IH Tractors on Montana Farm

[Fred B]

Well here if we have one cotton plant left in the field we are told to go and make it non hostable ( destroy it). usually there are many. and if not taken care of timely, you will be fined, with all other related fees.  As I under stand it if a state has no history of growing cotton, it's illegal to plant cotton in that state. You can see our goverment is serious about this. I would think if a county agent is not doing his job, no one is going to find humor in the situation. I'm not humorless, but when it cost me money, that 's when I become humorless. I, am not going to report anyone, but I would expect someone   to do the right thing.                       Fred B

[Troy Vetsch22]

I sure enjoy seeing all of the posts on here, I have been limiting my time on facebook to once a day for about 15 minutes. I have been spending more time on here and on smokstak, reading and learning about things that actually pertain to my hobbies and interests. So Thank you everyone, I will post some updates later on my Oliver 70 project. 

Troy

[gearheadmb]

On 1/7/2022 at 2:55 PM, Old Binder Guy said:

 

twostepn2001, as a kid I was at uncle Fritz's house with Dad and his brothers. After dinner (noontime in Montana) the guys all went to work. Before I left the house I remember how when Uncle Fritz chawed off a corner of his Spark Plug chawin' terbaccy, it looked so delicious (like a Hershey bar), that I had to try a small corner. I went outside, turning white, then green. I walked over behind the cook car and was talking to that Sergeant we used to watch on TV. His name was Sergeant O'Rourke. I was hollering HIS name. "O'Rourke, O'Rourke." He never answered me though. 

When I was probably 11 or 12 I was stacking hay bales on the wagon with my dad when he offered me my first RedMan. I of course was always trying to prove that I was grown so I accepted. It was a sunny day, hotter than ****. I did ok for a few minutes, but it wasn't long until I was sitting on the edge of the wagon with my head hanging. Dad says "You doing ok? You dont look so good." "I'm fine" I told him between gags. He was laughing under his breath for the rest of the day.

[Sledgehammer]

I guess it’s a good thing when I grew my 10-12 cotton plants a few years ago that I pulled up the plants and burned them afterwards. Not sure if Illinois ever had any commercial cotton or not but I’m betting mine was the biggest crop around that year. If that makes me an outlaw, I guess I’ll just worry about it later.  It was fun to grow.  

[twostepn2001]

Friend of mine went to Olney, Texas yesterday and picked up his new Airtractor ag plane. l think it's a model #602. He said costs was almost $1.7 million. He ordered it first the week in December and he got to watch the very first test flight of it last week. His first flight in it wasn't very long, only about 70 miles from Olney to his home near Decatur, Texas.

[Sledgehammer]

1 hour ago, twostepn2001 said:

Friend of mine went to Olney, Texas yesterday and picked up his new Airtractor ag plane. l think it's a model #602. He said costs was almost $1.7 million. He ordered it first the week in December and he got to watch the very first test flight of it last week. His first flight in it wasn't very long, only about 70 miles from Olney to his home near Decatur, Texas.

Second pic makes it look a lot larger than the first one. I suppose they come in various sizes like anything else?  Anyhow, I bet the man in the picture isn’t 4’ tall the way it looks 😊

[Old Binder Guy]

5 hours ago, twostepn2001 said:

Friend of mine went to Olney, Texas yesterday and picked up his new Airtractor ag plane. l think it's a model #602. He said costs was almost $1.7 million. He ordered it first the week in December and he got to watch the very first test flight of it last week. His first flight in it wasn't very long, only about 70 miles from Olney to his home near Decatur, Texas.

twostepn2001, Wow, that is so neat! Lotsa $bux though.

The first ag sprayer I ever saw, in 1954 was a J-3 Piper cub with an up graded 85 hp (Lycoming? or Continental?) engine and a 20 gallon spray tank in the front seat. I remember he chopped the ends of his wings and made quarter inch plywood covers that were slightly larger than the fabric. There were "skinned off" places where it had scraped on power lines!

He also put a fertilizer unit in the front seat of his WWII surplus Steerman biplane. He later mounted a bubble top on the pilot's seat. After fertilizing with it for some time, it got tail heavy. A few granules each fill up would get in that cockpit and roll to the back of the airplane. Pretty soon it got to where he could barely "trim it out." He opened an inspection plate at the rear and found that extra fertilizer resting back there. The reason for the bubble. This is one industry that has really blossomed in my lifetime. Gary😁

[jeeper61]

Brunswick, Maine - 1905

A House was being moved and the railroad company was afraid the house would damage its tracks.

So they moved the locomotives to block the crossing on Main street. 

After some negotiation the house was allowed to cross the tracks and move to its new location.

[Sledgehammer]

9 hours ago, jeeper61 said:

Brunswick, Maine - 1905

A House was being moved and the railroad company was afraid the house would damage its tracks.

