Bank Barns & Pork Chops 

Pete, I really enjoy the videos and the book was an excellent read. You are really adding to the world with these videos, and I for one depend on them to keep my sanity, as a farm boy turned software developer. I have to say, though - I am always put off by the "safety sam" and "efficiency elves" quips. You are reducing yourself every time you use these, and it comes off as defensive. I suspect that what you are reacting to is mostly people who are really just trying to be helpful - but maybe RU-vid comments are an imperfect medium for conveying intent. The people who view your videos time after time are your supporters any by and large we mean well - even the ones who focus on safety and efficiency. Something to think about.

Don’t listen to the haters Mr. Pete. We all watch your videos for a reason and that’s because it’s just so enjoyable to watch. Keep doing things the way you wanna do them.

These are memories of a time gone by - an America that really doesn't exist anymore. Thank you so much for sharing. You have a keen sense of how to interest your viewers, and you're very good at story-telling. I would like to see more videos like this!

Where else can you go and get a lesson on the history of corn harvest, storage and pork chop cooking as a bonus? Thanks Pete!

I worked on a local NY dairy farm for a year after high school. 60 cows. We filled corn cribs too back then. I remember hand-picking corn ears in spots that were too wet for the tractor and picker to get through. These days the corn cribs stand empty. I used to climb up the silo every morning and throw down silage. No automatic unloader. It was hard work every day. And I walked 2 miles to the farm from my home, even in the winter. I earned enough to buy my first car. 😁 It was all good.

Picking corn had an added bonanza when I was young on the farm. Picking the corn pushed the pheasants to the end of the field where I would be with a shotgun. Thanksgiving dinner flew right into my line of sight and onto our table. Those times are long gone. Thanks for the memories Pete.

Just wanted to tell you how much I love your stories. When I hear you tell them so many memories of my own come flooding back! Thank you so much.

I could sit and listen to these story's all day. My grandfather had a barn with a corn crib

Everywhere people complaining. I enjoy all of your stories. Thank you

Your description of your Grandfather's operation was almost identical to my Uncle Joe's farm near Stayner Ontario that I visited as a child till the mid-80s - right down to the belt driven hammer mill grinding 'chop' for the dairy cows. I used to drive the tractor pulling the binder & stook the grain sheaves. He used a belt driven threshing machine that blew the grain in the granary & the saw into the mow. Threshing day brought together a dozen friends & family & ended with a feast. Your description of the sights, smells, and sounds brought back many many fond memories of happy childhood vacations. Thank-you so much for all your efforts, stay safe, God Bless.

Thank you for this video. I too remember shoveling ear corn into a belt driven hammer mill with my dad. It felt so good when the hammer mill was shut off. In the winter we would wear 2 pair of cotton gloves and shovel corn with an aluminum scoop shovel. I remember my fingers getting nearly frozen and going into the house to warm them up with cold water that felt warm.

Doing some of the chores you described as a teenager when it got hot or the manure was heavy and the job needed done right away I remember just leaning into the work and push all that much harder and the others working with us just looked at me and shook their heads but I ate that kind of stuff up like candy it gave me a satisfaction type feeling that I have now some 62 year later.

I remember my Dad picking corn by hand with horses pulling and old wagon! Before he got his first ford Tractor pulling a one row picker! Playing in the haymow was a favorite memory… Boy if people had to work that hard today…. We had a building called a brooder house! Rats lived under it! It was fun shooting them heading to the corn crib. Shot them out the kitchen window. So fun Love your videos

Wow, same here. Grew up on the farm and did all the same things you said. Filled wagon, then went out and scooped it into the cattle feeder. One day we were doing that and dad said boys now change from right hand scooping to left hand scooping. Actually gave you a break in a way. Then go back to the right. That was the good ol days. Kids today would faint at the thought of doing that. Thanks for sharing Iowa is watching

I remember those days. I had a rat killing dog too. He would really get after them. In one day we got 75 between he and my bb gun. Tobacco was my job I didn't care for then, but know I am grateful for all the hard work we did... enjoyed your videos.

Pete, thank you for your lovely memories. You're a good storyteller/teacher. So pleasant and relaxing. I'm really enjoying this channel.

