Friday, March 4, 2016

Living Dangerously - Country Style

Living dangerously - country style:  Your husband goes to a farm auction with the checkbook while you're at a meeting.

It just may lead to a farm fleet expansion. Randy bought a new-to-us combine at a Pratt County farm auction on Tuesday. He purchased a 2010 7120 Case combine, along with a 2011 35-foot flex head header and a trailer to pull the header.

And, just so you know, we DID talk about it before he went, so it wasn't a total surprise. He had a price in mind and doubted it would buy the equipment. However, with a depressed farm economy right now, the price for used machinery is down.

He says he got a good deal. My dad and brother concur, so it must be true. (Either that or the farmers are sticking together.)
The new combine is 16 years newer than the combine we'd been using for 14 years. (We bought that one at a farm auction is 2002.)  The combine has 1,500 engine hours, compared to 3,800 on our old combine.
It has many more bells and whistles. It's our first piece of equipment that has GPS, other than our portable Garmin in the car, which loves telling us "recalculating." I don't think that's a feature of this version: Randy hopes not!

At least he didn't get that message on the drive home. It took him 1 1/2 hours at 23 miles an hour on country back roads to get the combine home. Ironically, along the way, he pulled over to let a tractor pass. It turned out to be a neighbor who was taking a similar route, driving a tractor home after getting it repaired at a Pratt dealership. That's our version of a country traffic jam, I guess.
Randy has a lot of reading ahead trying to figure out all the features. One of the sellers was a high school classmate of mine. He generously spent some time showing Randy the ropes.

But still, Randy has a little "light reading" ahead with four new manuals. Randy already loves harvest. I have a feeling he'll be even more excited this year!

12 comments:

  1. WOW I get this this kind of stuff happens to me all the time. NICE combine and love Red:) We only have red on our farm. Enjoy the manuals Randy :) not my kind of reading but it is so complicated now to drive any of these newer machines. It will make harvesting a much nicer experience in that one. Hug B

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    1. He is actually a man who does read the directions - ha!

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  2. Congratulations, Randy! The manuals look like a good cure for insomnia. Loved the analogy of a country traffic jam.

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    1. They would be for me! He's gotten through one of them, but he admits that it will take a re-read closer to harvest to operate the header in a certain mode.

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  3. Now that's a big 'toy'!
    I hope he doesn't have to change the tyres too often. What month is harvest for you?

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    1. Our primary crop is wheat. We harvest it in June. We also do some dryland corn and usually do it in August/September.

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  4. I do concur with your sentiments about farmers heading off the clearing sales with the cheque book! You just never know what they might come home with...

    That's a pretty impressive buy. Congratulations Randy.

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    1. He is excited about it. We've had the other one since 2002, so this is quite an upgrade.

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  5. That sure looks nice! He looks quite pleased with himself! :)

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    1. It has lots more bells and whistles than he is used to!

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  6. Huge piece of equipment. Glad for you guys. Looks like randy has plenty of reading to do but I am sure he knows what to do.
    Farming herein our little valley must seem like small potatoes to you but potatoes being what matters it is what raises our families.
    We have been getting tons of rain out this way---record setting---I am hoping it will let up soon. Save some for summertime.
    Cheri's calve crop was/is 100% and done. Good for them.
    I read through the rest of your posts. Very good you are such a good writer. Sad things do happen and we do have to take time to reflect on the good things that happen too.
    Take care
    MB

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    1. Randy read the manuals in the evenings this weekend, so he's made a dent in them. He'll probably have to review again as harvest approaches!

      Glad to hear that Cheri's calving went well. For the most part, ours has gone well. We certainly didn't have to contend with much cold weather. We hardly got any snow at all.

      Thanks for your kind words!

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