Hooking Up in West Elgin by Terry Carroll During July wheat harvest, my bro- ther gave me detailed instructions be- fore I moved the grain wagons into the McGregor Farm: “Swing to the left on the lane,” said Alan, aka Big Al, “then cut to the right and park the wagons on the green strip.”
I seriously considered calling Big Al. He’s a patient man, accustomed to fixing many problems as he works 16-hour days during harvest. But everybody has their limits. If I were in his boots, I might not shout, ‘You did what?’ But I’d be thinking it. Besides, I already knew what Big Al would do: unhook the front two wagons and park them out of the way; hook the tractor to the (almost) lodged third wagon; back it up until it clears the gate post; rehook wagon number three to wagons number one and two. All that backing and rehooking would have taken Alan one or two tries. It took me ten. Midway, I was sweating in the July sun like a pig. (That’s farm humour; pigs don’t sweat … hence, their love of mud). I came through without any visible damage to equipment or fence post. But between the odd angle at which wagon number three was hooked to the others and the tire marks the tractor made in the trampled wheat, it would be easy for Big Al to read the story. I fessed up over supper. As a farmhand in his senior years, I get to do agricultural labour without the financial headaches of owning a farm. The experience can be like a paid vacation. The big difference between working on a farm and working in town lies in that CAA analogy. When you get into a problem in a fifty-acre field … it’s just you in a fifty-acre field. As people much younger than me like to say, it’s authentic. Occasionally, too authentic. Terry can be reached at terry@carrollgroup.ca.
There’s what’s said, and there’s what’s heard. I did swing left, then steered the John Deere tractor right. Fortunately, I dismounted from the tractor to make sure the wagons were clearing. The back wagon of three had stopped at an angle, two inches away from taking out a gate post. I was half a wagon short of making it. A little background. I was born and raised on the family farm in West Elgin. Until I was in my late twenties, I fed myself and my then-young family mostly by working on or managing farms. After that, for about 35 years, I became a townie -- a city slicker who did no farming. Ten years ago, I returned to being an occasional farmhand for my brother during planting and harvest. As a townie with soft hands in trouble on the farm, my first instinct was to call somebody like CAA. That would have been entertaining … for them: “I’m in a bind in a wheat field. I’ve got a tractor and three wagons—” “Excuse me, sir. You do realize this is the Canadian AUTOMOBILE Association.” Geoffrey Rae Managing Editor / Sales Geoff@villagerpublications.com 519-495-7177 Copy Editor: Peter Bloch-Hansen Publisher: Barb Botten barb@villagerpublications.com Graphic Artist – Cathy Wood Photos, community events and article suggestions welcome. Please email hometown@villagerpublications.com. We look forward to hearing from you. oomers oomers B and B EYOND
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Page 14 Boomers and Beyond – Elgin • September 2025
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