So they moved the locomotives to block the crossing on Main street. 

After some negotiation the house was allowed to cross the tracks and move to its new location.

That’s quite a standoff.....and quite a house!

[twostepn2001]

20 hours ago, Sledgehammer said:

I bet the man in the picture isn’t 4’ tall the way it looks

He is a pretty big feller but l don't know exactly how tall he is. But here while back some folks was teasing about how tiny his wife is. She came back with "l'm not tiny!!!  l'm almost 4'11"!!' 

16 hours ago, Old Binder Guy said:

This is one industry that has really blossomed in my lifetime. Gary

Stearmans was the plane of choice for ag applications back when l was a kid. l got my first camera for my l think 8th birthday, a little 'ol Kodak Brownie. l took tons of pics with it, 99% of them was pics of Dad's tractors doing different things around the farm. But through the years they all got lost because of various reasons...mostly divorce. But several years ago my sister found this pic of Lefty Gardner, a crop duster l took of him spraying by our house. lf that name sounds familiar it's because he was one of the original founders of the CAF (Confederate Air Force) and flew co-pilot with Randy Sohn when they first flew Fifi from California to Texas to begin her restoration. After he retired from spraying he flew White Lightning, a restored P-38 at air shows across the country.

One thing that stands out to me was that all of his Stearmans were done up like Case tractors.....a "Desert Tan" fuselage and with "Flambeau Red" wings. And also had a small fleet of Ford pickups painted the same colors.

[Old Binder Guy]

Yesterday afternoon, I had this post over half done, when Windows locked up my computer. All I could do is shut it off with the start button. When I got the computer straightened out later, I came here and my post was gone. So this morning, I came back here and was going to do all of the below all over again. Thank goodness, it kept everything I'd done to that point. But my photos that weren't posted disappeared. Thank goodness, this has taken only about 45 minutes to complete my post this morning. WHEW!!! I know... I need to get a life.

More stuff from Facebook, pretty much. This old gentleman is holding his "grain cradle" for cutting his crop. They learned to swing this in a wide arc cutting (wheat) grain, then dumping the cradle's collection of cut grain where it would be in a pile and later tied with green straw.

I was very blessed by one old friend of the family, dad's school mate, actually. When he retired from farming, he had an auction sale scheduled. I went down several days to help him get his shop cleaned out and into buckets and boxes for the hayrack on sale day. (I had an ulterior motive too! I wanted to know which boxes and buckets of his oodles of antiques goodies were placed too.) He gave me this grain cradle of his father's. His father and Grandpa Yaeger were "homesteader" next door neighbors back then.

Better yet, Paul said, "Just a minute I'll be right back." He was gone about 20 minutes while I kept filling buckets and boxes. He went to the house and crawled up into his attic with a flashlight. When Grandma Yaeger got her 16 tube Midwest short wave radio about ca. 1930, Paul Keller got Grandma's old Atwater Kent radio. This is my late brother Bill with that Midwest radio.

Paul came with this Atwater Kent Model 10 "Breadboard" AM radio in his arms. He was gone longer because he couldn't find the shoe box with the O1A tubes. I was elated to get this back. I'd heard about the "breadboard" radio, but had never known what it looked like. Years later, I bought an old Atwater Kent later model enclosed radio, but it had all five of the O1A tubes, for $50. I later sold that radio for $50 (without the tubes)! This is the Breadboard Dad and his brothers bought Grandma in 1923. I have it all wired in at Silver Creek and it works like a champ. Insulators on fence posts with a 100' antenna too.

So much for Grain Cradle talk. How about potato diggers?

 

And how about A grass and clover seeder from way back? I've not ever seen anything like this.

I've seen these "rock Johnnies" on my uncle's ranch. I'd wondered if Indians had done them? They always said sheep herders did them. I'd wondered if it marked where a watering hole, etc. was or were they just bored?

This gravel pit owner in North Dakota was very kind to this old house in his gravel pit. All a guy needs to be in his own home is a nice ladder?

A 

Work Horses:

Farmer mining his own coal out of a vein.

If this photo is a repeat from my last bunch of photos I posted, just enjoy it. I remember getting to ride on our hay rack bobsled in the winter 1947 before they sold the last of our workhorses.

Horses and wagons at the grain elevator in Lankin, North Dakota. I've never seen a stairway on the outside of a grain elevator. The ones I'm familiar with have a rope, counter balance "lift."

Teams and buggies in winter in North Dakota.

A gentleman farmer in North Dakota had all sorts of nice photos on his page. (almost like going to my page!) For me to steal! He still has his father's 20-40 1915 Case gas tractor shown here threshing for a neighbor years ago.

Threshing on their own place with the 20-40 Case.

