Anyone Else Have This Summer Job Growin Up?

[bushart]

Here's the latest

 

the central air kids don't know heat till they've been in the hay loft in July and August

 

Oh yeah---I used to try and sling bales bigger than me at the time---good thing my uncle had patience

 

 

"FieldWork"

24 x 36

 

 

Edited January 22, 2011 by bushart

[Grimace]

I had plenty of hay rash. Stacking hay in the barn was HOT. I was a stuker. Then we would load the trucks and wagons. Stacking in the barn was the worst.

[Leecher]

Love it Terry Beauty work

Jacques

Edited January 22, 2011 by Leechman

[Grimace]

Great painting by the way

[bushart]

Funny story

 

I was about 12 or 13--I was on the wagon trying to throw bales on the elevator for the guy in the loft---well it took me like 5 minutes a bale it seemed--I can remember my uncle yellin up "Are they comin Too fast"

 

Things we remember

[glen]

At my place we only did 2000 or so bales. But i helped out at some farms that did over 10,000. Nice paint bushart.

[Old Man]

I never forget the first day of haying season. I'd be on the rack and grandpa was on the tractor. We would start out and the first few bales went ok, so I thought. Then the tractor would stop and grandpa would come check out the bales and would decide they weren't packing hard enough so he would crank down the rails a few turn and off we go again. I'd think "boy there a little heavier now". A few more bales along, the tractor stops again, and bales are check and the rails cranked down a little more. This would go on until grandpa looked back and saw me struggling stacking the now 80 + lb bales and a big grin would come across his face. Good times. Still, I always preferred haying to picking stones. That was the worst.

 

I could never stand wearing gloves haying, so by the end of the summer the callouses were so thick that I could stick pins into them and not feel a thing.

 

Great painting by the way. Thanks for bring back those memories.

Edited January 22, 2011 by Old Man

[crappieperchhunter]

Nice work bushart.

 

I grew up doing all kinds of farm work. Pig farms, chickens, turkeys even worked in an apple orchard.

 

Did more then my share of hayin. Is there anything more disgusting then the black crusty snot you blow out of your nose after a full day of tossing around dusty hay on a hot summers day?

 

I wouldn't trade one second of it though. Farming and working the land is good for your soul. It's something my kids missed out on growing up in the city...and I have always thought that they missed out on some real good life experiences.

[JohnF]

My Dad had a farm equipment biz when I was growing up. When the balers were running and I was off school I'd hang out with Dad every day as he made his rounds servicing the equipment he sold. I loved climbing up on the wagon and stacking bales. I don't know how old I was but I must have been strong enuf. Then when he was servicing an elevator I'd either feed bales or help up in the barn. I guess it was fun because I eventually got to go home but I loved those summer days, eating sandwiches in the pickup and sharing lemonade out of a huge green and white Thermos with Dad.

 

In my later teens I developed a serious allergy to hay and never got to do that stuff again. I missed it.

 

JF

[bushart]

I guess it's not just me then---I'm 50 now and still think so fondly back on those days.

 

An RC cola in a glass bottle never tasted so good as at the end of those days

[crappieperchhunter]

 

 

An RC cola in a glass bottle never tasted so good as at the end of those days

 

The pig farm I worked on had a disgusting fridge in the barn. Normal people I'm sure would look at it and not even think of opening it. But the farmer kept my favourite pop...pepsi..stocked in it for me and your right...NOTHING tasted better at the end of the day then a can of pop from that fridge.

[NAW]

Nice painting Bushart!

 

I was a hired hand on a farm for 5 years growing up. The last wagon of the day, we would always stack as high as we could. The next moring we would pile it in the barn when it was still cool from the night before.

 

I use to love the work out, but couldn't stand the itch!

[Tybo]

Does a summer grow op count.

[spinnerbaitking]

Nice Painting, I worked for a farmer for 5 or 6 years & a few of the farmers would get together with their helpers (my friends) & pick stones, stuke hay & straw together never had so much fun & got paid for it, one of the farms we went to had 5 girls next to it that helped their father, we would go like crazy for 3 sides then slow right down on the side they were on, fond memories. When I was about 21 I helped a local Scout Leader bale hay, I showed up wearing shorts & work Boots with my t-shirt pulled threw my belt loop (cool look'n you know), they all thought I was crazy, I stood at the elevator & threw every bale for 2 days to the Scouts that piled them, last time I ever baled. To bad every kid didn't have to pick stones & bale hay &/or straw, Great way to develop the right kind of work ethics.

