South dakota farm kid, Had to (try and) fix everything. When I was little I learned everything from watching dad and grandpa. When dad would leave the shop I would sneak in and practice with the torch and welder. I would weld all kinds of shit together, and show dad my (what I thought was great ) welds. He would look and ask me why I didn't chase the turkeys out before I started to weld. That would just piss me off and I would just practice more, I got the the point where I was a better welder than he was, and i would ask him about his trukey welds. I think everyone should learn to weld with a stick welder first. Anybody can weld with a wirefeed!
Farm kids didn't detassle, we knew better, that's why all the city kids did the detassling where I came from. Back then we still walked beans, much easier than detaselling. I wish I had learned to weld when I was on the farm but Grandpa did teach me how to drive a stick shift about 1980 in his one owner 61 F100. (which is still in the barn).
Groing up out in the country, I always took for granted that men knew how to do certain things. Now, in Memphis, I have to train grown men to read a tape measure, change the blade in a utility knife, or to tie a knot. It's a totally different world. One of my earliest memories was getting a backhand from my dad for running over a bale of hay with the truck. I had to choose between seeing where I was going or reaching the pedals. After that my mother drove and I had to stack. A couple of summers later, we finally got a round baler and I had to learn to change the chains and rollers on a POS Krone baler.
I worked my last 2 years of high school and first 2 years of college on a farm. Sweet corn, tomatoes, pumpkins and straw. Most valuable lesson I learned was "...See where the ducks are swimming? The tractor DOES NOT go where the ducks swim." If I could afford it, I'd like to get a small truck farm and do the same- sweet corn for the summer and pumpkins for the fall. Someday... someday. Jay
Growing up on a farm definitely helped develop a hands-on approach to everything, as well as a dad into old cars. Also a great work ethic by neccesity, wouldn't trade it for anything.
Grampa was a 'shiner but he grew corn and a little cotton and broom corn. I spent summers with him while growing up.
All of the machinery on my dad's Missouri farm was broke down when he got it. I learned to walk and talk with tool in my hand. He taught me the work ethic neede to get the job done and get on the next task. "You gotta bail hay when the sun's shine'n"
Nebraska farm boy here, and as eveyone has said you learn to fix most things. Sure helped me in college, one of the few engineering students that knew how to weld and machine. We took any big things that we needed welded to the black smith and I was really fasinated with what they could do with steel. Should have been one. Live on a little land now in No. Cal but don't grow anything except coyotes and weeds. Coyotes fun to shoot, that's something else you learned on a farm, hunting and shooting. Best life I ever had and I would move back in a heart beat, but the old lady won't. Maybe I should trader her in for a farm girl!! Rex
FFA, Ag VoTech, Row Crops & Strawberries... Had a few good mentors as well... Farm work prepared me for many things in life, not just wrenching...
Not a Farmer but live in a farm comunity. Took Vo-Ag 4 years in HS. They shut down the shop a few years after I gratuated. Sad for most kids w/o book smarts
i grew up in the city! but spent my summers with relatives that had orchards. 2 weeks here,2 weeks there. pretty amazing how different life experiences affect you. still amazes my uncles how much work they could squeeze out of me for a 5 cent orange crush! hard life with little rewards.
I turned my knowledge growing up on a farm in southwest Kansas into maintaining helicopters for a living. We had gas and arc welding equipment in our shed so I started teaching myself at an early age by trial and error. Luckily I had a few people that would answer enough questions that I didn't blow myself up. We also had a Vo-Ag program and FFA, although by the time I got to high school in the mid 70s most of that stuff was winding down due to lack of funds and intrest. Whatever I tore up, by making mistakes or by wear & tear in the field, we bailing wire patched back together to go another row or two. We had Massey Harris 90s and several Massey Fergusson 410s & 510s to learn how to replace worn out & welded to the shaft bearings in those ol turds. Beating rivets into those old sickle bars was my first shot at riveting. I think it too bad that kids have less of an oportunity now. It slows down our spirit of good old Yankey Enginuity.
Alfalfa, corn, sugarbeets ,hops and Holstiens in central Washington. FFA /VoAg, stick welding, timing gears in old Chevies. 40 plus years as an aircraft maintainer, it all started on the farm. Still wrenchin'.
