A plow saga, part 3

On Saturday, the guy from Craigslist connected with Cliff; indeed, the plow he had was the type we needed; it was in his mom's barn, where it had been since her tractor sold at auction a few years back. Cliff asked his price, and he replied, "Oh, it ought to be worth $200."

A bargain! That's a hundred dollars less than we'd planned to pay.

He lived in an area we'd just driven through on the motorcycle the previous day, about sixty miles away, not far from Harrisonville where I'd bought...

this item for $8, sixty percent off the original price. But I digress.

We arranged to meet him at his house near Garden City.

Then we followed him to his mom's place, about ten more miles from there.

He and Cliff discussed the history of the plow.

A neighbor drove his tractor over and pulled the plow out of the barn...


and lifted it onto our trailer.


With our bargain plow loaded, the guy who sold it to us suggested we stop by a place not far from there that sells meat. We've learned to follow up on things like that because local folks know what's worth visiting.

Lunch? I thought it was only a butcher shop. Unfortunately, they open at 11 A.M., and we were a half-hour early. But it planted a seed in both our minds and made us realize we were getting hungry.

So when we went through Blue Springs, we stopped at Golden Corral because, you know, they have the best rolls and mashed potatoes and pot roast EVER! (We try to avoid buffets because we always eat too much... but that silly seed had been planted and it was out of our hands.)

So the plow cost us $200; counting the tip, Golden Corral cost $30 (we had a fantastic waiter); gasoline was at least $30. Oh, and we stopped by Colonial Nursery for another clump of Pampas Grass to go across the driveway from the one we picked up last week. That's $13 more.

Hmmm, I don't think we saved much money. But we had fun. And I got three blog entries out of the deal.

The end.

A plow saga, part 2

Having ascertained that we did, indeed, have $300 in our checking account that wasn't earmarked for anything, I was ready for a plow. I didn't want to wait for the trader to come up with one.

"You know," I told Cliff, "There have to be lots of people with plows they haven't used in years, sitting in fence-rows or barns; what if we put a "want to buy" ad in the farm and garden section of Craigslist?" (Craigslist is the best thing since sliced bread!)

So Cliff told me exactly what kind of plow he wanted, and I made the ad: "Want to buy plow: I need a category two, three-point hitch, three-bottom plow."

I added Cliff's cell number and our home phone number, and placed the ad.

Now, after seeing what sort of plow Cliff wanted, I was perplexed. That's too big an implement for our little thirty-five horsepower John Deere.

"Which tractor are you buying this for?"

"The Mahindra."

The Mahindra

"What? You're buying a plow for a tractor that doesn't even belong to us?" (We're babysitting "Ma" for our favorite brother-in-law, who moved to St. Louis.) "Why can't you use Big Ugly? Or buy a little plow for the John Deere? Or a medium-sized plow for the Farmall H, or that unpainted John Deere 520?"

"Don't you worry," he said. "I can always get my money back out of any plow I buy, if Pat wants his Mahindra back."

He went on to explain that he'd never want to plow with the little John Deere because it's a Hydro-power model. (Don't ask me what that means; I have no clue.)

Hmph!! All these tractors we own, and he buys a plow for that tractor.

"Big Ugly", an old David Brown tractor.

The 520 John Deere and the Farmall H

Within two hours of placing the ad on Craigslist, I received an email from a fellow who had such a plow. How much did we expect to pay, he wondered.

I told him to call Cliff.

To be continued....

A plow saga, part 1

Since we've moved to the pasture, I've gotten a little case of gardening fever. The past few years, our garden has been more or less "out of sight, out of mind" to me. Since there's quite a big area we're going to be mowing as a yard, I figure it would be a good thing to use some of that room as a garden space.


That's the area where my new garden will be; this picture is taken from the front of the garage, next to our trailer house. (Get used to my calling it a trailer house; I know this offends some "manufactured-housing" owners, but it's mine and I'll call it whatever I please.)

There's lots of clover, alfalfa and mixed grass here; I want to have it turned under for green manure. It'll add lots of good nutrients and organic matter to my garden.

That's a borrowed tiller on the back of our Japanese-made John Deere. Cliff was going to use that to work up my garden spot.

"No, please," I begged. "I'd like to have it plowed first, deeply plowed."

Cliff explained to me that we only have trail plows; they work great in a large area, but for a small garden plot with a nearby fence and buildings, not so well.

Trail plow number one...

and trail plow number two.

"Darn it," I whined. "We have all these plows and tractors and can't even plow a garden? We need to buy a plow we can USE."

Now folks, when I say something like that, Cliff latches onto it like white on rice. It's the best excuse in the world to buy a farm implement, and in his book, there's no such thing as too many farm implements.

"I'll call around and see if I can find one," he said, acting resigned to his fate while secretly rejoicing.

"How much do you think a mounted plow will cost?" I asked.

"Oh, around $300."

He called a local trader who usually has most any kind of used equipment in his inventory; the guy said he might be able to get his hands on one, but it would be awhile.

(To be continued.)