The Luddite Within Me.

[TommyK]

This was taken of my dad, less than a year ago while harvesting soybeans.

It is taken from the interior of his combine.

The object de interest is his cell phone holder.

Not sure what the other holder holds.

[ksdaddy]

The pencil holder on my desk is a distributor cap off an old International truck.

 

[NeoConMan]

THAT is what all the gee-whiz technology freaks need to figure out.

 

Some stuff works - all the time rain or shine, day or night, no batteries, and is NEVER obsolete.

[grampa]

THAT is what all the gee-whiz technology freaks need to figure out.

 

Some stuff works - all the time rain or shine, day or night, no batteries, and is NEVER obsolete.

 

The gee whiz guys and their big emphasis on high tech have killed American ingenuity and creativity. I'm not anti tech but I don't think it's good to rely on it too much. We don't want our computer saying "What are you doing, Dave?"

[milod]

Hmmmmm....

 

To me a combine is pretty high tech. <grin>

 

Compared to what was in use when I was a kid, an air conditioned combine and a cell phone???? Sheesh.

 

<grin>

 

m

[ksdaddy]

I listen to my iPod when I'm on my '43 Farmall.

 

I like the idea of being able to pick and choose my technology.

[NeoConMan]

Tractor built during the war?

That's a rare one.

[ksdaddy]

They cranked out the Farmalls but I also have a '42 International K-5 that was made very (VERY) shortly before they stopped making them for civilian consumption. It ended up being the 'shop truck' for the local IH dealer. My guess is that when the word came down that civilian production was being stopped, they decided to pull one off the lot for their own use.

 

[TommyK]

Tractor built during the war?

That's a rare one.

 

Tractors were considered necessary for the war effort. A big reason we were so successful in Europe was that we were able to bring our own food, which was scarce in war torn Europe. That was true in both the 19teens and 1940's. That and since our boys were over seas, farm families on the home front, fathers and brothers, needed to replace that labor with labor saving devices. To be sure, getting a tractor might have taken up to a year, but it was quicker than acquiring a new car. When war broke out in the 1930's, my grandfather, his father and his 6 brothers, like most American farmers, were still farming with horses. The transition away from horses to tractors took less than a decade.

[NeoConMan]

Tractors were considered necessary for the war effort.

That's probably true.

I assumed production stopped on everything civilian.

 

My Dad told me how even the "rich folks" with nice cars had to park 'em when the tires wore thin.

Getting gas was one thing, tires were something else.

[FirstMeasure]

That's Great Stuff KS Daddy! I'm an IH man from way back, I grew up in this Truck (It's my Dads, it was School Bus yellow but we found the Marine Corps Markings and my Dad repainted it to approximate it's original paint job)

 

1953 R110

[TommyK]

Yup to the tires.

 

My great uncle was a young farmer during the war. You were issued coupons which allowed you to buy tires on specific dates. Farmers, and other necessary professionals were issued extra coupons. Mind you, farm implement tires didn't fit automobiles. But, my great uncle said, that when you had coupons, you bought tires, whether you needed them or not, because if you didn't, when you did need them your coupons might have expired and you couldn't buy them. There were also inspections on private property (how does that affect your government nosiness radar?) to see if you were hoarding couponed items like tires. Out of necessity, they would bury the tires until they were needed. However some of the locations of those tires were lost to his and his father's memory. The war ended and tire procurement normalized. He was still finding tires that had worked their way to the surface up into the 1990's when he passed away. There might still be some out there for all we know.

[Jeff-7]

Hmmmmm....

 

To me a combine is pretty high tech. <grin>

 

Compared to what was in use when I was a kid, an air conditioned combine and a cell phone???? Sheesh.

 

<grin>

 

m

Not to mention the new technology used with combines like GPS and all the readouts on your combine's vitals and even on the objects you're harvesting. They have gone pretty high tech but the price tag has increased dramatically to match it.

