Early tractor

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

My sister Leslie B. has been scanning in all of the Kodachrome slides that Dad has taken over the last many years. Brother Lou has uploaded several of these to photobucket. For these shots Dad used the Argus C3 camera, which was a nice serviceable 35mm rangefinder.

Here is a picture of the tractor that Dad and Warren used in their joint farming operation. I think they got this tractor when I was about 3 years old. It is an Allis Chalmers 3 cylinder (yes, 3 cylinders). It is relatively small, and it was busy all summer long, generally day and night. They each worked a 6 to 6 shift.

This tractor was mostly used for pulling plows, an as in this picture, a drill used to plant wheat or barley.

Later, after my family moved to Arizona, my uncle Warren still used this tractor. One winter, they were pretty much snowed in, and a neighbor called to invite them over for dinner. Since the roads on the side of the valley were quite full, Warren and Aunt Mary hopped in the cab of the tractor and headed cross country to the neigbors house. The neighbors of course were a bit surprised at the choice of vehicle, but there was really no other way to get there. And it was good to be out of the house.

So have you ever been snowed in? My grandparents probably had enough food for six months in their basement.