Raking & Burning Tumbleweeds

David suggested that this escapade qualified for telling:

One of my most vivid memories of the farm was the time that I was raking up tumbleweeds in the field east of our home. Old Maud was pulling the big dump rake, on which I was seated on a metal seat. We would go back and forth to rake up the weeds that I would dump in a row so that we could burn them. The ground was hard and bumpy so that the big iron wheels would bounce around as we moved back and forth across the field. In order to fiinish this task as soon as possible, I conceived a plan to start a small fire in the tumbleweeds caught by the rake tines so that the burning could take place while I was raking, thus saving time.

The flaw in this plan became apparent when I tried to trip the big tines that held the weeds, but the weeds were so tangled that the tines wouldn't lift high enough to realease the weeds. There were two ways to raise the tines: by stepping on a round metal trigger with my foot; or by reaching back to a long steel handle and pulling it forward. Neither of these methods seemed to free the weeds that were burning right below my iron seat. The fire was very hot on my legs and the smoke was suffocating.

Since I was concentrating on trying to raise the tines, and to avoid the heat, I pretty much ignored Maud. With reins rather loose, Maud started to trot (maybe she felt the heat on her hind legs too) which meant that the rake was bouncing around. It was getting so hot on the metal seat that I couldn't sit on it and found it necessary to stand up, all the while stepping hard on the metal trigger and/or reaching back to pull the lever....with no success. Meanwhile Maud was trotting faster, in fact she even started to lope, so that I was fearful of being thrown off the rake in front of the metal tines. But finally the weeds were dislodged through our racing around the field in an area where we had already gathered the weeds.

Following my getting control of Maud and stopping the rake, I sat there contemplating my good fortune in surviving this crazy escapade and vowing never to try it again.