My oldest was big enough for the golf cart by six, and I had him driving the tractor baling hay the next summer. Yes, he dumped the clutch and I fell off the wagon, but I was still young enough to bounce. Slow speeds and corners and straight lines gives good practice. Middle kid couldn't wait to grow enough to catch up. MY daughter took a bit more coaxing, even to drive the golf cart. She would tear ass down the lanes giggling uncontrollably, like a maniac, I assume. She has a lead foot, and now that she's two hours away, I worry. Big city, lots of construction, few familiar faces. So far, so good.

I hit the road at 13, 43 years ago. Full truck load of corn to the mill and back. 1965 F-100, no power steering and a three on the tree. Every day since has been downhill.

Have a neighbor that still runs the old grain trucks. Becoming pretty rare (As are the old kory grain wagons) as the switch to semis becomes more and more complete.Every now and again you'll see a new straight truck. And by new I mean 90s or early 2000's.

to the wrinkles in your eyes

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

My dad got a riding mower when I was maybe 11, he showed me how to drive it and a couple weeks later he never cut the grass again.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

We had a big yard. When we moved there My brother and I were 2 and 4 so he did the riding mower, would get the push mower out and the string trimmer and did it all himself. When my brother turned 11 he was informed he would be riding the lawn mower while my dad did the push mower and the string trimmer. When I hit 11 it was my turn and my brother graduated to the push mower while my dad did the string. At some age my brother stopped doing any of it and I did it all. When I moved out my Dad sold the mower and hired a lawn service. They might be more professional than I was.

Fortunately the service my dad hired when I moved out pretty much cut my parents lawn the same way I did. When my sons took over here I'm sure that they were irritated with me trying to get them to cut my patterns. Until I realized how bad I sounded.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

But you gotta do it. Planting seeds. Some germinate, some don't.

My maternal Grandmother had a Yard-Man 8HP rider, and she let me drive and mow by about age 6, while she pushed to hand mower. I have loved mowing ever since, and still do. My boys have used my mowers, but I have done all the mowing here for 25 years. When they were small, I had a Woods ZT, and each would get to ride one round on my lap, but it was too dangerous/slowed me down. Plus, sharing something like that is tough.

They both have been the primary push-mowers of the church property for the better part of ten years now. My oldest closes on his first home this week, I think he can let the church lawn go to the next generation.

I currently use a JD 1435D front-deck with a 72" cut, and the full summer mowing takes 3-4 hours each time. Might be the only way I can say my deck is bigger than any of yours...

I know, Wrong Section

My Big-Farmer Buddy is just transitioning to grain cart/semi, this was the first season of the cart, and they love it. They have ten pairs of 300+ bushel gravity wagons that served the purpose, but due to some family issues, they no longer have access to the grain leg and former cattle barns, so the cart and semi allow for a couple thousand bushels to be harvested and remain dry in the field regardless of weather. For some strange reason, my pal seems reluctant to operate either unit- another neighbor of his, his son's friend, or I did almost all the cart ops, and his son and I are the two semi drivers.

The son has found that training any of us part-timers to run the combine is easier than running the cart/semi and auger unloading to the drier, etc. With auto steer, the combine is almost hands-off, until it is not. I got my first experience as cart runner and unloading on the go during bean harvest. Yields ran so high that he could not make a full round, so we saved a ton of time by chasing the harvester. But, pulling up while less than three feet apart with a lot of dust flying and in the dark, I'm not sure you could routinely do so without the guidance.

They have one neighbor still using an old, straight, grain truck, a late 1960's GMC. Most of the 2-500 acre guys still use the wagon trains. All the BTOs are cart/semi, especially the ones covering over 40 miles.

I haven't had to unload/load many beans on the go. the 40 foot draper makes the operators nervous and the combine isn't auto steer. Can make it real easy this day on Deere's with the combine being able to take control of the cart tractor for the procedure. Almost seems like cheating. Combine for most part is pretty easy once it is set up unless things are going wrong.But that's the case with much of farming (and probably life). When my contemporaries tell me of how they learned in their teens with loading on the go into gravity wagons.. Well, times change. At least we don't have to wait in line at the elevator or ethanol plant for hours on line with how we are set up.

Started driving a riding mower on my uncle's farm near Dwight when I was 9. Our kids started driving a little younger on my wife's uncles farm about 10 miles east of where I started.

Started driving trucks down alleys when I was 13 and became hooked on driving. When I was 15 I was driving a small truck on city streets I love to drive to this very day.

And I keep my CDL up to date as well in case I ever need it again.

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The time wasted driving to the edge of the field or waiting for a grain cart can add up, if weather is an issue. When we used the gravity box pairs, you really had to watch and leave them only on firm ground, or things got bad in a hurry. Their cart has huge floaters, and barely makes tracks.

I'm not sure I can be very efficient with a 40 foot head and no auto steer! A lot of this guy's land is in seed corn or vegetable crops, so soys get planted on dryland corners of irrigated fields or as buffer strips around seed corn. One field is a mile long, and I got to take the buffer strip off the West edge right before sunset. Looking into the bright light for the end of their 35 foot header, knowing it wasn't mapped, but the perfect size for three full rounds, I didn't want to leave a two-foot wide strip a mile long!

Some areas of one field went nearly 100bu/a irrigated beans, I think the average for the 220A was over 80. It was easy to choke a 9570 on the hills with 80 bu/A and 35 feet.

I was lucky with only one incident while I was combining, lost a bolt from a pivot on the threshing system. They had had the same bolt break the day before. I heard something funny, and stopped, quickly enough that I found the lost bolt in the corn stubble in front of the rear axle of the combine. Did not find the nut that fell off, though.