The Tractor Thread

[Yvonne Smith]

Back when I was living in Idaho, I had an old Ford 9N tractor for a while, and I really liked that tractor ! It came with a little plow attachment, so in the winter, I was out on the road plowing out my driveway and the neighbor’s driveways, and having a lot of fun doing that.
It also had a kind of platform attachment, and i used that for moving firewood.

I had to have some trees trimmed and some removed, and then I had limbs cut into logs for my wood stove, which could burn both wood and pellets. It was actually a pellet stove, but I was able to add wood into it also. I kept it running on low and added firewood, and the pellets kept almost any wood burning fine.
At night, the wood would burn out, but the pellets kept my house from getting too cold.

I loaded up the tractor platform with wood, and drove it around to the back of the house where i was storing the firewood for winter. I didn’t carry a lot at a time, but it was a great way to move the wood around.

 

[Jake Smith]

I don't have a good way to take photos. Here is one of the bucket as we brought in a days harvest of Cauliflower and cabbage. You can see my compost turner a bit on the bottom of the bucket

View attachment 222

Nice Don, "thanks" for sharing the photo, looks like you know how to grow the crops too. These are a few photos of ours, and of the composters too.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Back when I was living in Idaho, I had an old Ford 9N tractor for a while, and I really liked that tractor ! It came with a little plow attachment, so in the winter, I was out on the road plowing out my driveway and the neighbor’s driveways, and having a lot of fun doing that.
It also had a kind of platform attachment, and i used that for moving firewood.

I had to have some trees trimmed and some removed, and then I had limbs cut into logs for my wood stove, which could burn both wood and pellets. It was actually a pellet stove, but I was able to add wood into it also. I kept it running on low and added firewood, and the pellets kept almost any wood burning fine.
At night, the wood would burn out, but the pellets kept my house from getting too cold.

I loaded up the tractor platform with wood, and drove it around to the back of the house where i was storing the firewood for winter. I didn’t carry a lot at a time, but it was a great way to move the wood around.

Never heard os a pellet stove, Yvonne, what are pellets? We used wood or coal.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Nice Don, "thanks" for sharing the photo, looks like you know how to grow the crops too. These are a few photos of ours, and of the composters too.

View attachment 230

View attachment 231View attachment 232

Those were the days, not anymore.

 

[Jake Smith]

Those were the days, not anymore.

Soon as we're "caught up", we will be back at it, "farming" again.

 

[Jake Smith]

Back when I was living in Idaho, I had an old Ford 9N tractor for a while, and I really liked that tractor ! It came with a little plow attachment, so in the winter, I was out on the road plowing out my driveway and the neighbor’s driveways, and having a lot of fun doing that.
It also had a kind of platform attachment, and i used that for moving firewood.

I had to have some trees trimmed and some removed, and then I had limbs cut into logs for my wood stove, which could burn both wood and pellets. It was actually a pellet stove, but I was able to add wood into it also. I kept it running on low and added firewood, and the pellets kept almost any wood burning fine.
At night, the wood would burn out, but the pellets kept my house from getting too cold.

I loaded up the tractor platform with wood, and drove it around to the back of the house where i was storing the firewood for winter. I didn’t carry a lot at a time, but it was a great way to move the wood around.

You don't have a photo of that tractor, do you, Yvonne? I know the 1950 Massey Ferguson, I had and the Ford tractors, looked a lot alike.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Never heard os a pellet stove, Yvonne, what are pellets? We used wood or coal.

A pellet stove burns small wood pellets, about the size of alfalfa rabbit pellets, and they come in about 50 lb bags. The stove has a bin in the back where you can put in a whole bag of pellets, and then it has an augur that feeds the pellets up into the firebox on the stove.
In Sandpoint, where I lived at that time, it was a logging area, and the sawmills had bunches of leftover sawdust, which is what the pellets were made of.

The stove that I had looked like a wood stove, except for having the bin on the back where I added the wood pellets. The door was large enough that I could add wood inside, and the pellets would dry out green wood, and keep it burning.
Overnight, the wood would burn up, just like in any wood stove, but the pellet hopper kept the small pellet fire going, so my house didn’t freeze overnight like it would if I had only had a wood stove.
This picture is similar to what mine looked like, and you can see the bin on the back where the pellets went. I don’t have any actual pictures of my stove anymore, but this will give you a good idea of what they look like.


