Trew: 'The times, they are a'changing'

My grandfather Charley Trew used to shake his head and say, "the changes, they just keep a'coming." As we modernized our farming equipment and methods after the Great Depression and Dust Bowl ended, it seems we were making big changes almost every week. The same holds true today. The ideas and advertisements in farm and ranch magazines make my head swim trying to figure out how they work and how to pay for them. A visit recently with a long-time used farm equipment dealer told of a change I had not heard. Seems the high price of scrap metal for the last few years has finally about cleaned out the old horse-drawn and early tractor machinery. He said those type of auctions held on old farms are a thing of the past. Sure makes me proud of my collection of 60-plus horse-drawn implements and other old farm tools. At least I can show them to my descendants and explain how they work. Although wind power seems to be all the rage today, solar power is slowly becoming the biggest change in ranching. The long-time faithful windmill, dependable if the wind blows, has become so expensive to purchase and maintain, solar-powered water pumps are becoming more numerous. For a while the new pumps had troubles; but the latest models seem to have that solved, and our solar pumps are working in great fashion, providing water whether the wind blows or not. If Ace Reed were still alive and drawing cartoons, he would have old Jake the cowboy up on a rickety ladder by a solar panel, rag and soap bottle in hand, cleaning the hoot owl poop off the screen and wishing for days past when he was checking the oil in a windmill...more