Your grandpa’s barn brings the same feelings for you as mine brings for me. I loved climbing around on the wooden skeleton. Grandpa found some old metal signs and when he’d find another one it would get nailed up on the walls of the cribs. The inside was a virtual advertisement. The rustle of the cornstalks and loading the corncobs in the granary, I remember that dust. We’d be covered. But it was just dust. No pesticides, no chemicals and maybe that was why our lungs survived so well. Grandpa was a blacksmith. He had a huge anvil that belonged to his grandpa. I watched him make two pairs of shoes for an elderly man who had a team of horses he pulled a wooden wagon with. One was black and one was white. You could hear the clanks and jingles and clip clop of hooves coming from a long way off and I would go to the picket fence in front of our house just to watch them pass by. The sound of their hooves was different after grandpa put the metal shoes on them. More of a loud thud penetrating into the ground rather than the gentler more natural sound of bare hooves. Yes, I could tell if a horse was shod by the sound of their hooves. There were only a couple of other families who still used wagons then (that was in the 50’s). I hope whoever has grandpa’s anvil appreciates the stories it could tell. Oh for those days! Thanks Pete! Your chops looked delicious and your stories about the farm always remind me.

I’ll add my voice to the chorus and tell you how very descriptive your storytelling is!! It’s like a mini vacation for me about every time I tune in. You never take for granted that your tales are uninteresting or feign ignorance if you truly do not know something, which tells me you are a person with a knack for learning! Thank you for ALL you do and I could almost taste the pork you were cooking… mmmm!

I about fell out of my chair at 2:00 when you said “elementary” school with the prolongation in the middle. My gf was raised in upstate NY before her family moved out here to the pacific northwest and she’s the only person I’ve ever heard say it like that until now.

I grew up on a small farm. Guess that is why I love old tractors and barns. We look for your videos every night. Thank you.

Great Stories. I grew up in rural Arizona. Not many animals, but we grew Watermelon, cotton, and "Florist" flowers. No tractors: we used horses. I still love those sounds and smells, and I am going on 80. Thanks for your memories!

I enjoyed this show today. I enjoyed my Grandpa’s farm more than I can ever say. Like you I remember the smells. To this day I remember the smell Of early morning dew on the grass. My life on the farm was all fun and Grandma’s cooking on a coal/ wood stove. Thanks again for the video.

Pete, this must be one of my favorite vidoes. You speak of you grandfather with pasison. I remember your grandpa very well and remember the barn just as you described it, incluidng the old car body in the SW corner above the graneries. Grandpa D was sa pecial Uncle and I remember MIke as well. Good luck, keep up the awexome videos, and hope to see you soon.

my great grandfather had a corn picker relatively close to the picture at 2:59. he just used gravity wagons and an elevator into those circular metal corn cribs. Seen a few pictures of him from the 40's guy was 6-5 and built like a nfl linebacker. I feel extremely lucky I got to know him a bit in the 90s and early 2000's

I like the way you tell your boyhood memories spent in the farm. It sure put a smile on my face. Those are the memories that define you.

Wow Pete! The times and places are different but the way I grew up was very much the same. The ear corn,pickers,hammer mill........Yes Sir, didnt know it then but it was the best time of my life. Thank You.

Thank u so much for sharing your stories with us!!!! My great grandparents lived to be 96 and 104. I so wish I had recorded their stories. ♥️

My grandfather always said farm kids were mighty powerful kids. He like many back then were farmed out. It took me years to figure it out. I now live on a farm established in 1890 in south central pa. All the original structures are in good working order.

Another great video. Thanks Pete. Your stories bring back my own childhood memories of helping my grandpas and elderly neighbors do farm work.

This is my first time commenting. I couldn't help replying to the part of this video where you mentioned as a child your playing in the barn, jumping around on the bales of hay, etc. I had a ball doing as you did, but I also remember just laying on the new hay, listening to the rain fall on the tin barn roof. What a time. The smells of new hay, the sound of rain, the .... -- what a great time. THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES! Oh, and thanks for wearing the Hawkeye T-shirt. I worked for over 33 years at that institution.

Pete, Our haymow was on the right and the horse stalls on the left. They had an old basketball hoop in the thrashing floor. There was a hay rail along the peak from end to end. The sounds, the smells, your description brought it all back to me and I had tears from the memory. I wish I had that life back. Thank you.