View attachment 234View attachment 235

 

[Marie Mallory]

Soon as we're "caught up", we will be back at it, "farming" again.

A pellet stove burns small wood pellets, about the size of alfalfa rabbit pellets, and they come in about 50 lb bags. The stove has a bin in the back where you can put in a whole bag of pellets, and then it has an augur that feeds the pellets up into the firebox on the stove.
In Sandpoint, where I lived at that time, it was a logging area, and the sawmills had bunches of leftover sawdust, which is what the pellets were made of.

The stove that I had looked like a wood stove, except for having the bin on the back where I added the wood pellets. The door was large enough that I could add wood inside, and the pellets would dry out green wood, and keep it burning.
Overnight, the wood would burn up, just like in any wood stove, but the pellet hopper kept the small pellet fire going, so my house didn’t freeze overnight like it would if I had only had a wood stove.
This picture is similar to what mine looked like, and you can see the bin on the back where the pellets went. I don’t have any actual pictures of my stove anymore, but this will give you a good idea of what they look like.


View attachment 234

Ok that is neat, we had fireplaces and pot belly stoves. On good days we had hot chocolate on the stove. pot belly was in the cabin on the lake, House had fireplace in every room except the kitchen.
Although we were taught at a very young age not to touch a gun, my cousin the oldest was about 8 threw bullets into living room fireplace and they were shooting off everywhere.
Mama always had a gun with her. She only used it twice to scare off a man sneaking in to fish at our lake, and a couple prisoners who escaped from prison farm miles away.
Although she did kill lots of snakes with it.
She was known as the 'pistol packing blonde on Redan Rd'.

 

[Don Alaska]

@Jake Smith I found an old picture of my wife on the tractor. You can see the tines better on the bucket here.

Don, I can remember asking my brother to loan me his tiller to turn the soil over for my garden. Well, that thing was a monster and nearly killed me. He finally had to do the job. I could have done it with a pitch fork, but it would have taken longer. Big farm tools just were not my thing.

Ah, but a walk-behind tiller can be a monster for anyone. When I till, I just ride the tractor slowly and push or pull a button. Putting the tiller ONTO the tractor however, is not something that my wife can do. She avoids anything towed behind the machine.

 

[Don Alaska]

A pellet stove burns small wood pellets, about the size of alfalfa rabbit pellets, and they come in about 50 lb bags. The stove has a bin in the back where you can put in a whole bag of pellets, and then it has an augur that feeds the pellets up into the firebox on the stove.
In Sandpoint, where I lived at that time, it was a logging area, and the sawmills had bunches of leftover sawdust, which is what the pellets were made of.

The stove that I had looked like a wood stove, except for having the bin on the back where I added the wood pellets. The door was large enough that I could add wood inside, and the pellets would dry out green wood, and keep it burning.
Overnight, the wood would burn up, just like in any wood stove, but the pellet hopper kept the small pellet fire going, so my house didn’t freeze overnight like it would if I had only had a wood stove.
This picture is similar to what mine looked like, and you can see the bin on the back where the pellets went. I don’t have any actual pictures of my stove anymore, but this will give you a good idea of what they look like.


View attachment 234View attachment 235

Pellet stoves often have thermostats as well @Marie Mallory so they are quite automatic. There are pellet-fed patio heaters and smokers as well.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

This is not a tractor, closer to a CAT, but it maybe fits better here than in the reminisces part of the forum. The picture that I could find that was the closest one is a 1939 Weasel snow machine, but it is pretty similar to the one my dad used in his line work job.
My dad’s line truck was already a 4X4, with good snow tires and chains if he needed them, but sometimes, the power line that was down was out in the woods somewhere and not near any kind of a road, and in the north Idaho winters, the snow was close to 3 feet deep, and more after a blizzard, or in some places.
Then, the linemen had to use the Weasel, and they could go almost anywhere in the snow with the Weasel.

Sometimes, my dad would take me along on the trouble calls, where they had to get a tree off the power line, or a squirrel had blown out the transformer (while electrocuting himself), and if none of the other linemen were available to go along and help, my mom and I would go out with my dad.

My mother was proficient at running the winch on the front of the line truck, and Daddy said he would rather have my mom running the winch than most of the linemen he worked with.
He had to go up the pole, disconnect the bad transformer, and them Mom would lower it with the winch, connect the new transformer to the winch, and send that back up to my dad to connect. They worked really well together, and I think my mom enjoyed going along on those times we went along to help my dad.