His father owned this ca 1925 Model T Ford Coupe that he is fixing a tire along a country road in North Dakota. Roger, those have to be aftermarket six bolt wheels?

Some time later, the same ca 1925 Model T Ford Coupe. His father was sitting inside the car and holding the steering wheel in his hand after the crash.

His father owned this McCormick-Deering Farmall F-12. And this son still owns it. The gentleman who owns it is driving the F-12 and his older brother is operating the binder.

Here his father is harvesting corn. Maybe not like they harvest corn today??

This is a photo of his Farmall F-12 now with the corn planter on back. His F-12 has a muffler.

This was a farmer's meeting in North Dakota. A fella could retire if he had those automobiles in his possession!

A Studebaker truck is hauling new Studebaker Champion automobiles.

I just stole this photo this morning. It is an earlier 9 hp Case portable steam engine. The taller smokestack is the identifier.

Son Mike and I used to operate this 9 hp Case at the Barnes Steam and Power Show at Belgrade, Montana in the late 1980's and early 1990s. We sawed a "day's worth" of lodgepole pine logs for firewood for the other steam engines operating there.

Since I had it in my files, this is an early 9 hp Case steam traction engine with a tall smokestack. These are a fun little engine to operate. It is the smallest Case engine built in the later "spring mounted" type.

I was blessed to get to help operate the late Justin J. Hingtgen's 9 hp (30) Case at Cedar Falls, Iowa in 1958 with my lifetime friend Dean Bellinger.

This is a Geiser Peerless (TT??) engine threshing with a slat stacker machine in Kansas. I was baffled by the tripod and not used to seeing these. The thresher men in Oregon and Washington did something like this to tip the barges of cut grain at the threshing machine due to Header and Barge threshing.

This is a Geiser Peerless Z-Z engine stack threshing. These Z-Z's and Z-3 Peerless engines had a coal bin under the operator's platform about the size of a shoe box. I've yet to find a photo of one that doesn't have a home made coal or fuel platform behind the engine's deck. He's burning coal in it too!

This is a Huber return flue engine with an aftermarket spark arrestor pulling a Minneapolis threshing machine probably heading out for the threshing season. Roger, I had to do a double take. I'm used to seeing the later style of strap iron spoke Minneapolis threshing machine wheels.

I got some IH Farmall M photos on Facebook last night. I'm not familiar with this type of a hay baler it's pulling in the hay field. It appears to have some kind (maybe two cylinder?) of Wisconsin air cooled engine? Is the baler a Case, or a New Holland? I sure don't know? It is a hand-wire tie baler though.

An earlier IH Farmall M is pulling a rubber tire hayrack and a loose hay loader. I would think a wide front end under that M would be better for not driving on the windrow of hay?

And I'm certainly not familiar with this small metal McCormick pull type combine with the sacking attachment. But, I'm sure familiar with sitting on the seat of an IH Farmall M!

You corn (or cotton) guys need to tell me what crop is being planted here with this IH Farmall F-12. Another F-12 with a muffler on it.

It's great to see two other McCormick-Deering Farmall F-12s with mufflers. That makes this F-12 with a muffler at home as an IH Tractor on a Montana Farm.  Gary😁

 

 

 

 

[jeeper61]

Ran across this one I know the truck is a 50"s Diamond-T what is the dozer?

 

[MacAR]

7 hours ago, Old Binder Guy said:

You corn (or cotton) guys need to tell me what crop is being planted here with this IH Farmall F-12. Another F-12 with a muffler on it

Looks like corn to me if I blow the photo up. That's the darndest planter set up I believe I've ever seen. They almost look like Cole units but the hoppers are different. Wonder what they really are? 

Mac

[oldscoutdiesel]

The Wisconsin engine on the baler looks similar to the V-4's Case used to put on their A-6 pull type combine in the 50's.  Neighbor had one and if he shut it off for dinner, he usually took a nap as well because the Wisconsin would never start easily until it had cooled off quite a bit.  He was a pretty good mechanic and had tried just about everything he could think to improve that hard start problem.

[Old Binder Guy]

1 hour ago, jeeper61 said:

Ran across this one I know the truck is a 50"s Diamond-T what is the dozer?

 

Jeeper61, It's hard to tell, At first I thought maybe it was an Allis Chalmers because of the color, but looking at the shape of the hood curve, I think it is a D-7 Caterpillar? I've been known to be mistaken though. Seldom wrong, but often mistaken.  Gary😉

 

[hardtail]

I'm inclined to agree with Gary, would have been nicer to have a little more side view, great period pics

 

[jeeper61]

I was thinking CAT also

Looks like there is a name at the top of the blade I thought Caterpillar would be about the right length for that size plate.

