Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Images from the Past

 If the old saying “The hair of the dog will cure what ails you” then Barb and I should live forever. Most people think this saying refers to having a drink in the morning to cure a hangover. While that might be true, I bet you didn’t know it originally came from an old folk remedy of treating a dog bite by placing burnt hair of a dog on a dog bite?

In any case if dog hair is good for you, we will live to like 1,000. Anyone that has dogs that shed knows exactly what I mean. No matter how much you clean there is always dog hair everywhere. On our clothes, on the floor, on the table, floating though the camper when the windows are open. I can count at least a dozen on my keyboard as I type this! Do you ever wonder how many dog hairs you ingest in a day? Even though Barb is a clean freak it seems like we pick at least one dog hair out of every meal….and those are the ones we see! They have gotten so they don’t bother me (as much) which is saying a lot as I am somewhat of a freak myself when it comes to germs. But dog hair is just another source protein in our house.  Even though Barb takes out Dakota’s bed from under the table every day or so sometimes there is enough hair under there you would swear she had a puppy!

We love our dogs but ugh! Do they make a non-shedding lab?!?!?

Speaking of dogs. Barb left me once again for her fall trip to see our daughter, leaving the dogs and I to fend for ourselves. Without Barb around to dote over them this is the view I get at every meal……

"Please Papa, may we have a scrap?"

I got a couple of comments/questions on the last blog. One was how we came to be connected with Farmer Bob and his family and are able to do this. This couple works the beet harvest and are looking for something else to do. For those of you who have read the blog for the past few years know that Barb and I have known Chris since the day he was born and have known the rest of the gang since Chris started dating Holly. So we kinda had an in when it comes to helping out here. That being said, I don’t think I have met one farmer out there who is not looking for help. The challenge is connecting two complete strangers and hoping it is a good fit. If someone is seriously interested in working on a farm I would not hesitate to go to one of the larger farms in the area you are looking at and just knock on their door. Farmers are great people and if they are not looking for help chances are they know someone who is.

The other comment I got from someone on the last post was how dumping the grain from the combine into the cart reminded him of when he used to fly in formation and refuel his jet in the air; flying within feet of another aircraft and tethering a fuel line from one plane to another. To that I say yes, it is exactly like that except we are going 3mph instead of 300mph and if there is a mishap in the tractor you do not burst into flames and plummet to the ground. Other than that, they are exactly alike!

On the farm work front I am happy to report that all the peas, canola, wheat and oats have been harvested! That just leaves the beans which will not be ready for a couple more weeks. In the meantime there is a lot of harrowing to do to get the fields ready for next spring. This week's mishaps in harrowing, hey, that would make a great title for a reality show....Mishaps in Harrowing.... Anywho, they included a flat tire and a broken weld. I find it amazing the context RV'ers (and other non-farming folks) take mishaps compared to farmers. In the RV world a flat tire or something else that needs repair is a pretty major event. In the farm world it is just another day. It has actually taught me that little mishaps like this don't need to ruin your day, you just need to take a deep breath and move forward. 

Nothing like having your own on board welder!

But Bob and I did take a day off to go to the Hawk Farm Museum outside of Wolford North Dakota. It is about 2 hours west and a little north. They have a campground/museum right on their farm property with farm equipment dating back over 100 years.

It was very interesting to see how farm equipment has changed over the years. From single spade horse drawn plows, hand thrashers and balers. 

Horse drawn sickle mower with a grain drill in the background

Horse drawn swather 
Some of the items bordered on the truly bizarre. I should have left the tag off this and had people guess what is was. This went in the calf's nose. When the calf tried to nurse, the spikes poked the cow which in turn kicked the calf and prevented it from nursing. Genus! 

Can anyone guess what this is? Give up? It is a horse drawn school bus. Some of these came complete with a small wood burning stoves to keep the kids warm in the winter. 

Once they got to school, their room looked something like this....
There were other building too. Like the General Store, the church and the ever creepy Doll House...



Who can resist just stopping and staring at a 1921 Harley Davidson!
This old push lawn mower sent chills down my spine as I recalled using one of these in our yard as a child. 

It is interesting to see how this old equipment worked and how many of todays combines use the same basic principle. Except now the combines had 40+’ heads instead of 5’ heads. Farmers of today have it made compared to their ancestors. Bob showed me some of the equipment they had when he was a young lad on the farm and had to suffer through 100° day in open air combines with no AC and covered in dirt. He said he had to cover his mouth and nose because he was in a constant dust storm!

This combine is similar to one Bob used back in the day

Bob too is starting out his own collection of antique farm equipment. He picked up an old thrasher which now proudly resides on a hill within a pasture section. 


He loves old Farmall tractors and now has 3 in his collection.

As well as old cast iron tractor seats. 

Just a few of the seats in Bob's collection
At least that is what I called them and was quickly corrected and told that cast iron seats are actually from horse drawn equipment. The cast iron seats were replaced with stamped steel seats once tractors came into the picture. 

He also has a variety of other antique pieces of equipment which include cultivators, sickle mowers, potato pickers and others. 

The countryside around here is a museum unto itself. You just have to look in the right places. Out in the prairie hidden in the weeds are all sorts of hidden treasures. Bob and I went on a scavenger hunt of our own one day looking for treasures from the bygone era where I got my first cast iron grain drill end as well as a drill meter!