 

[Don Alaska]

This is not a tractor, closer to a CAT, but it maybe fits better here than in the reminisces part of the forum. The picture that I could find that was the closest one is a 1939 Weasel snow machine, but it is pretty similar to the one my dad used in his line work job.
My dad’s line truck was already a 4X4, with good snow tires and chains if he needed them, but sometimes, the power line that was down was out in the woods somewhere and not near any kind of a road, and in the north Idaho winters, the snow was close to 3 feet deep, and more after a blizzard, or in some places.
Then, the linemen had to use the Weasel, and they could go almost anywhere in the snow with the Weasel.

Sometimes, my dad would take me along on the trouble calls, where they had to get a tree off the power line, or a squirrel had blown out the transformer (while electrocuting himself), and if none of the other linemen were available to go along and help, my mom and I would go out with my dad.

My mother was proficient at running the winch on the front of the line truck, and Daddy said he would rather have my mom running the winch than most of the linemen he worked with.
He had to go up the pole, disconnect the bad transformer, and them Mom would lower it with the winch, connect the new transformer to the winch, and send that back up to my dad to connect. They worked really well together, and I think my mom enjoyed going along on those times we went along to help my dad.


View attachment 238

One of my friends had a weasel he no longer needed because he, like me, no longer hunts. He sold it to a teenager with mechanical skills and the old weasel was turned into a paintball tank with a turret on top. I don't have pictures though.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Pellet stoves often have thermostats as well @Marie Mallory so they are quite automatic. There are pellet-fed patio heaters and smokers as well.

Oh, ours was just an iron old-style stove. We had wringer washing machines too, one of my cousins got his arm hung up in it broke his arm, he was about 6 yrs old.

 

[Jake Smith]

@Jake Smith I found an old picture of my wife on the tractor. You can see the tines better on the bucket here.

Ah, but a walk-behind tiller can be a monster for anyone. When I till, I just ride the tractor slowly and push or pull a button. Putting the tiller ONTO the tractor however, is not something that my wife can do. She avoids anything towed behind the machine.

@Don Alaska , I don't see a photo here at all?

 

[Jake Smith]

This sort of looked like my 1950 Massey Ferguson, except mine was in grey primer, Tom at work sold it to me, and he probably primed it. Sometime or another, I will go up stairs and find my photos of it; but for now this is a photo of one and to me they do look like the Ford tractor too.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Jake riding around the trails on his tractor as I type. He his tractor.

 

[Jake Smith]

Jake riding around the trails on his tractor as I type. He his tractor.

I do it, it "runs" so "great" and does "everything", that I need to get done around here. Saw four deer, the buck jumped over the fence on the back of the property and after I started to turn around he jumped back in with three doe. So I followed them around to the other side of the property, and they stood there looking at me, on the "tractor", they seemed not to be scared at all, of it. Then they went slowly on around trails, and I came all the way back and put it up, "for now".

 

[Don Alaska]

@Don Alaska , I don't see a photo here at all?

I guess it didn't upload. It didn't give and error like all the others I tried to post. Sorry. I can no longer post pictures here.

 

[Jake Smith]

Pulled a couple big piles of vines and limbs to the field, with the "tractor". I have three big piles in the field now to burn. A while back I used the tractor to separate the big pile, into three piles, which look better, and will be easier to burn them.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

You don't have a photo of that tractor, do you, Yvonne? I know the 1950 Massey Ferguson, I had and the Ford tractors, looked a lot alike.

I looked through my old photos, and I can’t find a picture of the tractor, so maybe I just didn’t take any. It was just an older 9N Ford tractor, and the only one I have ever had. I had to learn how everything worked and how to drive it.

When my mom and dad passed away, they were living at the hotel, which had a sawdust furnace in the basement. My dad would get truckloads of sawdust delivered in the summer months when the sawmills were busy, and he had a small CAT that he used tp push the sawdust down the hatch into the basement.

After he passed away, we had to close the hotel, and some guy asked me if I wanted to trade the CAT for the tractor. I have no idea if I made a good deal or a bad one, but there was no way I could even move the CAT off the property, and nothing I could do with it if I were able to do that.
The Tractor at least had regular tires, so it could be used for things around my house at that time, so for me, the trade worked out fine.
Later, when I moved to Western Washington, I sold the tractor to a friend who lived in Bonners, and he had it for a long time, after that.