Farm Stories
i was just talking to my dad on msn tonight and apparently he got his tractor and drills stuck in the mud while seeding today. he operates a 4880 massey ferguson tractor with 320 horse power, pulling a 41 foot bourgault air drill, a 4350 bourgault air cart with a capacity of 350 bushels, and a liquid fertilizer cart being pulled behind that. he got stuck at 3p.m. this afternoon and didn't get out until 830p.m. this evening. in order to get out he had unhook the fertilizer cart from the air cart, and the air cart from the drills. he then had to enlist the aid of the r.m.'s grader and backhoe to pull the stuck equipment out of the muck because none of our other tractors would pull it out. unfortunately he never thought to get any pictures with his camera phone, probably because knew i would get a hold of them if he did and post them online.
also earlier this year dad seeded over a pile of flax straw that he had burned earlier thinking the fire had been extinguished. unfortunately there must have been some embers still burning and he got the grease that has accumulated around the pivoting part of the tractor on fire and nearly lit the whole tractor on fire. he also was at the wrong place at the wrong time twice this spring. once some residents from north of our land at archers lit a bush on our land on fire to drive deer out in order to shoot them. to stop the fire from spreading he attempted to put it out by using his tractor and drills. in the process he melted some of the hoses running from the air tank to the drills. another incident involved two men, one a cop, one a pastor(you would think they would know not to play with guns or fire). they found a flair gun and decided to shoot it into the air. they then went into the pastors farm house for dinner. unbenounced to them the flair ignited our neighbours field and spread to ours where my dad was seeding. again he used his tractor and drills to put out the fire, again melting hoses in the process.
i remember last fall while we were combining oats we got the front end of the combine extremely plugged up around four in the afternoon. the oats were very damp and it was nearly impossible to make any progress unplugging the combine. i thought maybe we should try to light the oats on fire but decided against suggesting my idea because it would probably be summarily rejected by my dad and uncle as stupid. around seven or eight that night they came up with the same idea on their own and lit the oats embedded in the combine on fire. sure enough it worked at getting the combine unplugged and the fire didn't spread. i can think of a few more incidents involving our farm and either getting stuck or things lighting on fire but i feel i have written enough, i will save those stories for another time.
also earlier this year dad seeded over a pile of flax straw that he had burned earlier thinking the fire had been extinguished. unfortunately there must have been some embers still burning and he got the grease that has accumulated around the pivoting part of the tractor on fire and nearly lit the whole tractor on fire. he also was at the wrong place at the wrong time twice this spring. once some residents from north of our land at archers lit a bush on our land on fire to drive deer out in order to shoot them. to stop the fire from spreading he attempted to put it out by using his tractor and drills. in the process he melted some of the hoses running from the air tank to the drills. another incident involved two men, one a cop, one a pastor(you would think they would know not to play with guns or fire). they found a flair gun and decided to shoot it into the air. they then went into the pastors farm house for dinner. unbenounced to them the flair ignited our neighbours field and spread to ours where my dad was seeding. again he used his tractor and drills to put out the fire, again melting hoses in the process.
i remember last fall while we were combining oats we got the front end of the combine extremely plugged up around four in the afternoon. the oats were very damp and it was nearly impossible to make any progress unplugging the combine. i thought maybe we should try to light the oats on fire but decided against suggesting my idea because it would probably be summarily rejected by my dad and uncle as stupid. around seven or eight that night they came up with the same idea on their own and lit the oats embedded in the combine on fire. sure enough it worked at getting the combine unplugged and the fire didn't spread. i can think of a few more incidents involving our farm and either getting stuck or things lighting on fire but i feel i have written enough, i will save those stories for another time.
posted by Ross at 05:04
2 Comments:
A fellow down south of Wood Mountain at Grasslands National Park, lit his mostly harvested crop on fire when his combine scraped a rock. He spent a while trying to put it out by himself with a shovel, and then got help. Getting the fire truck down there from the Village was a chore, since it's an old big firetruck, and can barely reach highway speed. The Grasslands Park fire service was on hand too, and it wasn't very windy, so we got it under control before it took off too far. It burned a fence, and I heard later that because of the ignition source, the insurance didn't cover it, but it would have been covered if it were careless smoking. That didn't make sense to me.
I'd never light a fire in a combine header, there's too much dust and dry stuff lodged in places you might not see, that could explode or smolder unexpectedly. Glad it worked in your case though.
it was very damp and practically no dust. but yes things could have taken a turn for the worse. apparently that same year several other famers brought their combines into the local welding shop to use their torch to do the same thing we did.
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