Who are we??????? And where do we come from??????

sherpa · Jan 25, 2005

Grew up in town, very poor. Both parents came from farms. I always wanted to be on a farm or outside(guess is was in the blood). I later bought a vacation home in the mountains of NC 1983 so I could escape the city some. Retired early from banking and finance career in 2001, moved into my mountain home and wanted an old 8N to play with, (I use to work on flathead engines in the 50s as a kid with an older brother-in-law). The 8N impress me as to what it could do up here. Decided I wanted a modern tractor in 2003 and got the B20 TLB. I destroyed every hill I could, it was awesome. Had to learn it all by myself (no TBN friends yet). Got the TC33D this past November to supplement the B20 and do odd jobs to buy diesel. (wife wanted her own tractor)

Sherpa

Henro · Jan 25, 2005

For me it started when...I was about two years old. It seemed natural for me to grab for the toy cars/trucks/tractors/anything mechanical and gravitate towards the other boys, and to leave the baby dolls and girls to fend for themselves. (That was a shortcoming I did not overcome for another ten years or so…but that is another story... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif).

Grew up in a house near the city, on probably 1/8-acre of land. Fortunately behind us was a park and lots of woods, plenty of space for boys to run.

For 20+ years I had thought about having a “real” tractor. For some reason it never occurred to me to actually go out and buy one. Always seemed like a lot of money and we have always been the pay-as-you-go type, saving before spending, so it just never happened.

I think a couple decades of using a garden tractor with a small dump cart on the back taught me how useful a real tractor could be. Somehow, someway, I talked both my wife and myself into buying a tractor. It was the BX22 Kubota (at that time) that was the driving force. It just looked like it could be such a useful tool! I could not believe I was considering spending so much money for anything other than a car/truck though.

Shopping for best-dealer/best-price started, along with the evaluation of different brands/models and all that. Ended up spending even more than the BX cost and bought a bit larger. Happy I did.

A real tractor is everything I expected and could have wished for.

getut · Jan 25, 2005

My wife and I were both raised in a rural setting with parents that were far from rich. We both have a love for the country and blissfull privacy. We had to take what we got when we first got married, with an old mill house in an old Cannon Mills town (Rockwell, NC). Eventually saved up and got a house in a semi-rural development. That was just a stepping stone since there was still no real privacy with no lot bigger than 5/8 acre and no trees taller than 10ft in the whole development. We eventually got 5 acres in an extremely rural area and are loving it. I grew up working with farmers and had experience with tractors and now need my own to help keep up the 5 acres.

JerryG · Jan 25, 2005

I guess that mine is a little different that most above. My first job was at a Massey Ferguson dealership when I was 16. Sometimes, I think that they just hired me because they couldn't get me to leave. I worked there for a few years, until going back to school to be a tool room machinist and die maker. After being a machinist for a few years and teaching it at a Vo-Tech school for a while, went to college to learn Agribusiness. I didn't do anything in agriculture for years after getting out. Was in management for a couple of large companies for more years than I wish I had. I never was happy, all those years in the city. In 1998, I moved back to the small family farm and bought more land about a 1/2 down the road. I built some commercial poultry houses and have been farming and improving the place ever since. When we first moved home, all four of our kids hated it, I mean really hated it. After a years or two, they all told me that they had rather live in the country than any town that they had ever lived in. My wife and I sure are glad that we moved back to the farm. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

JerryG · Jan 25, 2005

Re: Who are we??????? And where do we come from?????? *DELETED* *DELETED* *DELETED*

Post deleted by JerryG

EddieWalker · Jan 25, 2005

I never wanted or planned on owning a tractor, but owning land has always been my goal. I grew up in the SF Bay Area of California. A friend owned some land in the Pleasonton hills that we hunted on. Then one day his dad bought a Kubota tractor with all sorts of attachments.

What is a Kubota I wondered? I'd never heard of the brand and figured it was some old piece of junk. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif Little did I realize that it would be such an amazing tool for working on their land.

My weekends were spent clearing bush, trees and moving dirt. It was awesome! We'd build sheds, fences and roads.

Then one day another friend who hunted with us said his boss would let us use his D4 Cat to build a pond. They brought it to the property and dropped it off. None of us had a clue how to use it, but I was volunteered. I made a mess and caused more damage than actually accomplishing anything, but I was hooked.

