What do you do for work?

I started working in the paving industry right out of high school in 1996 and have worked my way up from a lowly laborer to Superintendent of rock and paving in those 20 years.  My love of AC tractors comes from my earliest memories of riding on the fender of a D17 with my grandpa...spent many hours on there as a little tot!

Self employed contractor for 16 years doing remediation work. Started selling epoxies and polymers last year. Big change working for someone else again. We have a small farm where we raise quarter horses, cattle, and horse quality hay. I was raised on Allis Chalmers and nothing else ever appealed to me. I am old enough to be a grandfather but have a 5 year old son that also suffers from orange fever. I bought him a series II D15 when he was a baby so he could enjoy the view I had as a youth.

I am clergy, as in Catholic Priest...grew up on a farm, cattle, hogs, chickens, corn, wheat, beans, prarie and alfalfa hay with a Roto-baler...welding in high school...math and Manufacturing Tech in college...worked for a year then lost my job and girlfriend dumped me so I went to the seminary - that is the short story...ordained in 1980 and doing the Lords work ever since.

I farm full time now also have two semis do some grain hauling also I farm with a cousin we farm about 1700 acres before farming was a mechanic for excavation company before that a ready mix plant farming now for 16 years now

In high school I went to tech school for carpentry, found that to be seasonal work didn't pay to well in winter .
Went to automotive tech school for 2 yrs, they had job placement but all wanted to pay minimum wage.
   Ended up getting a job in a machine shop have been there 30yrs,
I am a working foreman I do quoting/program/setup CNC machines also maintain machines such as ball screw replacement, machine alignment, and replace electrical boards and drives when needed.
    The tractor interest came when I was young up until about 14 I worked during hay season mostly on my mothers uncles farm he had all Farmalls we had a Farmall super C at home.
Got my first Allis about 10 yrs ago a D14 backhoe/loader sold that 1 yr later that backhoe was breaking that little D14 in half.
Bought the AC WD this summer.
   

Trim carpenter! Currently work for Kohlls Pharmacy in their 'Mod Squad' division! We modify homes so people can safely live there!

Edited by omahagreg - 30 Aug 2016 at 8:32pm

 I grew up on the farm my Dad took over at 19 in 1938, when his Dad died of a heart attack. He farmed  a couple years and then let his younger brother run it while he spent the war in Fort Knox teaching field maint on tanks and half tracks.
 After the war with a wife and one son, he took over the farm, raised 8 kids and kept all of us including Grandma warm in the winter and fed decent most of the time. He sold the horses in 47  when he could buy a post war tractor which was a 47 C. In 51, he traded for the CA I have now.
 A BIG garden always helped put eats in the cellar and we always seemed to have chickens, pigs and a couple cattle along with a handful of milk cows.
 Grandma went to a nursing home when I was still in grade school so Dad took a 3rd shift job running the warehouse ( fork truck driver ) for a paper products company and farmed during the day. That's when he bought a wore out WD and an 8 foot wheel disc so one of us kids could help with the spring work. The CA did everything before that, and everything but the dicing after. The animals thinned down to one hand milked cow and maybe a stray horse or 2.
 60 tillable acres made for lean times off and on through the years but we never went to bed hungry unless we did something bad
 Gradually he hired a neighbor to do more and more of the field work and Dad ended up renting it out to him a couple years before he retired for good in 1979.
 After high school, I took a job in a factory assembling detachable chain and within a couple months was running a press making the chain, 2 months later got offered a job in the tool room and and worked as a tool maker, die repairman, machinist or machine repairman for  the next 35 years except for a few years working for CAT as a line inspector.
 My last job was as a machine tool service tech doing mostly machine work to repair presses, lathes, grinders and mills. I learned scraping and flaking to go along with the machine work on most of the jobs. I never cared much for the "road work" which involved loading up everything we would need to tear a machine down for repair, or put it back together again, but I didn't spend more than a few days a month away from home.
 Friday the 13th of June in 08, at aged 55, I didn't make it to work and haven't been back since.  You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd and a Toyota Corolla will not come out well, when it Tee bones a Cheby Blazers passenger door post.
 A friend and neighbor a bit younger than me, that lived across the road from us way back when, now owns most of the family farm and farms all the ground I worked as a kid. He runs his uncles ground and just bought out the one neighbor that I worked most for as a pup.
 Now, when he needs an operator, I can go spend a couple hours at a time in one of his tractors just to make the day go by and, if something breaks down, which usually happens at the WORST time, I can supervise the repair if need be.
 


