Photo: My dad plowing with the Case steam tractor before he went blind.
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Like · Reply · 2 · 20 hrs
Stan Burfield Yeah, and unlike today's inventions, anybody with half a brain could repair them when they stopped, like out in a field somewhere. No need to take them into a garage. Which made them cheap, and any farmer could afford one. Nowadays, a farmer has to have a corporate-sized-part of a province to be able to afford even a tractor, to say nothing of all the rest of the gear.
Like · Reply · 2 · 20 hrs
Al Broudy True. Too true.
Like · Reply · 20 hrs
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Gord McCaw How did you fix a flat on one of those???
Like · Reply · 17 hrs
Stan Burfield With a welder, how else?
Like · Reply · 1 · 17 hrs
Gord McCaw But it must have been difficult to inflate them...
Like · Reply · 17 hrs
Stan Burfield That was the 30s, a very inflationary climate. It happened naturally.
Like · Reply · 1 · 17 hrs
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Gord McCaw Stan, you might want to think twice about cropping those images. In very old photographs it must be considered that almost everything depicted is almost certainly long vanished. Viewers will often surprise you with some of the details they are taking note of. Cropped or not, I am quite keen to see these, whether I know those in them or not (most likely not). What are you using to scan them with? Are they prints or negs?
Like · Reply · 1 · 17 hrs
Stan Burfield They're all negs, but I have one of those little gizmos that turns negs or slides into digits.
Like · Reply · 17 hrs
Gord McCaw Cool. I have a Nikon Coolscan IV for doing negs and slides and we do flat artwork with an HP Officejet Pro...
Like · Reply · 17 hrs
Stan Burfield Well, I tried to find my machine to compare, but Linda, against all good counsel, has finally given into her worst compulsions and reorganized my room. Now the mess that I knew hs become the mess that I don't know. So I'll have to get back to you about this.
Like · Reply · 1 · 17 hrs
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Larry Burfield Stan, this picture had marked on the back, 'Fred and his Dad. It would be in 1946 when my Dad started to farm on his own. I think it looks similar to my Dad, but our Dad's looked quite similar when dressed in working clothes . It is treasured as all the older pictures are now . Dad took off two crops, paid off all his machinery loans and bought a new Pontiac in spring of 1948. I don't think a farmer starting now could do that after two seasons. Times got tougher after that, but he was already established. The field that they are seeding there with a 9 ft tiller is now seeded with a 74 ft air drill.
Like · Reply · 3 · 17 hrs
Gord McCaw No other tractor sounded quite like a John Deere...
Like · Reply · 17 hrs
Larry Burfield Gord McCaw Those 2 cylinder John Deeres were special for sure. I will never forget. Our family have a John Deere 420 and 720 that I get to run when I visit back home. Awesome times!!!
Like · Reply · 1 · 17 hrs
Stan Burfield It does look like my dad, Fred, but you're right, it's a bit hard to tell. Wish I could time travel and get me a pair of those coveralls I'd be standing up driving that too. When I was a kid, we bought a John Deer just like that. I loved it, being able to stand up driving. Trouble was I had been sprayed with DDT and when I was younger and got epilepsy from it. The PUT PUT PUT made me feel sick, and I couldn't drive it for long without having to get off. Too bad.
Like · Reply · 2 · 16 hrs
Larry Burfield Stan, you post these cool old farming pictures, and old farming stories come alive. When the John Deere was bought new in 1938, neighbour farmers were very skeptical about rubber tires for pulling in the field. I guess one of the convincers for everyone was when pulling the combine in one field, there was a corner then you started up a steep slope. With the steel wheel tractor they would stop and empty the grain hopper at the bottom of the hill and the tractor would scratch hard to pull the combine up. With the rubber tires, the John Deere just turned the corner and up the hill with no problems, the putt putt was just louder. Also I found interesting the tires had a diamond trade when new. Those tires only lasted one year, and were replaced with a knobby tread. Those tires were still on it when the tractor was traded 11 years later. My John Deere story for the day..lol
Like · Reply · 1 · 16 hrs
Stan Burfield Wow. It's really hard to see why the steel wheels didn't pull up the hill as easily. But very interesting story. Good tires, the diamond tread. Huh!
Like · Reply · 16 hrs
Larry Burfield I read an article about Firestone first coming out with rubber tractor tires inflated them to high pressures and they had huge slippage problems. They kept experimenting and found out the 10 to 12 psi was the most successful. I know folks who enter tractor pulls go lower and you can see the tires flexing big time when at maximum pulling .
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield Oh, I get it. Because of the soft tire, it actually is flat on the ground like the tread of a caterpillar. Whereas a steel wheel can't flatten so only touches the ground at one point, or at least is digging in at only one point. Who would've thought! And the bigger the wheel, the longer the tread that lies flat. Of course the bigger the wheel and tire the more weight the tractor has to pull just in wheels, not to mention what it's hauling. So the trick in research would be to find exactly the optimal size.
