Our team was Maude and Fannie.
All the plowing, discing and cultivating was done with the horses.
We owned a half share of a baler with my dads first cousin. We traded our sweat in their fields for the use of their tractor at hay time.
We had an old horse drawn thresher that my dad converted over to use with a tractor. It was a two bagger. While one bag was filling you tied the full bag off, threw it in the chute and put an empty bag on. Three bags in the chute, pull the lever to dump them on the ground. Men came behind and loaded the bags on the truck. When the truck was full you headed to the mill and got in line.
Corn was picked by hand for too long.
I danced a jig when we finally bought our first tractor, a used Ford 800 and an old corn picker.
I thought it was heaven on earth.
You have me by a few years and some hard work but I understand where you came from.
Our first combine was a pull-type pto driven Allis-Chalmers. It had a bagger on it, and I tended the bagger a lot. What joy it was to ride the combine threshing barley, sweating, and the chaff and barley beards sticking to your sunburned body and itching like crazy.