Farm sale

A photographic walk down memory lane—in hopes that perhaps other members of Grandpa and Grandma’s family might share photographs retrieved from their own scrapbooks, shoeboxes, and “archives.”

It was late 1960, and our family was preparing to move from the Buller farm south of Lushton “into town.” If I understand correctly, Grandpa and Grandma, who had moved to Lushton several years earlier, were ready to sell the farm. In preparation for those changes, Dad and Grandpa needed to get rid of unneeded farm equipment. There was no better way to do so than by having a farm sale.

The newspaper announcement of the sale, which was held on 16 December 1960, is to the right. It provides the occasion for the sale, followed by a list of all the implements and materials on the sale. The reason for the sale is clear:

I am quitting farming and will devote my full time to custom corn shelling and hay baling.…

There is no need to list all the items on the sale, but a number stand out—and some of them can be spotted in the photographs below:

• 1957 Super 77 Oliver diesel tractor
• 1955 Minneapolis Moline UB propane tractor
• IHC F-20 Farmall tractor
• 1957 Minneapolis Moline Uni-Harvester
• Minneapolis Moline four-row cultivator
• IHC four-row corn planter
• four-bottom plow and 13.5-foot disk
• IHC manure spreader
• Mayrath 40-foot wide elevator
• McCormick Deering threshing machine
• Viking electric feed grinder

We begin with the photo we viewed earlier, with the Model A Ford.

Here we also see the 1957 Minneapolis Moline Uni-Harvester in the row immediately behind the Model A. My understanding is that the Uni-Harvester was owned by Grandpa and Daniel. To the left of the Model A is a tractor, the IHC F-20 Farmall. To the left of the tractor is a hay rack. The wooden wheels are presumably a sign of its age, which likely implies that it was used to haul wheat sheaves from the field to the threshing machine (see the photo here).

The next photograph shows assorted machinery: the curved blower in the center belongs, I think, to a stalk cutter/chopper; the Gandy fertilizer spreader sits behind and to the right. We will return below to the light-colored piece of machinery partially visible to the extreme left.

More interesting to me is what is visible in the background: to the left and far behind the Gandy is a corn crib; a small bin is to its right (east). Still farther to the east, visually behind the irrigation pipe, one sees the end of the chicken coops. All those structures are more prominent in the next photo. (For an aerial view of the entire farmstead, which will help you locate the structures in these photographs, see here.)

To the far right of the picture (i.e., immediately south of the chicken coops) we see the north end of the machine shed. In the foreground is the irrigation pipe and an elevator.

The next photograph gives the view from roughly the same spot but rotated clockwise.

Now we see the south end of the machine shed and the elevator farther south. Between the two and far in the background is the house; to the far right and also in the background is the barn. Another elevator sits in the foreground, as well as the Viking electric feed grinder.

Walk south 15–20 yards and then turn maybe 45 degrees counterclockwise and you have the view of the photograph below.

The elevator and feed grinder are visible toward the back left (corn crib, bin and chicken coop in the background). The tractor in the center is the 1957 Super 77 Oliver, I believe. The full extent of the machine shed is visible behind the tractor and trailer to its right. The wheel at the extreme right of the photograph is probably part of the plow that was auctioned. The dark shadow to the left foreground is cast, I suspect, by the Uni-Harvester.

The next photograph gives us a better view of the light-colored piece of machinery: it is, in fact, the McCormick Deering threshing machine.

It actually deserves its own closeup.

This is what our family used to thresh wheat and barley. We viewed pictures of threshing earlier (see here); to what extent this machine and its power source were the same or differed I do not yet know.

Two final photos closer to the house bring our photographic stroll to an end. The first is rather dark, but the southwest corner of the house is still visible, as well as some of the arch on the south side of the house and the cement column on the west.

The second photograph is taken from the northeast corner of the house and looks to the northwest. Notice the machine shed behind the auction crowd; both chicken coops are visible to the right.

One final detail catches my eye: a dark object to the left of center in the photo immediately above. A closeup will help you see what I spotted.

There looking toward the camera is a dog, our family pet. Fifty-seven years later, it is comforting to encounter a familiar face.