Memories

[Bob Bancroft]

A few days ago I saw a cousin I rarely see. I was asking him if he remembered his father coming over and filling my fathers' silo. He is four years older than I, and didn't remember it as well as I did. His father had a memorable Farmall 400 as the muffler was laid over flat. He had fitted it with an elbow as it wouldn't fit into the shed with the muffler upright as originally built. Behind the 400 was a one row chopper and a flat rack wagon. I believe the wagon was a hay wagon with short sides attached. It had a false front which was pulled back to unload the wagon. I little device stood near the end of the long table blower that with an electric motor, some mechanism, and some cables on the wagon, did the pulling. I believe the false front was returned to the front manually.
Now there is a fleet of silage trailers (for road tractors) parked down the road. Some change!
This cousin is my cousin by means of his mother and mine were sisters, the only siblings from that family. Simple enough. Then I recalled that my fathers' sisters' husbands' sister had married his fathers' father!

 

[J Wendt]

Is that a family tree or a bramble patch. That is just a little confusing.

 

[showcrop]

Sounds like a pretty effective home grown unloader.

 

[J Wendt]

That type of unloader was very common around our area until the mid 60s, then the beater boxes took over. Now most of the chopping is done into those 20 ft plus boxes and unloaded in front of a bunker and pushed up.