The triangle piece on the end is what we are after!
Drill meter

We also had time to put out a few trail cameras and caught some pretty cool images. Most of them were of deer which are pretty cool but it is the ones of other critters I find just as interesting....

The deer and raccoons get together for a secret meeting....

This skunk of course was late for the meeting
This owl was just hanging out on a barrel
A camera curious doe

Then of course you have what you are really hoping to capture on camera!

This guy is just losing his velvet

So with Barb gone for 8 more days, the dogs and I fending for ourselves on what scraps we can find. After two days I already see a problem though. The dog hair is already starting to accumulate. We just might have enough for another dog by the time she gets back. I shall name it Hair Ball!

28 comments:

  1. Oh how I hate those skunks!! See how fun those game cameras are? Definitely no AC on the farm in the old days. That's what those red and blue handkerchiefs were for. We came in at the end of the day looking like a ghost waiting to hold you up. You might use one in your camper for the dog hair! LOL

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    1. Speaking of skunks, Chris picked on up in his combine header last week. I don't think it faired well for the skunk but sure smelled in his cab for a few days!

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  2. Just curious. How many sources of protein are in your house is you say hair is one of them? That was a very nice museum you went to. If we are ever and I mean ever up there, I will check it out. We have a bet that you might eat one of the dogs before Barb gets back to rescue you. I fear for Daisy.

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    1. So far Daisy is safe. Barb left a half a dozen containers in the freezer to get me by. Check back at the end of the week and I will let you know if she is in jeopardy.

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  3. Love the mid-field welding repairs. Those are a little tougher for the USAF to do in flight. Bob has a nice Farmall collection.

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    1. Good point, that is one thing I just don't see them doing while on the move!

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  4. No outfit is complete without a healthy dose of dog hair! Ah, I remember those days well. When my kids were little, one day a friend asked me why my kids never seemed to get sick as often as hers? I said, "it's the dog". Difference being, every time her kids touched a dog, she made them wash their hands. On the other hand, my kids had the dog in their beds and would share food with the dog ... ice cream cone ... kids would lick one side, dog the other or maybe the same side. Ah, what's a few germs or dog hair amongst family? We love'em!

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    1. I have pretty much given up trying to keep the dog hair off my clothing. Oh, I will change my shirt when it is really out of control but for the most part it is just part of my attire now a days.

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  5. An amusing and educational post as always! They may be hairy beasts, but who could resist Daisy and Dakota!
    Loved the push mower--my Dad had one, too, which I kept (and used on more than one occasion) at our townhouse and then our single family home. I looked like Fred Flintstone using a tool from pre-historic times! Sue

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    1. I did not remember even having one until I saw that one in the museum. Then the memories cam flooding back. We lived on a hill when I was growing up and it seemed it was up hill no matter which way you went!

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  6. Farming is a tough life but very rewarding I bet. Great game camera shots and some nice looking bucks!

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    1. The big ones are starting to show themselves. Now, we just need to wait for a really big one!

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  7. We definitely understand your plight of dog hair. lol Freya is bad enough but when we have Kristi's two large dogs for the weekend the hair multiplies ten fold. Take care and don't starve. lol

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    1. I could not imagine having 3 large dogs in the house. Especially in the spring when it starts to get hot!

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  8. Pretty cool museum. Are your treasure finds going in the new house? Love the doggie faces! I hope you stacked up on crackers!

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    1. My treasures will most likely go in the garage as that theme just would not fit with everything else in the house.

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  9. Amazingly, our little Indy does not shed hair! What a gift we got with this little girl who has brought so much joy to us these past two months.

    Love seeing all that old farm equipment. Hope you survive on your daily dose of fur-balls for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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    1. You picked a good one there! We have always had shedding dogs but I don't think we have ever had one that sheds this much!

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  10. I saw a lot of the equipment similar to what My Grandfather used in your museum visit but that is how you start and just keep improving to make what it is today.
    You'll have to Google a recipe for all that Dog Hair.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. One cannot help but wonder what improvements will take place over the next 100 years....

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  11. I loved this post! We own Farmall's too, our favorite kind of tractor! They don't run, just for yard art. Love the museum and Bob' tractor seats! Cool way to display them!

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    1. I think Bob would like to get each model of Farmall but he is going to need to build a shed just for them if he does!

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  12. LOL... After owning German Shepherds for 15 years, we have simply come to accept that dog hair is a part of our life. We walk on it, we sleep in it, we wear it, we eat it... It's a nightmare, but every time we consider shaving the dog, he growls at us. Ah well. I guess there are worse things. :)

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    1. Do people shave German Shepard's? We used to shave our springer and golden. It was hilarious when they first got shaved, they would run around like crazy showing off their new styles!

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  13. Cool trip through the museum, we had some of the same stuff on our farm back in the 70's. The first tractor I learned to drive was a Farmall C with the steel seat on a spring. It was fun to bounce on the spring lol. Love the extreme closeup of the deer eyes.

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    1. You can collect some of those tractors for relatively little money. I think you could probably get a C like the one you grew up with for $3,000 - $4,000.

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  14. This was a gag and laughing post. Your description of all the dog hair makes me shutter. You better get cleaning if you only have 8 days left!! Hope Barb had a fun time on PA. Love that owl photo you captured. Enjoy your remaining days.

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    1. Oh how I know you look forward to this time of year when hunting season opens! At least with us not being able to get to Ontario you did not have to see any of the bear hunting pictures!

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