So,a little bump for a personal item. I guess nearly 40 years old classifies as old farm equipment.



So this is the 1980 John Deere 7720 that I finally gave up on after this year's wheat harvest. It was dad's back when he and his partner were running two new 7720s, two auger wagons, and four trucks, cutting sorghum for a seed company contract that made about 5,000 pounds per acre, and corn making about 11K, in Hale County. The hour meter broke years ago, I have no idea how much time is on it, but I've put thousands of hours on it myself.

When I moved to Randall County in 1994, I brought it with me, and I've patched and repaired, and replaced parts for about the last 10 years, as I was down to just a small acreage, and a new combine really wasn't needed or affordable. I've made my own sheet metal parts, replaced both drive hubs, and traveled to Oklahoma to salvage parts off another machine.

I remember my dad, who passed in 2011, driving it, me driving the truck or using the auger wagon to catch on the go, because job number one was always to keep the combines moving. Brother doing the same, and four different hired hands driving the tractors with the auger wagon, or the trucks to town, whatever was needed.

Some of the hands were dunderheads that you worried might forget to breathe. Others were smart, hard-working, trustworthy gentlemen it was a privilege to know. We literally trusted them with our lives and livelihood.

Later years, when the wheat was good, my wife would take off work to drive the combine, while our elementary age daughter sat on the floor with her back against the glass, reading books out loud to keep them both entertained. Our son, too young to legally drive, would drive the tractor with the auger wagon and keep the trucks full, while I relayed them to town. I hope they cherish the memory. Later, our son-in-law, who is crazy about machinery, insisted on learning to drive the combine, and helping with harvest on leave from the Air Force.

My grandad always said, never get attached to a piece of equipment. I get that. But, boy, do the memories flood back when you let them go. Makes me feel old to realize I may never drive a combine again, going to have it custom done from now on.

It's in the Five Star Auctioneers Annual Harvest Equipment Sale, tomorrow in Plainview, Texas. If it sells, I expect it to end up in a salvage yard, or headed south to Old Mexico.

Goodbye to a faithful partner that's carried my family through four decades of harvest.