What farm task do kids today know nothing about.

[2LaneCruzer]

We raised hogs, but always started at the piglet stage and ended at the sausage stage.

Back in the late 40's, we rented an old farm house in S.W. Missouri. One Winter, the farmer who owned the place brought us two newborn piglets; one was a Duroc and one was a Chester White. The Duroc had its tail frozen off, and the white one was pretty puny. He said they were runts, and probably wouldn't survive, so he gave them to my brother and me. We kept them in a cardboard box under Mom's kerosene kitchen stove and bottle fed them. We of course took them outside, but they slept in the box.

One night we came home from town and the not-so-little-anymore-piglets had gotten out of their box and turned over the trash. In the trash was a pork & beans can with a few beans left in the bottom...now they managed to get the beans out of the can somehow, and they had rooted them all over the kitchen. The linoleum floor had snout marks from one end to the other. Needless to say, Mom hit the ceiling and the pigs were relegated to the fenced in yard and the screened in back porch. We raised them as pets and even tried to ride them when they got older, but they were worse than a bucking bronco. We couldn't stay on them. The farmer eventually traded us a butchered pig for those two; fair enough, seeing as how they ate his feed with his hogs.

 

[r porter]

I can remember dad had board cut with vee notches that pop bottles went in. each had a nipple on it and if a sow was lost the piglets were put on the wooden sow side by side. did not happen often and most survived.

I imagine now days things are- ahhhhh -different, but when we bottle raised a farm animal we knew it was a future meal.
one calf, named maizie, had 3 horns and we rode and led her around the farm and on the road. even though I was barely in school I knew that was steak and taters.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I can remember dad had board cut with vee notches that pop bottles went in. each had a nipple on it and if a sow was lost the piglets were put on the wooden sow side by side. did not happen often and most survived.

I imagine now days things are- ahhhhh -different, but when we bottle raised a farm animal we knew it was a future meal.
one calf, named maizie, had 3 horns and we rode and led her around the farm and on the road. even though I was barely in school I knew that was steak and taters.

PETA has no place on the farm, at least the farms I remember. Most of the old timers, like my Dad, rarely, if ever, had an emotional attachment to an animal, not even a dog.

 

[smstonypoint]

This is from the UK, but I suspect similar results would hold for the US.

YouGov |
Two thirds of children don’t know what a floppy disk is

Steve

 

[2LaneCruzer]

This is from the UK, but I suspect similar results would hold for the US.

View attachment 552661


YouGov |
Two thirds of children don’t know what a floppy disk is

Steve

They have time! I was probably 50 years old before I knew what a floppy disk was/

 

[RSKY]

Anybody else ever have to pull a calf?

Had to run my arm up in a cow one time to pull out a calf's leg. An uncle had the other leg in his hand but could only get one. So I had to pull my coat off and roll up my sleeve and dig in. Don't think I was sixteen yet. Probably the grossest thing I have ever had to do but we saved the calf and the cow.

So yes, I have been up past my elbow in a cow's................

That was another time Mom had to hose me off outside before I could go in to the basement shower.

The same year we had to pull another one and three of us couldn't pull it out. So I had to get the tractor and we tied a rope around the protruding legs and tied the cow to the stables. I put the tractor in low/first and idled forward. We were afraid we would pull the legs off the calf but it came out.

Mentioned that to the doctors in the delivery room while they were doing a Cesarean on my wife. Doctors had to stop and laugh but it really ticked my wife off.

I doubt very many teenagers have had experiences like that today.

RSKY

 

[Streetcar]

Anybody else ever have to pull a calf?

Had to run my arm up in a cow one time to pull out a calf's leg. An uncle had the other leg in his hand but could only get one. So I had to pull my coat off and roll up my sleeve and dig in. Don't think I was sixteen yet. Probably the grossest thing I have ever had to do but we saved the calf and the cow.

So yes, I have been up past my elbow in a cow's................

That was another time Mom had to hose me off outside before I could go in to the basement shower.

The same year we had to pull another one and three of us couldn't pull it out. So I had to get the tractor and we tied a rope around the protruding legs and tied the cow to the stables. I put the tractor in low/first and idled forward. We were afraid we would pull the legs off the calf but it came out.

Mentioned that to the doctors in the delivery room while they were doing a Cesarean on my wife. Doctors had to stop and laugh but it really ticked my wife off.

I doubt very many teenagers have had experiences like that today.

RSKY

How did the calf and cow turn out after using the tractor.
I had to use tractor once ruined cow and calf

 

[RandyT]

Have the manufacturers changed the torque spec on new vehicles or is it just brain dead workers hammering them on?

the torque spec for the lug nut has gone up over the years. It seems like my lugs gall at the factory spec of 130 lb/ft until I put a touch or anti seize on the threads. I do my own tire rotations so I actually pull out the 1/2 torque wrench and tighten them that way. No hammer wrench used to install, just used to remove when I don't have to get more authority behind it.

 

[k0ua]

Anybody else ever have to pull a calf?

Had to run my arm up in a cow one time to pull out a calf's leg. An uncle had the other leg in his hand but could only get one. So I had to pull my coat off and roll up my sleeve and dig in. Don't think I was sixteen yet. Probably the grossest thing I have ever had to do but we saved the calf and the cow.

So yes, I have been up past my elbow in a cow's................

That was another time Mom had to hose me off outside before I could go in to the basement shower.

The same year we had to pull another one and three of us couldn't pull it out. So I had to get the tractor and we tied a rope around the protruding legs and tied the cow to the stables. I put the tractor in low/first and idled forward. We were afraid we would pull the legs off the calf but it came out.

Mentioned that to the doctors in the delivery room while they were doing a Cesarean on my wife. Doctors had to stop and laugh but it really ticked my wife off.

I doubt very many teenagers have had experiences like that today.

RSKY

Yep, been there done that. We usually used the fence stretchers to pull out the ones you couldn't pull by hand.

 

[k0ua]

the torque spec for the lug nut has gone up over the years. It seems like my lugs gall at the factory spec of 130 lb/ft until I put a touch or anti seize on the threads. I do my own tire rotations so I actually pull out the 1/2 torque wrench and tighten them that way. No hammer wrench used to install, just used to remove when I don't have to get more authority behind it.

My Chrysler minivan has a torque spec of 102 ftlbs. on the lugnuts.