What’s Everyone Do?

Grew up on a farm (ALL A-C) and worked for my uncle fixing cars at a Shell station part time.  RIGHT after high school, My old lady........er my lovin wife and I ran off to Niles Michigan (67) where I worked for a Co-op in Buchanon, MI for a year.  I then took a vacation in SE Asia free of charge from Uncle Sam for two years.  After I got out, I got a job as a full time Fire Fighter for the city of La Crosse, WI.  Retired after 33 years and never looked back.  During all that time, I had to pay to feed and clothe 5 kids, (1 boy and 4 girls), so I had part time jobs as a concrete installer/finisher, house and barn builder, installed windows for Auto Glass, catered and cooked for weddings etc. and tended bar.  I've been retired now for 16 years and have my hobby farm and a few (7) A-C tractors that I work with (and on).  Life is good!!

My latest part time job (part time) is,,,,,,,,,,,,agitatin certain guys on the forum.

I burn the candle at both ends.  I am a faculty member teaching geology at a local college.  Married my wife and we took over her family farm.  We run about 200 acres of hay and corn.  Raise beef and pork. 

My brother and I bought a horse boarding farm in 2002. I am a diesel mechanic and in 2009 I built a shop on the farm and Sept 1, 2013 I went full time on my own. 5 years later I have one full time employee and the one part time employee I started with. I decided to back off the number of horses we were boarding when my brother left the farm for a job in California and to keep the pastures from growing up I started making our own hay. I bought a square baler in 2017 and the guy had a 5040 Allis Chalmers he pulled it with so I bought it too and now I have a 5040, (2) 200s a Kubota 3830 with a loader and a Ferguson 30. We bought the Ferguson and the Kubota when we bought the farm.

Folks,

Edited by Sugarmaker - 03 Sep 2018 at 8:01pm

I will chime in...Grew up on a farm...took welding in High School, (graduated 1969) then helped parents pay my college / University by welding in the summer...majored in Manufacturing Technology...worked in Quality control for bout a year and had girlfriend... God said I want you in the seminary so my girl dumped me and so did the foundry where I was working...God has a way of being persuasive...With the help of other "hints" in my life I figured why not... so 38 years ago after several years in the Seminary I was ordained.  I have a WD-45 that I play with mostly a wagon and Oxnard blade on less than 2 acres..on my free day a week... ... ...thanks for asking

Mine isn't as exciting as most of the stories here, but I help the neighbor's farm. I run tractor and drive the semis for them during harvest. I also sell computer parts on the side. Sadly the only Allis things I run are an old Gleaner F2 and an Allis field ripper. The joys of being in an area that never had an A-C dealer

Grew up on a diary farm and continued with the diary farm for 5 years, then spend 3 years working in the Olds factory building gas tanks for the F-85s, fell into an apprenticeship with the IBEW, a very good thing. Along the way I got into home heating work and ended up with my own sheet metal shop.

I am adding to my original post. My Grandfather was the original Allis Chalmers man in our family as my Dad was an IH man. I remember the first cuss words I ever heard was my dad cussing a WD with a 2 row mounted planter!Then a 1959 D17 appeared with a 4 row cultivator attached! My granddad loved to cultivate! That tractor did a lot of work when the IH 560 diesel was not broke down! We had 45 milk cows,60 sows,120 feeder pigs and 450 laying hens. When the D17 I was not cutivating, conditioning hay it was grinding feed! On slow days it hauled manure! I pointed this out to my dad years later when he wanted to replace the 560 and IH was on strike and couldn't get tractors. So he bought a 185 which I still have! Along the way we had a 170 which replaced the D17. A 200,7000,7060 which I still have and a 8050. We also had a 560 gas that was a good tractor and a true blood IH man wanted it worse than I did! We also had a 1086 IH that was the tractor from hell! That tractor was not here very long as I traded it for the 8050! When I sold the cows I downsized and sold the 170,560 and 8050. I can honestly say the Allis Chalmers tractors gave a lot less problems than the IH tractors!