The joy in your voice telling your stories is wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

Pete, spent many days loading wagons out of the corncrib,and oat and barley bins for agway to grind, they had a big truck that came on Thursdays,,,you could smell the molasses all through the barn,bought some of your chops today and had one for dinner,,,it was delicious,,thanks for sharing,,take care

I love listening to stories of past years. I wish I would have appreciated it more when I was young and my family was still alive.

Pete - your story of the bank barn and climbing and playing in the hay mow is taking me back to my childhood in the '60s. Your description of the barn is like you describing my Dad's barn. Also a century barn put together with wooden pegs and mortise and tenon joints. It was eventually dismantled piece by piece by a mennonite work crew and reassembled at a local agricultural museum property.

The thing I remember most about our farm is the smell of he old tractor shed only have to get a wiff of old oil and it brings back memories.

That hard work you did then is what makes you who you are today. I know for myself I would not have it any other way.

My grandfather died in 1959. He was a sharecropper in SC for tobacco, cotton, corn and etc. He never had a tractor only mules and plows. So love the farm stories. I lost my daddy last year at 92. I miss his stories. Thank you for sharing.

I’m in my late 20’s and get a solid laugh out of my peers spending hours trying to come up with an “easier” way to accomplish the same task I’m already done and over with. Strange how just picking up an hand tool and putting some backbone into the job gets it done!

Pete, I’m around the same age as you and have the same memories with both of my grandpa’s picking and shelling corn, rats running for their lives, and playing in the hay mow… reminds me of the Roy Clark song, Yesterday When I Was Young… “Yesterday, when I was young the taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue. I teased at life as though it were a foolish game, the way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame”…Thanks for the memories!

You are lighting up thinking of the old days happy days

I love when you tell the story your face lights up that shows you love your memories

I love old farm buildings and have worked for over 50 years to repair and restore them as part of the heritage of the farms I’ve owned or worked on. However at some point some have to go. Today I started taking down our old loafing shed, vintage who knows when…but was attached to our 1890 barn. I needed to repair and expand the barn on that side and keeping the shed would have prevented expanding the barn to house part of my growing collection of equipment….plus move our firewood storage closer to the house. While some have advocated building with modern materials, the extension is going in with post and beam construction with barn-board siding to match the rest of the structure. It isn’t the most efficient layout or system, but it works and keeps in sync with the rest of the farm.

Hi Pete, I’m a genuine “Safety Sam” (Retired Safety Manager) and just get a hoot out of hearing your references to the safety geeks. Love the videos and look forwarded to each new upload. Now about that giant belt drive… 🤣

The good old days, the way you tell it takes me back..... but the worst was cleaning the calf pens in the spring ....

I spent the first 14 years of my life around Vestal Center NY. It is interesting how many barns are configured mostly the same It brings back many fond memories. I was familiar with 4 different barns and 3 of the 4 are still standing.

Thank you Pete. The chops are makin me hungry! So many things you talked about with your grandfather are part of the memories I have from being a kid back in the 40s and 50s. I used a fork and shovel a lot moving a lot of different materials. The farm nextdoor had a hammer mill they put the M on, with a wide belt. They had a storage "bin" with removable boards. A farmer I worked for when I was 14/15 years old, stored the corn in a slatted crib. Put in and taken out by shovel. We hauled it "to town" to have it ground into corncob meal. Then bring it back to the farm in bags and dump it on the concrete floor inside the stanchions in the dairy barn. He bought a few amendments we added to the meal and mixed it with the "two pile" system. As you moved from pile to the other the feed would cascade down the side of the pile and mix "good enough". He had a metal drum, the biggest one I've ever seen, that was at least 5 feet in diameter. Of course with a lid. That stanchion area and some horse stalls were under the "bank barn". Those are good memories of good days. I treasure them. So often when you speak of things in early your life, you light a fire in my memory and allow me to relive a time that few people know anything about. There was an essence of life that we had then, that like so many other things in this Country, we have allowed to die or be killed off... in the name of progress:( . To people who never knew it, I say "I'm sorry". You missed something special.

Great video. I share so many of those memories from farming days past.

