Life Lessons with Dad on a Ford 8N Tractor!

I know a lot of you have fond memories of how you learned to farm with your dads, grandfathers, or other people in your lives.  My earliest and fondest memories were with my dad, Ray Richardson, and aboard a Ford 8N tractor.  Dad rented a place just on the south edge of Perry, Oklahoma in the mid-1960's and we started "farming" on that little piece of land with one little tractor, a Ford 8N.  I cherish the times that I had with him teaching me how to drive that little tractor pulling a 2-16's bottom plow and all the related equipment to work the ground.  The following is an image of the place we "farmed" in the 1960's.

I have went through what I feel like is a lot in life.....I'll expand on that in future posts, but for me the Ford 8N always held a special place in my heart for what my dad instilled in me.  So when we purchased a piece of land in 2002 and I started "farming" again, I needed a tractor.  For me the obvious choice was a Ford 8N.    It's what I knew, what I felt good about, what I grew up on learning all the little kinks about farm safety.  I looked long and hard and finally found one that fit!  This is it in the following pictures after I had the engine rebuilt.  Needless to say, I was pretty proud of this little workhorse!  It had a few cosmetic blemishes, but to my knowledge there are more of these around today than any other tractor of its size in this country.

I learned a great deal about life working on that little 8N tractor, as a boy and even into my adult years.

• Don't push it too hard or the engine will heat up and boil over..........in relation to our lives how many times do we see that happening in our society today.  
• Take care of it and it will take care of you............in relation to our bodies......take care of it and with the Good Lord's help, your body will last you a long time.  The last of these tractors were built in the early 1950's.
• Watch pulling the plow too deep, (these little tractors were notorious for farm deaths due to turning over on farm kids)...........in life sometimes we need to pull the lever up just a little or slow down and realize we don't have to run that hard to enjoy life.
• Don't get too close to the edge of a hill, again these little tractors were notorious for their pto's not stopping after the clutch was pushed, whereas the tractor would continue in forward motion and many farm accidents occurred because of this.  In life, when we're near the edge we need to learn to stop...and don't push ourselves too far to when we tumble down the other side, and then wonder why!
• Always, always, always be in the tractor seat when starting the tractor!  In life......you should be the one alongside your family making decisions when starting any new project or attempting to follow a new endeavor.  That's the safest route to take, every time!
• Slow down when moving from field to field, these little tractors had a 4th gear that could put you in a predicament very quickly, if you weren't careful.  In life, need I say more!

As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I cannot help but look back to all the flood of life lessons I learned from my dad and a little tractor, called the Ford 8N!