I count myself very lucky to have grown up on a small beef cattle/grain farm. I learned how to make repairs, but the most important thing I learned was how to approach problems with an open mind and a logical plan for solving them. My dad was a machinist in the Navy for a couple of years before coming back to the farm and he taught me how to research a problem before attacking it. This has helped me save a lot of money over the years. The values you learn on a farm are also very important and once again I had a good role model in my grandfather. He was born in 1893 and passed away in 1986. As a kid I spent a lot of time with him and I think it helped turn me into the person I am today. As a teenager I spent more time on a John Deere than I did getting in trouble... I would not trade my upbringing for anything. Reece
Still have my FFA jacket, but it is a little tight now. Worked a lot on an old Alice Chalmers round baler, a '54 Chevy truck, International Harvester M and 300 tractors, and '55 Chevy's (we had 4 as a family). Rodshop
Since Rodshop started this thread....and since I am his older brother, thought I'd better kick in something here too. (Oh, and I taught him every damn thing he thinks he knows!!! Well, that's up for discussion every time we have a beer.) True though, I grew up driving a Farmall "M"...Break down in the field, fix it out of whatever was in the toolbox...or walk for miles. Rodshop.....remember this? My first car was that '38 Chev coupe, one of our other brothers overhauled the six in VoAg shop....I remember dad pulling us down the street, I'd dump the clutch...damn motor wouldn't turn over. Left skid marks on the street. Dad asks "So how many shims did you put in?" Brother sez, "What shims?....Oh, I threw them away." Whole lot of Kansas farm boys here!
Huh? You had to walk home from the field? I just fixed it and drove it home! Yeah, I remember the shim story, but it ran pretty nice once he got the shims back in it. Rodshop
Midwest Farmboy from Illinois... Grew up on a Farm, mostly cattle. Like you guys I was driving dad's F350 at 8 years old and welding at 12. When I was in 8th grade dad brought home a minibike frame and said "When you can make it run you can ride it" So... I scrounged an old Kohler out of one of the barns and got it running, found enough parts around the farm to make it drive, and was riding it around that summer. That was my first engine powered vehicle... Kamp
I think the very best part was having all that room to blast around in jalopys. We used to hunt at night with an aircraft landing light bolted to the hood ornament hole on my 54 Chevy wagon (first car), also terrorized the antelope with my 54 Dodge red ram convertable, got that one for helping the neighbor castrate pigs.
Picking grapes at 9, driving tractor at 11, packing a gun to hunt predators, boxing raisins every fall, watchin Dad work a regular job during the day so he could afford to work another 8 at night on the farm. Learned to save during a good year so I could survive the next poor four. Seemed lousy then, but now most everything I know came from working with Dad on that farm. Miss him every day. He was father to me and my brothers and also Mom's younger siblings. Had a full set of Craftsman tools he shared, and all of us are still building cars 40 years later. Dad rebuilt a beat-up '39 Ford in our tractor barn so Uncle Bob would have something cool to drive to high school. Couldn't believe it when that beautiful burgundy coupe rolled out of our dusty old tractor barn one day in '62.
Rodshop.....so was part of the training bolting down a head with a lift chain link under the back corner? You started early! I love ya bro! What I remember most is you deciding to hang 6' megaphone pipes under your axles on the old '62 Chev....and making them out of farmhand hay loader teeth. Cool!
I bought my Grandpa's old M even though I don't need it. Spent to much time on her to let it get out of the family. The starter has never worked but I know the crank ritual by heart. I need to repack the ram seals for the trip loader, they leak a lot when you park her. Grandpa would always just put cans under them, catch, filter, and reuse the hydraulic oil. Brake bands need tightening too. I love that old beast.
grandpaps farm in OHIO every summer. while other kids were going to camp. I rode YZ 80s and learned what I broke I fixed. ning..ning...ning.
I didn't actually grow up on a farm, but in farm country. I worked at various farms, sprinkler companies, farm equipment manufacturers and oilfield companies, where I learned to fabricate and improvise. Comes in handy with scooters and rods..............
Guilty, and wouldn't change it for anything. If you grew up on a farm you learned at a very young age how to WORK. Not just put in your hours but really work. I grew up around men who had calluses on their hands as thick as the leather on their shoes and would rather die than tell you a lie or cheat you out of anything. My grandfather was the biggest influence I had growing up. I followed him like a shadow as soon as I could walk. His farm maintainance shop was like Disney World to me, I couldn't get enough of it. I spent hours watching granpa fix tractors and farm equipment often incorporating a little home brewed improvement to make things work better. He taught me how to analyze a problem and figure out how to fix it the right way. He couldn't stand taking short cuts or doing half-assed work. I think he was the the one who coined the phrase "any job worth doing is worth doing right" Everyone in my family says I'm the most like him out of all of the grankids, something that makes me very proud. I just hope if he's watching me He doesn't think I screw up too bad. Frank
Count me too! Son-of-a-Dairyfarmer I learned how to drive a tractor before a car. First car was a 65 Massey Ferguson Orchard tractor. My dad taught me arc welding and the torch around 10 or 11 (he wouldn't show me how younger than that, I think he knew I'd mess up everything in sight) Spent most of my time in a tiny 1/2 dirt-floored shop. I think I turned out fine considering how many times the cropdusters sprayed me while waiting for the bus. I live in L.A. L.A. Land now & you wouldn't believe how many lazy asses here "Couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the bottom of the heel !!!" ___The Trout
The Jalopy Journal
