Tired But Not Retired

Randy, Jill & Kinley - Easter 2012 - April

I think we've gotten our money's worth out of this Ford 8N tractor. Maybe it's time to make it a prop for family photos. (Of course, that might be a problem because somebody just dropping by for a random visit might think that's the way we still farm around here.)

My musings were prompted when the radiator started leaking while the guys were using it to string electric fence across the road for pasture for cattle. I thought maybe it was time to retire the old faithful work horse. But not so fast. Randy started searching the internet for a radiator replacement. He got one ordered and the guys got the radiator replaced.

It's as good as new. Well, maybe it's as good as new if you overlook the rust.  On second thought, the rust may be what's holding it together these days.

That tractor seat has been occupied with five different generations now. I couldn't find a photo of the tractor in action, but here's a four-generation photo of Clarence (Randy's Grandpa, seated), his Dad Melvin and Randy holding Brent in 1988.

When Kinley and Jill were here for Easter, Randy wanted a photo on the old Ford tractor. We need to take another photo when they are here again. Kinley has changed a lot since April! She did wear her overall jumper for the occasion. What a good little farm girl!

April 2012

Melvin and Clarence bought the tractor back in the 1960s, when Randy was in grade school. They used it to load silage for feeding cattle. Randy remembers using it to pull a two-row John Deere planter when they planted milo. He also cultivated milo with it when he was junior high age.

These days, we have a wire winder on the back and use it for building and rolling up electric fence.

It may be tired, but it's not retired. Come to think of it, that might describe me at the moment, too.

God's Signature

The sunrise is God's greeting,

 the sunset His signature. 

--Anonymous

I'm thankful for beautiful signatures to long days of wheat planting. While I'm not in the tractor disking or in the other tractor pulling the wheat drill, I am still a piece of the puzzle as I make parts runs, deliver meals and provide chauffeur service from one field to the next.

So, while I usually have much more to say, today I think I'll let God do the talking via a beautiful sunset. (A bunch of bloggers participate in Wordless Wednesdays. This is as close as I get to wordless. But who needs words with skies like this?)

Sunset - September 24, 2012 - Randy disking ahead of the wheat drill after a supper break. Yes, supper was late.

Click here for a glimpse at God's greeting for the day - sunrise.

Amarillo Sky

My Farmer may not bring home flowers all the time. But who needs flowers when there's an amazing sunset just down the road?

He called me from the tractor a few days ago and told me, "There's a pretty sunset tonight." I was hidden away in the basement office. I would have missed it without a reminder. And it was way prettier than any bouquet.

As I watched the sunset and the tractor move through the field, I thought of the Jason Aldean song, Amarillo Sky. The country singer may have been talking about a sky in another state, but it works in Kansas, too.

It says, in part:

He just takes the tractor another round
And pulls the plow across the ground
And sends up another prayer.
He says, "Lord, I never complain. I never ask why.
"But please don't let my dreams run dry."
Underneath, Underneath this
Amarillo sky

While I was out there, I tried getting a photo of a sunflower and the sunset. I wasn't thrilled with the results until I worked a little magic with the computer and made it more like a painting than a photograph.

It's not like God needs my help with gorgeous scenery. He's an expert at creating Masterpieces.

Free Caps

I have a lovely addition to my wardrobe. It is all the rage among fashionable farm wives. The classic cap is enhanced with pink and gray camouflage, perfect for the start of dove season this week.

And best of all: It was FREE!

Wait just a minute. Is that the sound of money draining out of my bank account? Yes, yes. That's the sound all right. Glug, glug, glug ... That free cap just cost me a tidy five-figure sum, even with a five-figure, trade-in credit.

But that's OK. We didn't get just one cap. We got several. One in classic Case red was claimed by Randy and a couple of others went to Jake and his little boy. There was also a lovely Case license tag tossed in the shopping bag.

It's a bargain, right?

A new tractor was added to our County Line line-up last Friday. Well, it is new to us. It's a 2005 Case Steiger STX375.

It replaces a tractor that truly was a lemon. You've heard of cars that are lemons once they roll off the assembly line. Our Case MX240 was the tractor version.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? The only people making lemonade out of that tractor was the dealership who was raking in the money on repairs.

So it was definitely time for a revamp, even though it is painful to the pocketbook.

Randy considered going green this time. In fact, by decision time, he was considering three tractors, two of which were green. But he's a RED-blooded farm boy who has been driving red tractors all his life.

He could obviously stomach a little green, since he added a John Deere planter to the mix earlier this year. But for the major hardware? Red, it is.

Actually, he says it was less about the color than it was the pricetag. The Case tractor was less money. It didn't have all the bells and whistles that the John Deere tractors had. But he just needed the basics.

Well, basics are a matter of opinion. I took a ride in the new tractor Saturday, and its computer told us how much fuel we were consuming and how many acres we were working per hour, among other fascinating details.

Jake had taken the tractor to Zenith to fill the 300-gallon capacity fuel tank. He told Randy he didn't want to know how much it cost.

Big men are really just little boys in different packages. Randy was pretty excited about the tractor. On Saturday, we were disking a field that still seemed plenty wet to me.

"Would we be working this field if you didn't have a new tractor?" I asked, not so innocently on Saturday.

Long silence and a grin ensued.

"Well, maybe not," he finally said.

Big boy: New toy.

Little boys like new tractors, too. Trevor, our hired man's little boy, couldn't quit grinning about the new tractor and went for a spin with his dad on Friday.

"This is the best tractor ever," the first grader declared to Randy.

Let's hope it is, Trevor.

However, some caution flags are going up for this seasoned farm wife. Randy says that it's really more tractor than we need for the implements we have.

Uh oh. That sounds expensive to me.