just another day full of possibilities i would never have expected.

Bought a New? Tractor

    Was looking on craigslist under farms and gardens and noticed an ad for an Allis Chalmers c tractor. For a fairly reasonable price, I contacted the man who had it and made arrangements to see it and paid him for it after driving around for a few minutes in the snow.  It ran well, it was a tricycle instead of a spread axle, but it was clean and started right up and sounded good. This thing is seven years older than me. Clutch was good. As far as anything goes I wouldn’t know what to do first to it to make it better. A 1948 Allis Chalmers C. the only problem is I have to get it home.

       The dump truck has been fairly reliable here lately and it hasn’t been that long since I used it last. in fact after the tornado in mineral city and I had the opportunity to remove some down trees , so I took the tractor and the trailer and was able to bring in several; loads of carving material. But it has let me down before but mostly in hot weather as I had some sort of a problem with a vapor lock occurring and has stranded me in Cadiz , on my day from hell part 268. Which at some time I will have to tell you about. Currently I am on day 269. Although the end result was ok I had a few trying moments.

     I tend to fret the details, not so much as if I had not done it before, having pulled small equipment down i-77 to the Lowell exit. That was day 235; it isn’t always without incident that equipment is moved. Forget one detail and you may be at risk for injury or wreck. Once in a while is plenty for me. The trouble is if you don’t do it all the time you tend to overlook things as I did because I was in a hurry.

      I had the trailer pulled out of the snow and brought out to the garage and aired the tires, I knew I had some electric lines on the trailer lights torn and Thur. evening, had to quit because I couldn’t find the electrical tape. Friday I had other plans and continued with those thinking I would have plenty of time on Saturday morning to do what I need to make sure trailer and truck was checked out. Something I needed to do because things happen when equipment sits out over winter. I had the truck running weeks ago to fetch hay for my errant calf and knew it didn’t need much in terms of checking out. The tires looked good, just had to find the tape and do the wiring.

     I called the old guy who had the tractor and told him I was coming. I said I would make it around noon, it was then I forgot I was supped to be there before 11, as this is the second time I had to postpone picking up the tractor. The first time was on our last major snowfall on Tuesday and there was no way I was dragging a tractor home in that, for almost 40 miles.  He reminded me he had a basketball game he had to go to at noon, his granddaughter’s game. I told him I still needed to check things out, so earliest would be 11. He was reluctant to accept the pickup time and I offered to have him leave it outside and I could just get it from there. He said he needs to be there to load the plow.

    See a folk as we go on the deal gets sweeter. Not only did I buy an Allis Chalmers C, but I also bought a plow that might work on it. Not quite sure but it is a large 1 bottom plow. Think it is for a larger Allis Chalmers WD-45 or so. Apparently it doesn’t fit for lack of a bar. I figured it would make a nice lawn ornament as I don’t know I want to plow with this tractor. With some work I am sure it would be a good show tractor. Don’t know if that is what I am going to do with it. Actually I had planned to just let it sit and run and power my soil screener, as I make good quality topsoil. I will be able to blend, and screen topsoil materials to suit my needs and my customers’ needs as I start to sell topsoil. All this tractor needs to do is sit and run, heck I can drive it around and looks good. Not a bad deal.

       Back to day from hell day 268 and my ongoing saga. I rose early the next morning knowing of the task before me. I called my helper in and we started working on the truck and trailer. My frustration grew as I hurried about the different obstacles facing us before we were able to leave, and saw I was running behind on time.  

    I checked the trailer hitch and all seemed ok as we seemed to have a problem with the tongue and seating it on the ball. It locked as I thought it should do, and I bolted the ball lock to prevent it coming off.

   We checked the lights and turn signals and all seemed ok and the wires secured.

   I called the old man with the tractor and told him I was on my way.

   Out our rough lane and onto the street, and up the road I went. Finally getting up to speed and then I noticed a water spray from rear of truck and it seemed as if something was wrong behind and I looked and saw the trailer was loose and I was going about 45.  It whipped back and forth seemingly contained behind the truck due to the chains. I knew I had to slowly stop and did so.

    When hooking the trailer I made special attention to hook the safety chain in a specific way to make sure they stayed attached in an emergency. I was having that emergency now. The trailer and truck and  I were soon headed for the side of the road assuring I wouldn’t get stuck, and that we would be safe. My helper and I jumped out and ran back and I assessed the situation. Surprisingly there was no damage the safety chains worked as they should have. The trailer was nudged behind the truck; I jumped in the truck and pulled up. We jacked it back up and I was able to this time assure it was completely down on the ball and then test it with the jack like I didn’t before and should have. Idiot me. All I had to do with the jack is once it was locked on the ball apply pressure in the form of lifting the rear of the truck and know that ball and everything will stay connected in worse case scenarios as I tend to have at times. We could almost pick up the rear of the truck after testing it. We later referred to this incident as  the safety chain test , thank someone I took the time to make sure those were correct.

   I knew better but was in a hurry, hence day from hell number 268 and why I don’t like farming sometimes.

     I was able to get it all hooked up and plugged in a disconnected wire connector and had lights.

     All this and no State Highway Patrolman questioning my existence on the highway at that time, this was all good and no reason to turn around and go home. I was still only a mile from the house. I kept on going and the rest of the trip was a lot tamer, and at one point while loading the tractor in the middle of the road , this old guy I was getting the tractor off of seemed incredulous at the attitude of an obvious frustrated motorist,  saying he couldn’t believe impatient some people are. I thought to myself how ironic.

   He seemed to have no problem putting pressure on me to assure our deal was done and by a certain time. I felt obligated and hurried myself.  If his granddaughters game was that important it would not have been unreasonable to post pone my pickup time to a later date. This is something I don’t do much anymore. And that is hurry. When I was younger it was always hurry up and wait, now that I am older it never seems to get to the wait period, as my time seems so valuable and so little of it, that I really don’t like wasting it. So it seems like it is one fire after another. All I do is fight fires. Tired of hurrying and tired of letting people push me to do things I really don’t like to.

     This day was why I don’t like to hurry. There is no reason why I should have to get stressed over anything. So will make a mental reminder to myself that when I run across this in my life again to not let it push me to make decisions I shouldn’t.  There are no shortcuts in life, that don’t have their limitations.

     All is safe and well at home and after driving the tractor around a little, I found a hole for it in the garage. I guess tractors in the barn are like cars up on blocks to West Virginians, sort of a status symbol, a badge of honor to a farmer, and practical in a sense as you never know when you might get the tractor stuck, or in the case of West Virginians and cars on blocks;  you  need to have another room , it is always nice to have one around.