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Post by Village Idiot on Jan 8, 2020 18:52:55 GMT -5
Standing on the wagon waiting to grab another bale and stack it, my fascination came with watching the twine tying up those bales tied into a knot so quickly. It just took a split second, which was long enough to watch if you wanted to maintain your balance on the wagon.
Those knotters were pretty involved things, and people used to go to knotting school to learn how to repair them. I wonder if people learn how to fix those things anymore.
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Post by drlj on Jan 8, 2020 20:01:31 GMT -5
Standing on the wagon waiting to grab another bale and stack it, my fascination came with watching the twine tying up those bales tied into a knot so quickly. It just took a split second, which was long enough to watch if you wanted to maintain your balance on the wagon. Those knotters were pretty involved things, and people used to go to knotting school to learn how to repair them. I wonder if people learn how to fix those things anymore. YouTube. Look up fixing pa’s baler. |
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Post by John B on Jan 8, 2020 21:15:52 GMT -5
People, PLEASE! Vise-Grip, invented in the great state of Nebraska (DeWitt, to be exact) by a Danish immigrant. I still have my gold-plated 75th anniversary pair.
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Post by Chesapeake on Jan 8, 2020 21:26:59 GMT -5
This thread makes me want to go out and plant something.
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Post by epaul on Jan 8, 2020 21:30:19 GMT -5
It has me googling to see if I get my very own Vice-Grip.
(Jeff has the coolest stuff)
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Post by John B on Jan 8, 2020 22:20:15 GMT -5
Oh good Lord.
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Post by epaul on Jan 8, 2020 22:57:27 GMT -5
Ooh, you got one them things, too?
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Post by millring on Jan 9, 2020 15:40:35 GMT -5
I took all the computerized elements out of my van so that it could neither be commandeered against my will by some black-ops governmental agency driving me where I don't want to go, or some ruthless corporate entity extorting me for more money just to keep it running. To get around I simply removed all the floor boards. Yabba Dabba Do. |
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Post by jdd2 on Jan 9, 2020 17:39:01 GMT -5
Standing on the wagon waiting to grab another bale and stack it, my fascination came with watching the twine tying up those bales tied into a knot so quickly. It just took a split second, which was long enough to watch if you wanted to maintain your balance on the wagon. Those knotters were pretty involved things, and people used to go to knotting school to learn how to repair them. I wonder if people learn how to fix those things anymore. Aren't/Weren't balers on the dangerous side? (lose an arm, or something like that?) |
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Post by epaul on Jan 9, 2020 18:13:51 GMT -5
Well, he got knocked in the head several times, but no harm done.
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Post by Village Idiot on Jan 9, 2020 19:04:12 GMT -5
Standing on the wagon waiting to grab another bale and stack it, my fascination came with watching the twine tying up those bales tied into a knot so quickly. It just took a split second, which was long enough to watch if you wanted to maintain your balance on the wagon. Those knotters were pretty involved things, and people used to go to knotting school to learn how to repair them. I wonder if people learn how to fix those things anymore. Aren't/Weren't balers on the dangerous side? (lose an arm, or something like that?) I believe that would be a grain auger. Or a power take off. |
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Post by drlj on Jan 9, 2020 19:41:53 GMT -5
I was once treed by two 350 pound sows. They would have eaten me if I hadn’t gotten up that tree. My uncle rescued me a couple hours later on horseback. This happened in Iowa. Iowa can be a dangerous place.
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Post by epaul on Jan 9, 2020 19:55:43 GMT -5
Balers have taken a few arms. My neighbor lost his arm in a baler. Kept on farming with one arm. He was a tough son of bitch. Rents the farm out now to a nephew, but he farmed with one arm for 30 plus years.
He lost his arm in the baler the same way quite few others did, the baler intake was plugged and he tried free it up without stopping the machine. There is a short conveyor belt system with spikes that picks up the swath of cut hay and feeds it into the compactor/plunger section of the machine. Sometimes a thick or too wet wad of the swath of cut hay would feed in too quickly and plug/get stuck between the pickup and roller compressor portion of the machine, so the operator would jump off the tractor and lean over the pickup/conveyor and pull out some of the hay plugging the intake so the rest of it could feed in smoothly.