Graduated high school in 1965. Went to work for an Alfalfa dehydrating Company 12 HRS a day 7 days a week thru the summer then delivering pellets and sack feed to local farmers and feed lots once Winter came. I had registered for the draft at that time you could get a deferment for certain things. The Company did that for about a year finalyy I told them I was going in to the military was in Army for 2 years spent a year in Nam. Came out went to driving a dump truck made good money when the weather was warm but about starved to death in the winter had a wife and bay knew I needed something different. Came to a Steel company the guy finally hired me on the 3rd day. His philosy was if you came back on the 3rd day you proably nnede a job. Worked in the warehouse packing steel for about a year then went to work driving a truck for them delivering Steel. I now work as traffic manager for them running 80 OTR trucks and about 275 flatbed trailers delivering from the gulf of mexico to almost the Canadian Border. Been here 47 years. 70 years old may retire in January 2020. I was raised on a small family farm and we used WD and WD-45 raised hogs and beef cattle. The Aunt and Uncle who raised me were tough folks and when it came to fly the coup I did the land got sold. life goes on.

Was raised on a farm till 14 dad took job as Superintendent of local cemetery, after school worked a couple different jobs till I went to work in gravel pit running dozer, was going to get married and dad wanted me to join Ohio National Guard so people wouldn't say I got married to beat the draft, In 1965 went into army for basic and ATI and came out a medic. Started driving semi and in the next two year I missed 2 weekend meeting being stuck out on the road, bought a potato chip business to be home and gave two notice ended up in Flordia and the company was going to fly me home national guard said no don't worry come in when you get home so I went in and they told me forget in and go home. Well the forget it next thing I know is I am drafted headed to Fort Knox Kentucky and then to Georgia, ended up in Columbus, OH at Fort Hayes giving physicals for the next 18 month. Got out of the Army got a job at a New Holland farm equipment dealer & farmer, couldn't make enough money to pay off chip company so I went back to driving truck hauling livestock left that to haul steel and machinery and in 1974 quite that and went to work for the Village Street Dept. father retired in 1986 and Cemetery Board wanted me to take over cemetery Supt. job, after a few year the mayor asked if I would also be the Village Building Inspector retired and was starting to build our retirement home in 2006 and retired in 2007 and wife thought I needed a part time job so I got into Lowe's ended up in inside lawn and garden department, at the time I start a Lowe's employee could special order anything and buy it at 10% over Lowe's cost so I have the house that Lowe's built, retired again from Lowe's in 2014. While at the cemetery I bought a Allis Chalmers CA, that was what dad had on the farm, got it rebuilt so he got to drive it before he passed away in 1992, I have since redone 6 other Ac's and have 8 or 10 AC garden tractors. This past year my wife has went threw 24 weeks of chemo and Sept.13 she will be done with 4 weeks of radiation so I have been busy as a care giver now all we need to do is to get her walking better, she has neurophaty.

I was raised I a dairy farm in southern Wisconsin with all AC tractors.

Edited by Gary (sw Wis.) - 04 Sep 2018 at 7:50pm

Industrial maintenance mechanic for Seneca Foods.Pretty much factories most of my life,5 more years or so then i'm done.

Graduwaited (for my high school spelling teacher) high school in 1983. The day after, I started farming with my day. Been planting, cult, spraying, harvesting, and hauling corn and soybeans every since that day. I farm the land my grandparents bought in 1950 and live in the house they built in 1952.

Edited by Unit3 - 05 Sep 2018 at 1:46pm

I grew up in a small town (150 people) in South Dakota and worked for farmers from the time I was big enough to drive a tractor.   Decided that I didn't want to be a farm laborer for the rest of my life so joined the Air Force in 1962. My last assignment was working in the comm center in the basement of the Pentagon.  I planned to reenlist, but Philco had a large ad in the paper hiring guys for a big military contract.  I went to work for them and spent two years in Thailand and three in VietNam.   Came back to the US in 1971, got married and settled in Cedar Rapids, IA where I went to work for Pan Am.  In 1975 I went to work for Rockwell Collins and spent 28 years there in management.   9-11 caused a huge layoff and I took a buyout at age 57.   In the early 90's I joined the Allis Connection club and ended up restoring 8 AC tractors.  Snowbirded to AZ for 7 years before deciding to sell our acreage and my tractors, and move permanently to Mesa where we live today.  Spend the summers in ShowLow AZ in the White Mountains in NE AZ.   30 degrees cooler than Mesa and the trout fishing is great!!!  Spend about four mornings a week in the boat.   Still build AC models in my shops at both locations and enjoy several AC visitors in Mesa during the winter months.     Don't post here very often, but still read the forum every morning!!  Armand  acmodelsofarizona.weebly.com.