New additions to the fleet

I'm tired of talking about rain and flooding and not being in the field. How about an update on changes to our fleet this winter?  Our first change was replacing the 74 Ford tandem

 with a single axle semi.

 

The Ford is a good truck ... for a 35 year old truck.  We still have the Ford setting around, but it has a For Sale sign on it and is listed in a couple classifieds.  I took it to Knowles consignment auction, but all that was bid was $3000 and I said I'd take it home and part it out before I'd take that.  I have it priced at $10,000 but I am VERY negotiable.

Our next move was replacing a couple older pickups, the flatbed and Old Blue (you can see both the flatbed and Old Blue in this photo)

 

 We really didn't use either much.  The flat bed doesn't like me.  Aman can get in and it starts and runs and smiles at him.  I get in and it won't start, doesn't run good when it does start, and I end up frowning.  I raised my hand at an auction when I should have said I was waving at someone and bought a Ford F500 and gooseneck trailer.

Old Blue was a good truck, we just didn't use it.  After we decided to sell it I got it out to clean it up.  It had been driven once in 3 months. I sold it to one of Aman's seed customers and bought a Jeep Wrangler.

Paul Wilson had used it as his winter project.  He went through the engine, overhauled it, replaced some key parts, cleaned up the wiring, and ended up with a pretty nice rig.  It's just a 4 cylinder, but should get reasonable mileage, be great for working with irrigators, carrying a few bags of seed corn or some tools.  I think it will be Aman's farm vehicle.  It should get around the fields a lot better than Old Blue.

Speaking of blue, I also replaced 2 ATV's with a new blue Mule UTV

I pondered on this more than all the rest together. We had the Kawasaki 220 Dad bought about 15 years ago and the Polaris 330 I got last year through Beck's.  Both were OK little bikes, but not really what we needed.  I went to trade them for a used, bigger 4WD ATV, but decided that really wasn't what we needed either.  We needed to be able to carry 2 people, tools, cargo, etc anyplace we needed to go.  So far the Mule has lived up to all that.  I started spot spraying Hemlock this week.

 It handles the 15 gallon sprayer a LOT better than either of the old ones.  I actually feel safe spraying with this.  With the others the bike was overloaded, unstable, and actually unsafe.

I think I'm done buying for a while.  I've spent more on the fleet this winter than I EVER have.  But we also have things in a lot better shape and are much more usable and hopefully reliable.