Great stories the old days were so much better

HI there Pete. Thanks for that. I had never heard of a Bank barn, hay shoot or hammer mill. You are so right about hard work. I try and tell my children and other youngsters the way things were done when I was a kid. I get some strange looks and I'm thinking this is nothing like my Grandpa's day. My Grandpa was in an Elite force called the Long Range Dessert Group in WW2. They operated up to 1000 miles behind enemy lines living on Sunshine, Sand and I don't know what. They used bananas to keep a hot differential working, cooked food on the truck bonnet and provided a taxi service for the British SAS (nicknamed the Lybian Taxi Service) and fought with them. These guys were seriously tough and hard working. Grandad was the GPS unit for his patrol meaning he navigated by the start find their way around. I still miss him. Thank you for sharing about you life as a boy on the same farm working with your Grandpa. It means a lot to me!

We had a no 10 international hammermill for grinding feed. We still have that mill in our barn along with the flat belt that drove it. We used a farmall M to power it and we would grind barly and oats to make a very fine feed for our pigs and cows.

We had in ground silo and we never had a loader on tractor. We wheelbarrowed. load by load to dairy cows 1 pulling and 1 pushing out to fence to feed. We also had to pitchfork manure into a wagon and then two of us would pitchfork off in field. I’m almost 71 now.

Love the memories you share with us. I despised shoveling ear corn. For every scoop, half the ears fall off. Just drove me nuts. Lol. Pitchforked tons of manure out the barn widows. That was work, but occasionally missed the window with a forkful... Well. It was a dirty job. Such is life working on a farm. But I'm grateful for the experiences I had. Thank you Sir. ✌️🖖

Love your stories about life on the farm. Harder work, but a simpler time.

Man does this video bring back memories of our old bank barn near North Bay Ont. back in the 50s...U described our old barn to a tee... there were 8 of us kids and we spent hours playing and jumping in the hay mows. We fell a few times but never really hurt ourselves but we were likely toughfer than the kids these days. Good memories and keep em coming.

🐼 Big Bear Hugs from a 68 yr old grandma in Kirby, Texas, USA 🐼 ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Nice story.

Awesome story Pete...my g-pa use to pick corn too.. with a new idea 1 row picker with a farmall super M T/A...we put it in round steel corn cribs to dry....then we would take it to town to sell it....I remember that well....loved being with my g-pa

I love your stories! You tell them well! "Efficiency experts!" Lol! You are too polite. Peace on your doorstep!

I was born in 1932 and you have described dairy farming in the first half of the 20's century. That's how it was done before the grain combine and hay bailer. You description of the hand-hewn post and beam bank barn was very accurate. At that period in time it was a good design, particularly the loose hay and grain storage in the second floor. The food was stored overhead and gravity used to get it down to the animals below. Also, in those days timber was available for post and beam construction.

LETS GO HAWKEYES!!!!! I'm from Iowa! my grandpa picked corn with a john Deere 4010

I enjoy your videos and listening to you talk, it make me feel like I am listening to afriend, and it brings back a lot of memories for me. Thank you and your wife so very much, keep up the good work and may God Bless.

Like the old pictures and enjoy the story of the good old days Good video

Thumbs up again Pete I love hearing about the history of your family and the farm thank you for sharing. Have a great day.

My Mom (born 1931) told about pulling bales of hay out to make tunnels through the hayloft. Of course those tunnels turned into cubbie hole forts. She and her brother were left to themselves a lot. Thank the Lord they lived through it! But they loved going to Grandmother's farm. She said her Grandmother saved the family farm during the depression by hosting chicken dinners for town people at her big old farmhouse. She made most everything from scratch only buying flavoring, sugar, salt, a few other things from the huckster wagon. And she traded him eggs for most of that. Huge garden, orchard, ice house, spring house. That woman worked from before sunup until dark. I wish I had known my greatgrandmother. I love your farm stories. I can smell the corn crib too.

I love hearing a good story. The passion and enjoyment you have telling it. Fantastic.

I remember as a boy earagating cotton and alfalfa it was a big deal that I got to do this . Best memories 💓

Great stories and memories of the time working with Grandpa and Dad. I too shoveled cob corn and ground corn and oats and you were right about the dust, brings back good memories working with Dad.

