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Things are alot different than they were when I was a kid. I do not remember to many times in the timber, plowing, or numerous jobs where the tractor front end was on the ground a whole lot. That was just a normal day on the farm. Yes, some were killed or hurt, but you kind of expected it off the ground like the tractor pullers do now days. Packing silage in a trench pit with a tractor was common, the front end on the silage was very seldom seen. Dad would always tell us to be careful and keep an eye on it and all. Boy could I impress the neighbor kids with the ol WC AC, dad would have put his boot in my butt no doubt if he ever found out. The log situation seen on the video was used often as we had no drain tile, as the front end came up you braked it down if you had enough horse power. However that front end that came off the ground would not even have been discused years ago. I also remember the load of hay / oats/ hay etc. was usualy alot larger than the tractor pulling it. Every load was taken down hill to the farm, and the tractor hind wheels usually broke loose somewhere near the top and you just had to hope you could steer it faster than it slid. Most times it would somehow grab some good footing and slow you down a little. Otherwise dad had to straighten out the wagon tounge again. When skidding firewood logs you steered with the brakes till you got to the top of the hill, many times as a saftey measure dad would ride the hood of the little 8N till you got to the top of the grade and into the saftey zone. Good Lord knows I was to young to run a chain saw at the time. In those days the parents usualy only let the older boys of seven years do that, my dad had no older boys so I had to learn the basics at five. I was a light weight and could not hold the clutch and brake on the 8N, so dad had me just run in low gear at a fast idle/ shut the key off when stopping. He always comented as to why Ford put the nuteral switch on them for starting --as it was not a safe thing for kids to drive because it was free wheeling as the kid tried to start it. And I should not even start on the subject of those idiots at JD that made a tractor that had no breaks if you shut the engine off. A neighbor kid came firing up into the barn driveway with a load of hay bales behind the 3010 and decided to shut the tractor off---Dad told the neighbor to get rid of it before it killed someone--It did take some time to get the front wheels back up on to the barn floor.
MY MY how things have changed. There is no doubt that luck was 99% of the deal, yet most of us survived. So when some of you mentioned dangerous, I had to reeeee think the video. And I am usualy the worry wort when it comes to saftey most of the time now days.
NE IA Dave
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