The owner of the dozer showed up a couple of days later and laughed at our attempts to build a dam. He cleaned it all up and re-did everything in a day. I was now hooked on what an operator can do!

He also brought in an old Ford backhoe for digging some trenches and installing culverts. I learned the basics then.

Ten years later I moved from California to Texas, bought some land and my first tractor. A Century 2535 with a 6ft shredder, box blade and 12 inch post hole digger.

I needed to move allot of dirt and dig some trenches, so right away, I also bought my 555E Backhoe.

As I got things cleaned up and progressed on my plans to develop my land, I made the big jump and bought a dozer. It's a Case 1550 with an 8 way blade and full ROPS.

I wouldn't consider myself much of a "tractor fanatic", but more of an artist who apreciates what the tool is capable of doing. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than seeing the results of something I thought up, dreamed about and planned out.

Moving dirt and putting it in just the right place is sculpting to me. It allows me to be creative in a practical way. It also provides me a sense of satisfaction to see what I've built on a daily basis and know what it took to build it.

Eddie

Indydirtfarmer · Jan 25, 2005

We have a WINNER!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif JerryG, you hit upon the subject I was fishing for. I didn't want to come straight out and ask. I just wanted "unsolicited comments" about raising kids in the country.

Like I said in my original post, I grew up on a farm. (a DAIRY farm, no less) When I was a teen-ager, I wanted as far from that place as I could get. (Kroger has milk.... Why do I need to milk cows????? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif)

When the wife and I first got married, we lived in "the city". /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif We were both "fish out of water". Then the kids came along. I wanted them to know what it was like growing up in the country. We moved back out near my parents, and I started helping dad on the farm again.

In 1984, he had enough of the dairy business. The herd was sold off, and it's been a grain farm every since /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Now my 2 "kids" have kids.... They were trying to distance themselves from the farm too. When their family started to grow, both wanted THEIR kids to enjoy what they did as youngens'.

My 4 year old grandson is becoming a "tractor nut" /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The nut doesn't fall far from the tree....(THANKFULLY)

Tractors4u · Jan 25, 2005

I am 35 years old and from as early as I can remember I got toy tractors for Christmas and birthdays. It started with my grandfather. He wasn't a farmer but he had a C Farmall that I thought was huge. That was the first tractor that I ever drove. I was taught how to drive it around age 11 or 12. From then on I was the regualr tractor driver. An aunt of mine married a farmer and from then on and gift from her was a toy John Deere. One Christmas aound 1973 or 74 I recieved an International pedal tractor. A few years ago my parents had it restored. I have been tractoring for longer than I can remember. Attached is a picture of my 7 year old when she was between 2 and 3 on the newly restored pedal tractor.

Bowhunter · Jan 25, 2005

I didn't grow up on a farm but worked on my uncle's farm every summer from age 11 to 15. Once I had my license I was old enough to work in a factory and make actual money. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif My first tractor experience was around age 9 on an old Allis Chalmers with tricycle front end, steering it around and around the hay field while Dad and my uncles loaded the wagon. I still remember the scowls when I ran over a bale with a rear tire. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Helping the uncle on the farm I got to help with hay, disking, chisel plowing, etc. There were no CUT's though, I think the smallest tractor was around 85 hp (except for that 1st Allis). I always enjoyed the tractor time.

After high school I attended Purdue where I studied Wildlife Management. While I no longer work in that field I use some of that knowledge to manage a small farm for quality deer hunting and use my little tractor to plant and manage a few food plots. I have almost as much fun tending to the food plots as I do hunting them. I also mow a 3 acre lawn, so some day I'll be upgrading to a newer larger tractor and it will have to have a FEL. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

P.S. I live just a few miles down the road from where I grew up and wouldn't have it any other way. I always lived in the country and have never had a desire to live anywhere near a city.

Cliff_Johns · Jan 25, 2005

Grew up on a dairy farm in Somerset County Pa. We had a Farmall, then a JD 3010. Then we moved to Pittsburgh and to Mass. as suburbanites, but I always wanted to get back to the soil. That has to wait until I can retire, but I can have my tractor now.

Cliff