Farm Machinery

As you have already surmised, Uncle Carl would try and did perform most everything from being a tractor mechanic, to being a carpenter, to painting, to patching for further use anything from a leaky roof to a machine part. Baling wire was always at hand to keep things tied together. Late in life he decided to paint the house on the farm. His idea of paint was from yesteryear and was a mix of white lead, linseed oil, and bluing. The big problem was that he put too much bluing in the mixture and instead of being white, the house had a bluish tinge. About that time he also climbed up, and with the aid of another elderly gentleman, re-roofed both the house on the farm and the house in town. his tool shed on the farm was a conglomeration of buckets, pails, and boxes filled with every imaginable item. From old, crooked, rusty nails, to obsolete tools, nuts, and bolts. There was no chance that anything was to be thrown away.

One of his endeavors later in life was for Uncle Carl to dig in another outlet tile from the east forty to the nearby dredge ditch. As boys, we helped dig in tile in the lower end of the south forty. But they were only branch lines. Uncle Carl had the expertise to use a tiling leveling instrument and lay out this tile line. He dug it all by hand, up to the road, across the road, and then to the nearby drainage ditch. As I have stated, there were few tasks that he would not try. I recall once helping him in changing the motor assembly from one small Hart Parr to another. There was a near tragedy as the hay rail on the barn tore loose where he had hooked the block and tackle to raise the motor. But all of us boys survived the years that we worked for and with Uncle Carl!

Ever the one to find a way to save money, he purchased a Model A Ford truck from a coal dealer in Fort Dodge. With a modified box, he continued to haul grain to the elevator. In later years, this truck was used to haul cobs to town for burning in the furnace there. Since he owned his own corn sheller, we would spend a full week or so shelling corn. The truck would be loaded with about 100 bushels of corn. He would take off for the elevator and the Strand boys who were present at the time, would haul cobs to the basement of the house on the farm. The Model A truck went with the home eighty when the farm was sold.