Wilsons bring vintage equipment to help Eastman harvest first crop in 30 years
It seems about every year at about this time, somewhere across the land the same story is repeated. A farmer breaks his leg or becomes ill and faithful neighbors come out with their own equipment to bring his harvest in. It’s usually presented as just what country people do in times of need. While the story you’re about to read is a bit of a different twist on that theme, it’s no less heartwarming and equally emblematic of the kind of neighborly spirit one often sees in the farming community here in our area.
When 93-year-old Vern Eastman decided to plant about 13 acres of corn on his farmstead east of Giltner this past spring -- something he hadn’t done since retiring from farming many years ago -- he no doubt thought he would be out there to harvest it this fall. However, Eastman fell ill this summer and when the corn was ready to harvest he was unable to do it himself.
So, with the ripe corn crop standing tall and tan in the field, last week his neighbors, Grant and Laura Wilson (of “Laura Farms” YouTube fame) decided to bring over their own equipment to harvest those acres. But, in a tribute to the days when Eastman was actively farming, instead of bringing their newest and biggest equipment, they showed up with a 1970s era John Deere 6600 combine with a 6-row corn header and a grain cart and Chevy farm truck of similar vintage.
Unfortunately, Eastman wasn’t able to go out and witness the harvest for himself, but his son and one of his many grandsons were there to oversee the operation and Laura promised to shoot video of the harvest so Eastman could see it too.
It was a perfect day for harvesting with little wind and clear, sunny skies overhead. After a bit of a delay because of rain and a mechanical problem on the combine, the picking finally got underway at about 3:30 p.m.
Unretirement from farming
Eastman retired from farming about 30 years ago but has continued to live on the farm place along West 6 Road where he kept busy mowing lawns and a couple of local cemeteries while also taking care of things around the place. This past spring he got the idea to till up about 13 acres of alfalfa in a pasture just north of the shelter belt that surrounds his house and plant a stand of corn. He towed a tiller behind his lawn mower to start the job and finished the tilling using a 3010 John Deere tractor he had recently bought. After the ground was worked up, he used the same tractor pulling an old two-row corn planter he had gotten from Heath Bish to sow the seed. Throughout the summer months he used several lengths of garden hose to irrigate part of the crop using water from the hydrant at the barn.
“He actually ended up tying two ropes to either side and he strapped a one-inch wrench to both sides and that’s what he used for row markers,” said the grandson. “He just wanted to grow what he could. I think he missed his farming and kind of needed a hobby, and, well, he found himself one.”
However, by the time the corn was ready to harvest, Eastman had become ill so his grandson approached neighbor Dan Wilson with the project.
“And he said he’d be willing to do it,” the grandson reported. “And so that was kind of the game plan. And then actually, just within the last week or so, I thought it would be a good idea for Laura to come do it with her old equipment. There’s not a lot of space out here so it would be easier to do with a smaller combine. I knew she wanted to make a video with her old combine and tractor, and so I thought it would kind of help my grandpa and help her out a little bit and so we kind of put it all together and here we are.”
After taking her turn driving the combine for several rounds, Laura took a few moments to talk about how they had gotten involved with finishing Eastman’s summer project. She said they thought it would be appropriate to harvest Eastman’s corn crop they way it was done in the 80s back when he was actively farming.
A labor of love
“So Grant and I have been kind of on a mission,” she said. “After looking through some old photographs in his grandparents’ basement, we kind of had the idea to gather some older farm equipment and see how our grandpas used to farm, just because so many advancements have been made in modern combines, and they drive themselves now... But I just thought it would be really cool. Through my YouTube channel I like to try and show people new stuff, but then also to kind of remind people about what farming really is and it’s like a lifestyle, right? And it’s so much more than a job.”
She also shared a deeply personal reason for wanting to connect with the farming equipment and practices of the past.
“I lost my grandpa about a year ago, just about today, and anything I can do to kind of feel more connected to him,” she said. “It’s kind of why we bought this old equipment. Grant and I have been having a lot of fun poking around with it. I don’t think we’re ever going to be doing a full harvest with it but it has really made me appreciate all the modern technology that we have in our harvest equipment, especially, but it has been really, really cool to try and work on this. And so when this project came along, we thought this would be the perfect application for it.”
A slow start
The experience also turned out to be a lesson on the challenges of working with older equipment. Having first moved the equipment to the Eastman place in the morning they were first delayed by a rain shower and then after they started cutting they realized diesel fuel was leaking out of the combine’s fuel pump.
“We made a couple rounds this morning, and then I noticed something was leaking out inside of the combine,” Laura said. “Everything was still running, but we stopped, and it kind of smelled like diesel fuel, and so we popped the hood on the engine, and then it really started gushing out. So we had to take a small break this afternoon for about two hours. A small screw had broken off, and it’s just very rattly in there and so I’m not surprised that things are rattling loose. But we were able to find a replacement screw, and we got it all fixed up... and then we were back up and running. And we’ve been going for several hours now. No more leaks, so I think that fixed it.”
Another minor challenge for the harvesters had to do with the equipment Eastman used to plant the field.
“Vern did a very nice job planting this, considering the kind of equipment he was working with,” Laura noted. “But we seem to have the guess rows between each two rows. You can see some are a bit wide and so they don’t quite line up with the six row header. But all things considered, it’s going pretty well.”
“So I really wish that Vern was here to see it, because I think he’d really like this,” she continued. “But I thought with the video stuff that I do I could film a really nice video to show Vern, and my goal is to make him feel like he is right here harvesting with us.”
Eastman’s grandson said his grandfather is also eager to the see the video and is relieved his project is coming to completion with the help of his long-time neighbors.
“He’s just been really excited and really, really hoping to see it get done,” he said. “He was worried that maybe his corn would fall over and all that kind of stuff, but it’s still standing, and we’ve got a truck full, so, yep, we’re doing good there.”
A grateful neighbor
Asked on Friday for his reaction to the generous help of the Wilsons, Eastman said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I appreciate everything they’ve done. I offered to pay him and he refuses.” Eastman said he is looking forward to seeing the video of the harvest and also being able to thank his neighbors in person.
Laura said the work they did last Wednesday at the Eastman farm was satisfying, not only because they were helping out a neighbor, but because the project exemplified the best of what it means to be in farming.
“I have to say being a farmer is definitely more than just a job,” she said. “It’s kind of a way of life, and I feel no hesitation in stopping my harvest to help somebody else out, because I know that every other farmer in this community would do the same thing for me. And so it’s really, really cool, especially this time of year, to see farmers gathering together for harvest, whether it be a field fire that pops up and all of a sudden you just see 15 farmers in the area drop everything they’re doing and rush to the scene. And so to be able to do this for a farmer is just really, really cool. It makes you feel a lot of pride for the occupation.”