Combines The

Interesting. I once had my pocket day book fall out of my shirt into a corn header, which I didn't notice when it fell out. We were starting in corn that day and when we fired up the combine and started shelling, I was at the back of the combine when I noticed the cover flying out the discharge. I ran up to the driver and stopped him. I got up in the bin, and I promise you on a stack of bibles, the inside of the day book was not hurt. It took the cover off and deposited the rest in the tank. Talk about gentle!

Creamed chicken is darn good on a slice of toast - but only if you can get all the feathers and straw out of it! Tell your neighbor that if he would have had the extended cyl bars in his 52, those chickens would have made it through whole - minus their testes though! (Do roosters have nutsIJ I've never taken the notion to check! tbranIJ)

I ran a racoon through my neighbor's IH1440 once. I saw him get pulled in and could not stop the machine quick enough. I walked behind expecting to see a broadcast pattern of racoon parts but I could only find one small bone so I restarted the combine only to hear this "whomp,whomp,whomp" noise coming from the cylinder. I opened the concave cover door on the side of the combine and found the racoon spread over the entire wide and length of the concave. After I pulled it out, it made a great throw rug for the back porch!

Windrowing at night I got into a pack of several skunks, 1 got chopped up, the rest just made it very unpleasant. As for nature's wild kingdom running thru my machines, box turtles make a slight grinding and a snake can fly pretty darn far out of a strawchopper.

Two stories: Two years ago, the lead combine driver was in a rush to open a field and took off with one of the N6's with a 26 foot header. POW! Found one of those surveying pipes that marked the edge of the field. Broke a bunch of sickle bar parts and beat the reel all to heck. After a particularly rainy winter, another driver was out in a field during harvest and drove over a small crevice (about 1.5ft in width). As soon as the drive wheels hit, it caved in, leaving the Gleaner supported by the header and rear wheels. Had to dig exit ramps in the dirt and yank him out with a big Versatile. Funfun

We were loading rice into a grainbin from a hopper bottom trailer. Had the conveyer belt running and one of the guys got in the trailer to get the corners clean. Instead of climbing back out the top, he decided to go out the bottom of the trailer with the belt still running. He ain't to bright but thats another story. His KOOl cigarettes fell out of his shirt pocket and went up the 80 foot auger, through the 15 foot roof auger, through the spreader and into the bin. Well he got out and climbed in the bin with rice still augering in and found his smokes. They were chewed up and looked bad, but he managed to get one out and lighted it up. It had to have been the funniest thing I have ever seen. But he saves a $3 pack of cancer sticks.

Back when I worked for an MF dealer, I was sent out to set-up a 750 for flax for an "old-timer"! This farmer was well over 70, and had traded from a Super 92 to an "air conditioned" 750, so this was a tremendous milestone for him! I called and arranged to be out to his place by 1:00 in the afternoon, and I stressed the point that he NOT START COMBINING until I get their. I arrived at about 1:00 (with the salesman) to witness a combine working in the field with smoke billowing out the right side AND 2 small fires in the field. While the salesman proceeded to extinguish the fires, I ran screaming to catch the combine. After almost killing myself to hop on the platform ladder (I was a little out of shape) and clammering to the operator platform, I whipped open the cab door, completely out of breath and "politely" screamed "What in the h@ll are you doingIJ Can't you see the smokeIJ Couldn't you hear me screamingIJ" His reply was, "Oh, I don't know, with all these dam buzzers buzzing and lights flashing, howz a guy supposed to see or hear anythingIJ" A couple a' grand later, he was combining!

That's a funny one! Reminds me of a "Not-So-Bright" neighbor who used to hire us to harvest for him 'til we got "too expensive" so he bought his own beat up old Deere combine. His buzzers were always going off and annoying him so he put a piece of duct tape over the beeper so it would pester him! One day he was combining right along when another neighbor stopped to talk to him and noticed a straw walker laying in the field - got to checking around and here there were two missing from the combine!! The idiot had been combining for about an hour with two walkers missing and didn't even know it - the walkers that had came loose were laying right out in plain sight in the field. The husks and cobs had the shoe completely plugged and 99% of his corn was ending up on the ground. Here he thought it just wasn't yielding much! This guy has done things to make him a prime candidate for the Darwin Awards.

That's one feature I can credit towards my previous N6! I never lost any parts along the way, the old girl stayed intact! Except, of course, when the hired hand (my nephew) was combining windrowed barley that one time and the mature maple jumped out beside him and conquered the unloading auger! By the way, Tom, you had some pictures posted somewhere of your trip to the Independence Combine Facility! What ever happened to those pics. I'm interested to know what they're building their besides combines!

Post a photo. I really would like to see that one! Do you have matching heads tooIJ steve