker (it was 20 years old). The 1958 IHC 450 mower tractor was only ten years old. The "reversed" sweep tractor was a 1957 IHC Super C (11 years old), and the 1958 IHC Super C rake tractor was ten years old. The 1957 John Deere 450 "industrial" crawler was just 11 years old. These tractors were fairly simple, but functional. Our family has never been noted to be particularly good mechanics.

You can tell by any "selfie" photos that eating has always meant something to me.

 

[Hayguy]

Soapweed, would you have any action shot's of the haying operation that you could post?

 

[Soapweed]

Soapweed, would you have any action shot's of the haying operation that you could post?

Here is a video I found on you tube. This operation is a lot more modern and efficient than ours was, but it is basically the same method that we used those long ago years. They have two sweep tractors, which expedites the operation. We only used one sweep. This video shows how a tractor is "reversed" to make a more user-friendly sweep. The crawler with a power take off does a nice job putting the loads up. Our stacker was pulled from stack to stack with the M tractor, and then the M went back and forth to pull the stacker head up and down. A few years before my journal was kept, we used four head of horses to pull the stacker. In my real young years, horses were used for raking and sweeping also. We also always had a man up in the stack with a pitchfork, keeping the corners full and all of the hay "tromped down." Other stacking operations have a man up high running a "hydra-fork," which is a mechanical pitchfork. This accomplishes the same purpose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U0f0Lj2vAU

 

[George]

Very interesting - - - I never did see the needle!

 

[Hayguy]

Thank-you Soapweed......, nobody got fat eating back then :wink: :lol:

 

[LazyWP]

I know those people in the video. Funny part is Greg bales everything at home. His Dad still stacks. As many slide stackers as are down that way, I am surprised that they don't use one that has the Hydrafork on it to pack the stack. I know of at least 6, with in 4 miles of that meadow.

 

[PureCountry]

Great video. Some of my favorite Patty Loveless songs to boot. I make my kids watch these kinds of videos all the time. It blows them away that hay was made this way, especially after they've been learning to rake and bale in air conditioned JD cabs. We're spoiled.

 

[AC Diesel]

When I was a teen in the early to mid 90's most folks around here were still stacking.
Some were using Farmhand stacking loaders, and quite a few of us were using slide stacker's. Most folks around here had truck sweep's though, they were a lot more fun for a young man to tear around on! I still think it was my favorite way to hay, we had a big crew and it was a lot of fun. I've always felt blessed to have had the opportunity to stack hay

 

[redrobin]

I gather from your diary entries that eating ment something to you and that in your early years your equipment was junk. :lol: Seems like the cow side of things went pretty good for y'all.

The tractors were fairly new, all things considered. Our oldest tractor was the 1948 IHC "M" which pulled the stacker (it was 20 years old). The 1958 IHC 450 mower tractor was only ten years old. The "reversed" sweep tractor was a 1957 IHC Super C (11 years old), and the 1958 IHC Super C rake tractor was ten years old. The 1957 John Deere 450 "industrial" crawler was just 11 years old. These tractors were fairly simple, but functional. Our family has never been noted to be particularly good mechanics.

You can tell by any "selfie" photos that eating has always meant something to me.

My post sounded offensive after reading it again. Sorry if it was. I still own a WD45 allis chalmers and its still a real good little tractor and fun to drive. I look for work for it just because it's fun to ride. Put a new radiator and back tire on her this year.