It is recommended that the operator disengage the pto and stop the baler before reaching in to grab the plug. Dennis didn't. Nor would lots of others. I'm not sure why. It saves a little time if the baler is allowed to keep operating and most of the time it is simple matter to pull out a little plug.
But there is this deal, if you are pulling on something and that something suddenly pulls back, your grip on that something tightens automatically in response (instead of letting go). And that's what happened to Dennis. He reached and tugged at some stuck hay, the machine tugged it back, Dennis didn't let go in time and his arm was pulled into the compression rollers along with the hay. The baler pulled his arm all the way in up to his shoulder and there it all sat, the baler couldn't pull Dennis in any further and Dennis couldn't pull his arm out.
A neighbor heard Dennis hollering and raced over and stopped the machine. Half an hour later, a team of emergency folks got him out. But his arm was gone. That same neighbor saved Dennis' life again a couple years later, but that's a tale for another day.
The previous owners of that farm, Hans and Gladys, only had, by the time they retired and moved to town, enough fingers left between the two of them to complete three hands. It took them a while to get used to the speed of the pulleys and gears on those fancy new machines.
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Post by dradtke on Jan 9, 2020 20:31:16 GMT -5
Speaking of baling wire, that's how my step-father lost an eye.
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Post by Village Idiot on Jan 9, 2020 20:58:26 GMT -5
Speaking of farming accidents, I've seen too many farmers with no ring finger on their left hand. I'm not a farmer and have never been one, but I did have what could have been a close incident with my wedding ring catching on something when helping someone move a large radial arm saw. I haven't worn a wedding ring since.
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Post by Village Idiot on Jan 9, 2020 21:07:05 GMT -5
Balers have taken a few arms. I know of people (one personally, at 80, who has done farm safety talks at schools ever since) who have lost an arm sticking their hand in a moving grain auger, and people who have lost an arm getting a loose sleeve caught in a pto. I've never heard of anyone sticking their hand into a baler intake, although that's totally believable. |
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Post by Don Clark on Jan 9, 2020 21:48:17 GMT -5
Let's not forget tar tape or chewing gum.
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Post by Don Clark on Jan 9, 2020 21:53:19 GMT -5
I was once treed by two 350 pound sows. They would have eaten me if I hadn’t gotten up that tree. My uncle rescued me a couple hours later on horseback. This happened in Iowa. Iowa can be a dangerous place. LJ.....that likely wouldn't have happened if they hadn't seen you coming at them wearing those high boots.  |
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Post by Chesapeake on Jan 9, 2020 22:57:52 GMT -5
When I was growing up, I heard a family story about how my grandfather invented the modern seed drill.
Sherrod Montgomery Smith (1859 - 1932) farmed a fair sized piece of land in eastern North Carolina. This was a family tradition ever since that strain of the Smith clan came over from England in 1695. Monty was a good blacksmith. He made a lot of his own tools and various farming implements, as many did in those days. When my last surviving aunt died, I came into possession of a one-shot pistol that he made.
According to the story, Monty designed and fabricated a device for planting cotton. I don't know if it worked for other crops, but cotton is what I heard it was for. One day the local John Deere rep came by, saw the machine, and asked if it was all right if he made some drawings. Monty, simple farmer that he was, said sure, and a few months later Deere came out with their drill.
I can think of a lot of reasons to question the veracity of this tale, but I'm sticking to it.
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Post by david on Jan 10, 2020 17:05:02 GMT -5
I never met any farmers that lost their arms in balers, but I personally met a few snakes that did. It was never a welcome encounter. Usually it was when I was loading the little hay bales, 40 to 80 pounders, via a pop up loader onto a hay truck and usually they were dead. But we would occasionally need to walk through the fields and roll the bales onto the other side so they would dry out a bit before loading. I met some live ones there. They did not seem to like being halfway stuck in a bale.
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