Not sure if CAT put their name there like IH did with the man on a tractor logo   

[TN Hillbilly]

Gary, the coal mining picture reminds me of my great-grandfather, who was a farmer, Baptist preacher, and sometimes coal miner.  He had his own little mine there on the farm, where he dug coal for his own use.  I've never found the location of it, I'm sure it was just a hole in the side of the ridge, probably long ago collapsed.  But that used to be a common thing around here, to have your own coal mine on your land.  There is now a gas well on the farm, with a supply of free-to-us natural gas.  My grandfather heated with it for years.

Hadn't thought of all that in a long time.  Thanks for the reminder. 

[iowaboy1965]

1 hour ago, TN Hillbilly said:

Gary, the coal mining picture reminds me of my great-grandfather, who was a farmer, Baptist preacher, and sometimes coal miner.  He had his own little mine there on the farm, where he dug coal for his own use.  I've never found the location of it, I'm sure it was just a hole in the side of the ridge, probably long ago collapsed.  But that used to be a common thing around here, to have your own coal mine on your land.  There is now a gas well on the farm, with a supply of free-to-us natural gas.  My grandfather heated with it for years.

Hadn't thought of all that in a long time.  Thanks for the reminder. 

I'm told my great great grandfather located the original family farm where he did as the lay of the land made him think there might be coal there. (There wasn't) He had been a coal miner in England before imagrating to the US.  I meet my carpool and park in the motel parking lot that used to be part of that farm. When the interstate system was built almost a 100 years after great great grandpa located there my grandparents were given the choice of selling the land or losing it to imminent domain tho it may not have been called that then? Evidently an interchange was planned for the area.

[Delta Dirt]

I keep having a hard time looking at the tractor from admiring the Diamond T.  

That Diamond T would be classy even today around my place------,-thumbs up!!!!!

 

DD

[Sledgehammer]

There was some shallow vein coal around here also. Some people dug their own coal in a few places. We burn a lot of coal at work but that isn’t very popular in culture today sadly. Kind of a shame too because people still like electricity and it has yet to go out of style. I’ve got around a ton of high end coal from a vein in West Virginia for my coal forge. It makes more BTU’s than the local stuff which makes a big difference in certain processes. Use the propane ribbon burner forge I built more now but still have the knowledge and coal forge for a backup just in case. This came from the gas forge yesterday. I had been wanting to try my hand at a “wheat head” or “chevron” twist for a while. It turned into a decent fire poker 

[jeeper61]

3 hours ago, Delta Dirt said:

I keep having a hard time looking at the tractor from admiring the Diamond T.  

That Diamond T would be classy even today around my place------,-thumbs up!!!!!

 

DD

Sure is a good looker 

Looks like diesel it has the external oil cooler and Donaldson air filter set up, likely a Cummins.

Not sure I still have the skill to drive it with a D-7 on the back its likely a twin stick. 

[Old Binder Guy]

On 1/23/2022 at 6:21 AM, jeeper61 said:

I was thinking CAT also

Looks like there is a name at the top of the blade I thought Caterpillar would be about the right length for that size plate.

Not sure if CAT put their name there like IH did with the man on a tractor logo   

jeeper61, My uncle's TD-14 with a Bucyrus Erie dozer didn't have the IH logo, but my ol' TD-18A 181 Series had it on that front plate.  Gary😉

[Old Binder Guy]

14 hours ago, Sledgehammer said:

There was some shallow vein coal around here also. Some people dug their own coal in a few places. We burn a lot of coal at work but that isn’t very popular in culture today sadly. Kind of a shame too because people still like electricity and it has yet to go out of style. I’ve got around a on of high end coal from a vein in West Virginia for my coal forge. It makes more BTU’s than the local stuff which makes a big difference in certain processes. Use the propane ribbon burner forge I built more now but still have the knowledge and coal forge for a backup just in case. This came from the gas forge yesterday. I had been wanting to try my hand at a “wheat head” or “chevron” twist for a while. It turned into a decent fire poker 

That is some great forge work, Todd. Wow and they don't have a "WOW" like button. I sure worry about you stepping on some hot coals with your feet though. That would really burn. Gary😬

[Sledgehammer]

6 minutes ago, Old Binder Guy said:

That is some great forge work, Todd. Wow and they don't have a "WOW" like button. I sure worry about you stepping on some hot coals with your feet though. That would really burn. Gary😬

I appreciate the concern Gary. I may live out in the country but we do wear shoes normally. I even got a pair or two of socks for special occasions. 😉  
 

Funny story about socks vs no socks. There is a place about 5 miles south of my house known as the Sock Nation. It is a joke now but the original story was that people on one side of the creek were better off financially and could afford socks while the people on the other side were the Barefoot Nation and could not. I can’t speak to the truth but it is a very old story and I’m sure there are roots in the truth somewhere.