"Nice, but John Deere must hate seeing pictures like this."

Well, maybe. But then again, maybe not. John Deere actually made steel plows before they made other things like tractors, combines, and other implements. Before steel plows they had been cast iron and didn't scour, or polish the wear areas, very well and they were susceptible to breakage unless they were very heavy.

I've seen Amish using the small square balers before, with a motor on a cart like this pictures, but not a big round baler. It's going to take some doing to move those bales.

A few years ago on vacation a young couple on a motor cycle passed us. I was trotting along at the speed limit, and they weren't even close to it. The motor cycle was pulling a small 2 wheeled trailer with what I assume to be camping gear. About half an hour later I found the motor cycle on the shoulder and the trailer had only 1 wheel on it. A quarter mile farther up the road I found the two of them walking, one on each side of the median, still looking for the wheel that had come off.

I like the photo. I doubt I'd have seen it. I'd also love to see one with more context so I can start thinking about what I'm seeing and what I'm missing.

Could have been my obit. When I bought my first (well used) combine I insisted that we decline the life and accident insurance offered with the loan. When we got home my wife asked me how she was going to pay for the combine if I died. I asked her how many combines she'd need if I was dead. (She not a farm gal.) She said she didn't think she'd need any. That's what I thought, so if I die, sell the combine and pay off the loan. Oh, OK.

My wife had a gall stone when my son was 9. She was at the doctor and at the end of the exam the doctor asked if there were any questions. Matthew asked why he didn't use a lithotripter to break it up rather than surgically remove the stones. The doctor explained that kidney stones and some gall stones were calcium based and would break up, but some gall stones were cholesterol based, including the ones my wife had, and they didn't break up. Wait a minute the doctor said, How old are you? 9. I don't know many 9 year olds that could correctly pronounce lithotripter, much less ask an intelligent question about its use. Well done young man.

Inspect the hydraulic lines, and see if one has a kink in it. That would explain the sudden onset.

My high school was 10th - 12th grade. As a sophomore I joined the staff of the school annual as a photographer. I too remember watching the prints develop in the tray. But my moment was the following year, just after Christmas. We had to send in the first few pages of the annual by Thanksgiving and the salesman came around after Christmas and talked to the annual's adviser. The salesman asked how much our budget had been increased and the adviser admitted that it was in fact decreased. WOW. Where did you get all those professionally done photos then. I was 4th in line as photographer, but the only one that carried a camera. The rest only had a camera when they intended to take a photo. As a sophomore I ended up with more pictures in the annual than the senior head photographer. As a junior I ended up with more photos in the annual than all the other photographers combined.

That and our adviser also took a few pictures and he went to the dark room after I'd been in there printing most of the day. He was surprised that there were no exposure 'test strips' and almost no improperly exposed prints. He asked me how I did it. I showed him how I set up the enlarger to print what of the negative I wanted, and set the focus with the lens on the enlarger wide open. I'd then stop down the lens until the image was all but washed out by the red safe light. Then open back up 2 stops and the correct exposure was 15 seconds. I worked that out as a simple time saving measure, but it also saved paper and chemicals. I found out later that he incorporated that in his training of future photographers for the annual staff.

I bought the duplicate of this back when I was in college in the 70s. My wife now uses it. She's gone through many watches, from inexpensive to expensive, purchased and hand me downs, but this is the first one that he's been able to wear for more than a year and still run. She's worn it for 30 years or so. I lost it for about a year, it fell down behind my dresser and trying to fish it out with a yard stick seems to have pushed it behind the file cabinet and that doesn't get moved too often. I purchased a newer one then and when it was found I let her borrow it until she found one she liked. Hasn't given it back to me since. Of course, I haven't asked for it back either.

I was the photographer for the high school year book. The dark room was a converted store room over the stage which was between the two locker rooms off the gym. I was working up there one Saturday. I should have been the only one in the school, but I heard voices in the gym. Concerned that they might be up to some mischief and that I might get blamed for it I loaded up the schools "big" 120mm roll film camera, since it had the widest field of view, as well as the largest negative to print from, and hooked up the schools 'big' Strobonar flash. I'd already experimented with it in the dark gym so I knew I could get sufficient exposure if they came back through.
I stood center court and waited. The only lights in the windowless gym were the "EXIT" signs over the doors. About 15 minutes later the two gals as it turned out came out of the men's locker room and walked across the floor right in front of the stage. When I figured out where they were and pointed my camera in the right direction. I stomped my foot on the hardwood floor, figuring that they would turn toward the sound as a reflex action, and they did, and about half a second after the stomp I trigger the shutter.
They screamed bloody murder, that's when I figured out it was two girls, and they broke into a dead run across the gym. Just before they hit the double doors one of them screamed my name, but I didn't reply. They hit the panic bars on the doors hard enough that both doors slammed into the walls at full open and slammed shut against the door frame. I heard them sprint down the hall and out the emergency doors about 20 yards away. Again the doors slammed the school walls open and the door frames shut. Those doors were never unlocked so I figured I was alone in the school, or at least I hoped so.
I went up to the dark room and wound the rest of the 'expensive' roll of film through the camera and developed it to see who it was that was in the school with me. As soon as it was dry enough I put it in the enlarger and shoved it all the way up and found them in the frame. Even from the negative image I recognized them and concluded that they weren't the type to be vandals, although I had no idea what they'd been up to.
I printed an 8" X 10" image out of the frame and processed it and dried it. The photo was fantastic. They were both looking right at the camera and each had one foot up. The second one was holding a box of "Cracker Jacks" between her thumb and forefinger and it looked for all the world like the two of them had pinched it and were trying to make off with it without being caught.
I showed it to the high school year book faculty adviser and explained what had happened that morning and we had a good laugh together. He didn't even complain that I wasted a whole roll of film for one picture.

I discovered by accident when I was in high school that if I stopped the enlarger lens down to where the details disappeared in the glare of the safe light that the correct exposure was 15 seconds at 2 stops open from there. Saved a lot of time and paper and was usually right. Probably at least 95% of the time. When I went to college I did test exposures until I discovered the formula for that enlarger and safe light. One set of test strips and I never had to do it again. Whew!

I have a picture of my younger brother when I got into Mom's lipstick. That didn't wash off easily.

Do you know who designed the round table for King Arthur?

Sir Cumference.

I have one that takes 8 double A batteries. Last about 3 weeks. I have a rechargeable 12V battery pack on my list for Father's Day. I'm told it should last 2 - 4 months on one charge, depending on how many night photos it takes, and take 6 - 8 hours to recharge. That way a set of "AA"s will last a year or more, just powering the camera while the 12V pack is in the house being charged, say one day every 3 - 4 weeks.

It wasn't Burma Shave, but the slogan on the signs in front of my grandfather's farm were:
If you must
drink and drive
Drink Milk
American
Dairy
Association