Ecclesiastes 11:4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.
Growing up on the farm, we had a rake in which we raked the russet tops into rows to burn them in the Spring. As a child I rode the rake and pulled the lever for each dump, lining up the rows.
A few years later, when I could reach the clutch and brake peddles on the tractor, I hauled the rake and pulled a rope we had rigged up so you didn’t need anyone to ride the rake.
When my parents decided it was time to stop farming, much of the equipment was sold. Hindsight being what is is, I’ve often wished that they kept some of the rusty gold. Really though, they didn’t have a reason to keep much of it.
I’ve probably had my eyes on the lookout for a dump or hay rake for 25-30 years. I’ve seen a few, but they were too far away to haul home, too expensive or not complete … usually missing the seat.
Recently my cousin’s decided to downsize. The Lord nudged me to text him and see if he would consider an offer for his rake.
He wrote back a couple hours later saying I could have the rake if I could come get it.
I asked my nephew if he could bring his trailer and help me pick up this farm treasure. He was all in and brought his father-in-law to help us.
As you can see from the pictures, we’d had quite a bit of snow and we had just recently had a couple warm spells melting the snow and creating a lot of ice rinks.
The day we were able to go pick it up was relatively warm, about 40°, for mid-December and it was raining. Making the ice even slippery-er.
Because of the ice we decided not to drive down the small hill into the driveway. My nephew and cousin walked, maybe skated, down and walked the rake back to the truck.
Securing for the move.
Home to its new home.
For now my new lawn ornament is actually on green grass, just past my maples so my plow guy can plow this winter. Come Spring I think I’ll move it back a little and plant some sunflowers near it.
My cousin told me that the rake had been his grandfather’s and that he had used horses to pull it in the fields. Thank you for such an emotional gift that brings back great farming memories.
The Nose Bump 