December Auction

It's another beautiful day in southwest Ohio, especially for the first of December.  We thought we would drive down to Brown County for a chattel auction by Joel Wilson.  My former student Dave Lewis and his dad auctioneer with Joel and his mother helps with the paperwork.

Everytime I go to one of their auctions I run into my former school treasurer, Brian Switzer.  He always says the same thing.  "Ed, we need you back at CNE.  The ag program is a mess."  I left that job 10 years ago to all the young folk I trained the 30 years before that.

We soon found out the auction was a sad story.  In September, the man came in one day and told his wife he didn't feel well but they didn't think much of it.  She went shopping and came home and found him dead in the bed.  He was 53.  We don't know the day or hour but it is coming for all of us.

He had assembled a really nice 40 by 60 foot shop full of tools and collectibles.  The building had a nice loft that reminded of the one we built in the new shop we built in 83 at Blanchester Schools.

He liked old combines and had a White 8600 with a Mud Hog on it from Brookston, Indiana.  Now they are pretty much standard on any combine around here.  He also had a yellow New Holland combine with both heads, too.  I don't know what they will bring but it won't be much.  I wouldn't mind tinkering with either one but it would be more hassle than it's worth.  You really have to enjoy working on machinery to own an old machine like that, or have no other way to combine your crops.

Before the combine, we had corn pickers.  Before corn pickers, we had corn cutters that shocked the corn into bundles.  Before then, it was all hand husked like dad and grandpa did.  They became husking heroes like this youtube tells about.  I saw a few old "husking heroes" at the auction today but most of them are gone now.

LuAnn found an old maple butcher block table that was like the one she had 30 years ago.  She almost left a bid on it.  I couldn't lift one leg of that heavy table.