Don Jansen working on the Liffengren Farm, near Murdo, SD. This appears to be a 1959 Massey-Harris 82 Combine.
From Don
"I think that was the summer of 1969 - the first summer I worked for Luverne. That combine was owned by Luverne and Raymond Boe. Actually I think Luverne paid for it and Raymond kept it running. And then I think Luverne just ended up giving it to him and buying that Gleaner that I drove all the other years I worked for him. And again in 1980, I was traveling around and managed to get in on that summer’s harvest. The only time I combined wheat that I’d planted because I was there the previous Sept. when Luverne had his bypass surgery. Usually, I was back in school by the time the winter wheat was planted. I think that shirt I have on you [Doug] gave me. It was a Tech PE tee shirt."
I drove that combine in 1964 and 1965. As I remember it, Luverne and Raymond bought two very old and decripit Massey Combines. Only those two were good enough mechanics to keep them running. It took an amazing amount of grease to lubricate the beast in many, many zerks. You had to shoot grease into each zerk every morning.
Many other farmers used custom combiners to cut their grain. The combiners had modern equipment, and started in Texas and Oklahoma, worked there way north as the grain harvested, and some went all the way to Canada.
New combines cost a great deal of money. Luverne and Raymond saved a lot of money by cutting their grain themselves with that old combine. Of course there was always a chance that the crop could get hailed out (destroyed) before you could harvest it.
Harvest was a fun time and you could see the payout as the grain was harvested. Harvesting meant very long days seven days a week until the grain was all harvested.
I loved working with Luverne, and felt that I had grown up after I worked there those two summers. Gen and Luverne were super people and I really enjoyed those summers.
Craig Hullinger