SBK

[rob v]

I didn't hay but grew up on a tobacco farm ..... my back still aches !! .....but those were the best of times. Many many fond memories with my brothers. Didn't enjoy some of the work then.... but miss it now !

Edited January 22, 2011 by Rob V

[misfish]

Being the bigger kid and loving the workout,I slung and threw those bales at the little guys all the time. They would quit, and I got paid double to sling and stack on the wagon. Wouldnt trade a day of that for anything.

 

If I did it today,just pass the cooler and I,ll tell ya how it,s done.

 

Nice paint Terrance.

[splashhopper]

I wanted to be on the wagon on our family farms near Kirkella Manitoba and Moosomin Saskatchewan every summer when I was a kid.

 

The first year I ended up in the hospital. Turns out I was very allergic to the hay dust.

 

The second year I tried riding on the open air tractor with my uncle.... was ok until we headed down wind. Back to the hospital and in to the oxygen tent.

 

The third year I didn't even get to go to the field. One of my cousins says: " oh here comes the sick little kid from Ontario AGAIN" !

 

I got the picture loud and clear.

 

I jumped in the air conditioned tractor and never got out, even to give that dude a drink out of the big orange cooler

[Bernie]

Two summers.

Spoiled fat kid sent to work on a farm at 14 years old. At first I hated it. After 3 weeks Mom had to drag me home after work. I ended up staying there through the week nights.

What a learning experience it was. I proved to old Charlie I could drive the equipment and he let me loose. Very cool! Raking, baling, hauling, using the manure spreader were all things I looked forward to.

That summer the two of us put away 12,000 bales.

I kept a glass in the dairy and after haying would head down and scoop the milk (mostly cream) off the top of the cooler. Always did like milk, still have a glass a day.

The end of the summer I bought a used mini trail 70 and went back to school no longer fat with added muscle on.

Worked for another farmer the next year, better pay but all we had to do was pile hay. Not near as much fun.

[Jewelbee]

LOL!!! I STILL do that EVERY year!!!!

[Gerritt]

I work the hay fields from the time I was 5 till I was 16. My grandparents had a farm in Picton. let me tell you, farm work turns a boy into a man. it was hard dirty work, but at the end of the day the sense of accomplishment made up for the sore muscles and back.

 

I still remember milk right from the cow (including the "floaties" as I called em)

 

Eating beef that was named after me... (yes there was a cow on the farm named Gerritt)

 

Picking up Metal Muffins... (cow piles...)

 

riding pigs, and culling chickens.. including removing the eggs from the chickens that did not yet have a shell around them..

 

these are the days I remember..

 

and I wish I could go back to those much simpler times. Before internet, before cell phones...

 

Alot less stress.

 

G

Edited January 23, 2011 by Gerritt

[bushart]

Was that really better times as I want to believe...or is that just something every guy my age has said for the last couple hundred years

 

You know I miss the 60's and the 70's---yeah there were bad things going on---Vietnam---pollution--crime

 

Why did those times seem simpler?

[crappieperchhunter]

 

Why did those times seem simpler?

 

 

Cause they where.

[Old Man]

Cause they where.

 

Yeah, they could have been simpler times, or is it just that life seemed simpler when we were young. Time, age and life experience will weigh a person down.

[crappieperchhunter]

Life is more hectic and advanced for each generation IMHO. Things where definitely simpler then.

[bushart]

Well I don't know---those days may not have been easier as we did'nt have every convenience--remember when we all got cable tv?

 

But I do think they were simpler

 

---that farming community I talk of used to have a general store where all the locals would gather on saturday night after supper---I'd sit on the front steps and have my bottle of pop and listen to and watch it all.

 

That was the entertainment----it's gone now---as is many of the people that used to farm there.

 

One of "The Group of Seven"...AJ Casson went through there painting many years ago and came up with a work called...."A Barn near Quadeville"---well that was about a mile up from my one uncle's farm---soooo..I figured I'd give it a go.

 

This was from his farm