Edited by CTuckerNWIL - 30 Aug 2016 at 9:21pm

I grew up farming with AC tractors so thats where my fascination with the orange ones came from. However, its a small operation so I went to work for a neighbor for several years on the green stuff and hauling grain for other farmers. Offered a job to go OTR and just lasted a year. Off the road and worked at CEI building feed trucks until I was referred to a plumbing company and the kind of work I really got to enjoy. 20 years of that until 4 weeks ago I took a job with the city as plumbing inspector. All that to feed my passion for playing on whats left of the family farm.

Me I am a REAL go get 'er! I get up in the morning take my wife to work and in the afternoon when schools out I go get 'er!!!!

Parents have a farm in western ma (aka Connecticut river valley). Grew tobacco, dairy, hay, silage etc. but parents sold the dairy cows in mid 70's. College for me in Chemical Engineering with Professional Engineering License, went to work for various consulting engineering firms (Nuclear in US, Petrochemical plants in Asia, Synfuels when it was the in-thing, food industry expansions etc.). Left that industry and started working for a biotech firm outside of Boston. Now doing project work- managed the design and construction of 2 large Research Buildings, various utility plants, clean rooms, drug production expansions, etc. . But I still spend a lot of weekends back at the farm as we cut and sell hay to locals for their horses, goats, sheep, alpacas etc. Farm is considered a non-profit operation!!

I still live on the farm that I grew up on. My folks farmed and fed livestock, about 1200 lambs, 150 fat cattle and farrowed a few litters of hogs each year. We called the Omaha stockyards are second home as we were their often as we shipped livestock. Years went by I came home from school and dad and I still fed cattle as well as finished feeder pigs for slaughter. We never rented any ground just farmed the ground we owned, we were busy with livestock. Bought a lot of are feed needs. Now my folks are gone. My wife and I are still here And feeding some cattle. We own are home ground And rent out some ground in western neb that we bought from my wife's parents estate. We still use AC tractors that were purchased new when my dad was farming. We use newer AGCO stuff as well as green stuff also. The Allis tractors will stay here as long as I'm around. They are part of the family just like a good dog is.

Retired US Navy Chief, now work Public Works for a small town, own some land I mow and plow snow with the CA....

Retired 15 yrs, Maintance in plants 36 yrs,Two years in mil ,Two yrs in textile .Two yrs in furniture factory ,One year on road as salesman,One in auto tech school . Some short time jobs and tech schools.Grew up on small farm and was forced out of farming.Have dads 57 D/14 a restored and customized 49 B and a 69 power king and a merry tiller .Did not plant a hill this year.Turned 78 last week

Grew up on a poultry/beef/rowcrop farm. I graduated from Virginia Tech in 2005 with a degree in Agriculture Economics. I started working in parts/equipment sales at a Massey Ferguson/New Idea dealer in September 2005. I also sold Pioneer seed products while at the Massey place. In July 2008 I went to work for a John Deere dealer as an equipment salesperson and stayed there until April 2014 when I left after there was some shake up after an ownership change. I've been working at a Vermeer/McCormick dealership in sales since May of 2014 and I'm loving it. We also sell LS Tractors, Tubeline, McHale and several other brands of ag equipment. I also farm some, but I'm pretty much a true hobby farmer.

Been a Welder for the past 15 years. Currently am working in a ship yard building US Navy LCS combat ships. Pretty neat making a 450 plus foot ship out of steel. Like tonight I'm welding up a turret for a 57mm gun that can shoot up too 22 nautical miles and still be within a yard if it's target while moving at 40 plus knots.

Would love to have my own little fab shop and weld repair that would pay the bills and support my hobbies but not seeing that day coming anytime soon....