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NE S.Dakota |  Taken last year before the windstorm(trees in background now destroyed)
This is my Dad's H, he bought it new, 1946 which would have put him about 20 yrs old. It has served under all conditions for 64 years. When we milked cows, that old H started up every day to clean the gutter, and I hate to say how many loads of manure were hauled to the field,with the H. We had various comfort covers over the years, but none now. At one time we had a loader,2 bottom plow,cultivator, and mower for it.
Of course this was my favorite tractor as a kid, the clutch on the M pushed too hard. I used to drive this tractor around just for fun, long before I was licensed to drive.
When the power was off, the H supplied vacuum for the Surge milking system (cows must be milked electricity or not)
I also remember as a kid, our farm got flooded, and we used the H to ford the cold water to the barn and hog house, I standing on the drawbar,water lapping at the tops of my 5 buckle overshoes. A dike was built later that year, to solve the flooding problem.
When I was 15 I overhauled the little guy, new sleeves, pistons,bearings and valve grind, which is still the overhaul it is running on today, I am 52 now.
Dad at 82 yrs young still prefers the H for baling up square bales and raking, we make grass hay for horse people.
Last year the H was sitting in the shed, when the big windstorm knocked a tree through the roof, there was lumber all around the H, but only one small dent, on the tank, right next to a dent that occurred in a similar storm the year I was born. That time a garage was knocked over by the wind,and the H was in there. It was Dad's only tractor at that time .
In the last few years, we had the H painted, and Dad has been taking it on old tractor rides, with a lot of like thinking fellows.
Of course the old H saw parade duty many times as us kids went through High school, pulling floats for homecoming parades.
Yep, it has been a pretty faithful companion, in fact he just got it out of the shed, and hooked to the square baler yesterday, Horse Hay to make!
Good memories 65 years, and counting
Bob
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60 years an still doing its job
