Russ' Vintage Iron

OMAHA (DTN) -- One of my favorite songs of all time is the 1996 hit "Time Marches On" by country singer Tracey Lawerence. If you are not familiar you can probably figure out from the title it is about the continuous changes that occur in people's lives as the years go by.

I will fully admit I am someone who does not like a lot of change in my life. I have had the same job for almost 27 years now, lived in the same house for almost 22 years and been married to the same woman for almost 17 years.

But there is no way around life changing, big changes happen in all our lives at some point. Nothing ever stays the same, everything changes.

In the span of three years, my family has lost three uncles and my mom. My dad lost his only two brothers within seven months.

One of the brothers was my dad's farming partner for most of their lives. My uncle moved to central Iowa in 2006 with his second wife. We would see him a few times a year, but I didn't see him as much as during my childhood when I would see him nearly every day.

My uncle passed away after a short illness in February of this year. He was 79.

When he moved nearly 20 years ago, he took some of the farm machinery he and my dad owned together while some of it stayed with us.

The 1967 John Deere 4020 with the 148-loader stayed with us since we had livestock, as did my grandpa's last tractor, a 1957 John Deere 620. My uncle took the 1962 4010 and the 1935 John Deere D, which was one of my grandpa's first tractors. They restored it roughly 25 years ago.

He took two old plows with him. The three-bottom plow (No. 55H) my uncle and grandpa bought in the early 1960s was the first piece of farm equipment my uncle bought.

The four-bottom (No. 555H) was bought in the late 1960s. When they first started farming after my grandpa retired, they plowed with the 620 and three-bottom plow, and they had a 730 at the time and they plowed with that and the four-bottom.

The old sickle bar mower went east with him, too. It was a John Deere No. 39 three-point mower. They had a couple No. 5 mowers before this one. My dad used the No. 39 mower to mow hay until he bought his first disc mower probably 25 years ago.

Long story short, we discovered a couple of months ago all his farm equipment was going to be sold via an online auction. After my cousins' lawyer and their stepmother's lawyers talked, the D was to be given to my dad and me but everything else was to be sold on the auction, even though some of it was half-owned by my dad.

The mistake my dad and uncle made was they never specifically sat down and wrote out what they wanted to happen to this equipment, especially after he moved to Iowa. They talked about it for years but never did anything. I told them both I would be willing to buy this equipment when the day came.

We bought back the plows and sickle mower, but I was not able to buy the 4010. I ran it up to nearly $13,000 but I finally stopped as I realized I could purchase two tractors for that price.

After being in our family for 50 years, someone else now owns our 4010.

After the auction was over, they had just one day in which a skid steer would be there to load items. We drove 143 miles to the east, loaded up the D, the plows, the sickle mower and couple other items we bought, turned around and headed for home.

A few days later when the weather was warmer, we put some water in the radiator of the D and started it. My three kids took turns driving it, they are the fifth generation of the family to drive the tractor. My great grandpa passed away in 1939, so he mostly likely operated the D as well as my grandpa, my dad and me.

It was a bittersweet moment. I'm glad the D is home, but we only have it because my uncle is gone. The 4010, the first tractor I ever drove, is now gone but we do have three of the four tractors which belonged to them.

Several days later I heard the song "Time Marches On" on the radio. The musical bridge in the middle of it really hits home:

"The South moves north, the North moves south

A star is born, a star burns out

The only thing that stays the same is

Everything changes, everything changes."

Russ Quinn can be reached at Russ.Quinn@dtn.com

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