We used a bank barn until 2015, in 2016 it was burned down intentionally because it became dangerous. We used a hammer mill aswell until 2015, I have a video of us using it on my channel. That sound is forever saved in my ears as good memories. We also used one row pickers. I would do it all over again if I could. I often look back at my videos with my grandfather reminiscing and planning to carry on the legacy of farming.

I to have memories of grandpaws barns and all the chores but there was always fun to be had when the chores were done, actually i miss doing the chores surrounded by family

Great memories Pete! I have a belt driven hammer mill like on of the images you displayed. Its loud!! But its also powered by an Oliver 60 kind of the green and red equivalent of your H. Keep it coming!

Such great memories. Thanks for sharing. 🥩🌽🐀🥰

I was fortunate to experience many of your same memories, hay forts come to mind. That rural America just doesn't exist anymore, unfortunately.

THIS WAS YOUR BEST! Pure gold.

This was one of your best . My heart is full. Made me cry from memories of a good time gone forever. Thanks Pete. Blessings !!!

Pete, love your story's they take back.......Thank you

We had a newer corn picker when I was young. It was a New Idea we used the hay wagon and i used to walk behind the wagon and pickup ears of corn that fell off or missed the wagon. The smell of the corn is so pleasant. Have a good day.

Pete I'm just thankful for you and Hillary you know it's easy for someone else to tell you how to do stuff even if they don't never done it their self I enjoy your show and took take it at face value I just want you to know enjoy your show 100% Pete

I remember those days very well

Pete , you are a great storyteller. I'm 77 and so glad I grew up in the 50's as a kid; but now days I enjoy working fields with th 4 whneel tractors. However, working with the M and H are great memories! John - Minnesota

This is like listening to my mom telling stories of grandpa's farm. I always wanted that to be my life on the farm.

Thanks for the great stories of days gone by!

The best un- cooking show on the Tube!!

I love hearing about how it was :)

Great job Pete, now I'm putting pork chops on the grill tonight. The "Safety Elves" would lose their minds if they saw how real work was done. I really miss the hay forts and 40 foot swings in our barn. it's a wonder how we never broke any bones..👍👍💛🏚

My family owned the Wisconsin ice company. They had huge, insulated, warehouses to keep ice frozen during the summer. And chopped ice all winter. Talk about hard work. The invention of the refrigerator put them out of business. Loved your story, Pete.

Loved the story how hard did your gran par work on that farm and you and your family thay were the good old days wene we had nothing but we had everything thank you

Yes, it's a time for a good story, also time for cooking good home grown pork. Ooh yes you can combine it together, and we are having a great video.😀

Pete I just wanted to drop you a note you bring back a lot of memories talking when you was growing up I remember them old barns I used to work in them I used Ron H and M tractors I've never got to run an MD you take care really enjoy your videos and God bless you all

Used to use snap link + hammer chains in a manure spreader and an electric elevator-conveyor. If the spreader (JF Danish) was loaded above marker level, the chains would snap. The elevator-conveyor carried bacon but the chain joints reset themselves and went solid {Seized} alternately which was a version of self-adjusting.

I love the story Pete your just a Down to earth guy. Watching the videos just let know how good I was raised as a kid and what I going to get into when I move thanks my kids are going to love it

yep enjoy hearing history of how farms were way back when.

It's so finny/ You are bringing up so many old memories of mine. I'm from Iowa. Underwood IA to be exact. My family still lives in Council Bluffs. But I remember those sounds and smells. I was young but I remember them too. WOW. I'm so homesick now. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for the recipe. I love pork from the “non-commercial breed” we raise on our little place. This simple method made the chops taste even better.

Pete - the sounds and smells from the farm are one of the things that has always attracted me to farming. Thanks for sharing your history!!

Brought back lots of memories - Thanks!

Pete, another great video. Brings back memories as a kid Thanks

Lessons learned on pork chops. I am going to brine them next time for the grill. Good memories of grandpa and your dad. Makes videos going to the market that much better.

You brought some good old memories. I've done and experienced all of these things. I had a dog like yours and his name was Yogi. He would grab the rats just as you said. He was a police dog flunky, so kinda the same.

That is so cool to remember life and experiences with your grampa. I remember similar experiences with my grandparents and gardening with them he would tell stories of farming with his grandfather, plowing with a horses. His uncle had an 80 acre farm at summerset Ohio, great stories thanks for sharing with us.