[TommyK]

Some young whipper snapper had a rude awakening last weekend. I went to the local Batteries Plus store to purchase a battery for a cam corder, one that uses the mini tapes. "Oh well that IS an ancient one, isn't it," he quipped. "Yes it is, but it still works," I added.

 

Unfortunately, he couldn't find the correct model number of the battery because.... the internet was down.

I asked if he had a hard copy cross reference guide. "We don't have those," he said, "We look it up on-line."

 

"Kinda makes you wish you had a book, doesn't It?" I said. "Well... Yeah. Come back later today, maybe the internet will be back up."

 

"Tell the boss, his lack of hard copy cost him a $80.00 sale, I was going to buy two of those we-don't-know-if-we-have-it batteries at about $39.00 each."

 

Without the internet he couldn't even ring me up... unless I used cash.

 

I went down the street to the local oil change place. They rang me up. "Give me a minute, I have to call this in," he said as he handled my credit card, "Sorry, but we have to do this today with all CC transactions as .... the internet is down." "'Sorry'? That's the way we always used to do it. It don't bother me none as you can still function without the internet, the Batteries Plus guys? They're out of business."

 

Sounds like the oil change guys had a back-up plan.

 

Apparently someone in a garbage truck 50 miles away clipped an internet cable and disabled the better half of north central Illinois and part of Wisconsin. They were down for 2 days.

 

 

You want to hear something sadder? Doctors in our area don't keep paper records anymore, including x-rays. After 6 months they are electronic flotsam. If you want access to your health records, you'd better start keeping them yourself.

[TommyK]

Hmmmmm....

 

To me a combine is pretty high tech. <grin>

 

Compared to what was in use when I was a kid, an air conditioned combine and a cell phone???? Sheesh.

 

<grin>

 

m

 

My daddy has seen farming go from horses to diesel powered, computer controlled wonders. An 160 acre farm was a large farm back then. Now it is a hobby farm. 1,000 acres is a bare minimum in the corn belt. Harvesting was done by hand in his early years. His first combine was a pull type. His first self propelled combine was without a cab as that was too expensive. He used to dowse himself with copious amounts of talcum powder to assuage the horrible itching caused by harvesting dust. Dust so thick he had to wear goggles to be able to see the rows ahead of him. Harvest usually lasted from September to December. Now-a-days, harvest is much shorter due to the understanding that late harvest costs production severely. Losses of a bushel per acre, per day is the cost of late harvest. Ten days late on 500 acres costs you 5,000 bushels. That puts a big dent in the fuel bill.

 

He can now usually get it done in a month. 3 weeks if the weather cooperates. 14 - 16 hours per day is the norm during this time. Bigger and faster is the name of the game. Since most of the harvest is done during the still hot month of September, a comfortable cab keeps fatigue down. Less fatigue means less mistakes, less mistakes makes for fewer injuries. Farming is still one of the most dangerous of professions.

[grampa]

There is a possibility of increased sunspot and solar flare activity in the near future which could interfere or even shut down all of our satelite communication which would shut down all phone and internet activity. We would be in deep doodoo and we would be totally lost.

[NeoConMan]

Possibility?

It's a guarantee.

 

It's cyclical.

 

Around 1980, the last peak wreaked havoc on radio communication.

My folks had a business with radios in each fleet vehicle - constant headaches for the Motorola folks.

[TommyK]

Sunspot is indeed cyclical and fairly predictable with peaks every ten years. And, much to the consternation of the Chicken Little's of the world, the most likely cause of Global Warming... and subsequent Global Cooling... if we live long enough. But, Sunspot activity as the cause of GW isn't as frightening as human activity, nor can politicos propose to do anything about it.(i.e. Spend more of your money)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspots

 

Judging by the historic cycles of peaks and valleys, as well as multi-decade maximums and minimums. I'd say we are due for a peak, but the peaks are trending lower than the 1950. Problem averted! B)

 

Yeah, you might want to put a Faraday cage around your most treasured hard drives... and wear a tin hat for a year or two.

Be safe, too, and keep hard copies of your most important documents as well.