Like · Reply · 13 hrs · Edited
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Robert Gregory Seaton Just a note, Stan, that that is not a steam tractor. No boiler! Probably early gas.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
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Stan Burfield Ha ha. I was trying to sort that out in my mind and failed. Listen, there wasn't supposed to be some hyper-knowledgeable genius wandering about keeping track of all my dumb slip-ups. Can't get away with anything around here!!
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield But while I've got you, is that deal still on, putting together those photos that I stupidly chopped up?
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton That's the problem with the internet... not to mention that I was once a licensed traction stream engineer.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Yup, If you can send me the bits digitally I can re-assemble them in photoshop.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield Good Lord, what have you NOT done, Robert?
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield Okay, I will as soon as Is get through this rough patch. I'll take you up on that again. I got distracted back there, and then distracted from my distraction and so on and on.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton That also sounds like the internet - serial distraction.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield Well, it's the life of an anxious person. My perennial struggle.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield And even worse when the anxious person has ADD, which I've finally realized I have. DDT makes ADD.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Ouch. Hadn't thought about that linkage.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Where did you find out about that?
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield A friend, who knew me well most of my life, very very hesitatingly suggested it might be a possibility. I looked it up and yeah, all the symptoms. Not physical restlessness but mental. I've always had an extremely difficult time following any conversat...See more
Like · Reply · 15 hrs · Edited
Robert Gregory Seaton You've definitely always been a theorizer! The link is interesting. I know someone else who has a similar focus on understanding, but from a different source.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield different source?
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Well, a somewhat similar social anxiety, but not with a history at all like yours - hyper urban.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield It's pretty funny these collections of mental disorders people get stuck with. Nobody ever seems to just have one. So you have all these weird characters, and individual ways of seeing the world. Mine are, general anxiety, social anxiety (which I've pr...See more
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield I really pity shy urban people. At least with me, I got to enjoy nature, alone in nature, the beauty of it. I can't imagine any beauty at all for a shy person in the city.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs · Edited
Robert Gregory Seaton Yes, I think it's part of what creates, in Japan, hikikimori - young people who refuse yo leave their room - shyness combined with an extremely structured culture which "leaves no room".
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield horrifying!
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield a lot of suicides, I expect.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Yes. They can eventually get over it, with help, or sometimes simply by leaving Japan. I wrote a story which is partly about a hikikomori - a young woman, although this is one of those conditions where it is more likely to be a guy.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield very sad. And yet Japanese people should be thrilled with such a prosperous country. One nice thing is the colour girls and young women get into, as if they are extroverted. And I'm sure some are.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Well, but the prosperity is significantly based on being hyper-structured... and some people just can't tolerate it. I knew a Japanese fellow who wouldn't set foot there, even to see his parents.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield I remember reading about extrovert-introvert analyses of different countries, going by statistics of national characteristics. Japan was the most introverted of all developed countries, by far. The States, was the most extroverted. Most European countries and Canada were in the middle.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Stan Burfield Wow. Hyper-structured. Suits a miltarized monarchy doesn't it?
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Japan, like Germany, addresses the awkwardness of human relations with structure... and then allows alcohol as a release. In a sense this does look introverted, although I'm not sure the concept quite translates to cultures.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton It does come out of a highly specific history, alright.
Like · Reply · 15 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton The English, on the other hand, address it with backhanded humour and "dis-ease". Read a brilliant book by an English anthropologist on the rules of being English. It was, needless to say, hilarious.
Like · Reply · 14 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Canadians just apologize.
Like · Reply · 14 hrs
Robert Gregory Seaton Which is why we're kinda boring.
Like · Reply · 14 hrs
Stan Burfield I can imagine. ha ha. I kind of like the way I've found lately, which is to just be the weird person you are, try not to hurt other people, but hope they can see you and accept you as you are. In other words, carve out as much freedom as you can. Now that I'm not so shy, I enjoy doing that. Just being my weird self with others while they play their roles. I look weird to them, but they look funny to me.
Like · Reply · 14 hrs
Stan Burfield Couldnt be myself at all when I was shy, of course. That's the big problem with shyness. Fear of being judged and knowing that as soon as you open your mouth you'll immediately be judged negatively.
Like · Reply · 1 · 14 hrs
Meredith Moeckel Being a formerly shy person that I was helps me to relate to you about this topic. Later alligator l
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 11 hrs
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Meredith Moeckel I drove a tractor & got paid
$.03/bail to pay for my trip to Guatemala. I'm sorry to say that it
Was the hardest way to make some $$, but honestly I'd do it all over again. 《♡》
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 11 hrs · Edited
Paul Branton yup, no crop the crops