Visiting, accumulating, traveling

Last night, just after I got home, Grandpa, Mama and I drove to a farm Grandpa had been to before. Over a year ago Grandpa had seen an add for laying hens for sale. He went and bought them before we lived on the farm. These were the first chickens we put on the farm and most of them are still laying for us. We are still using the paraphernalia he got with those chickens. It was a good purchase. Well, the same person had some equipment Grandpa was interested in looking at. The farmer is a delightful ninety year old gentleman.


If he were in West Virginia, Grandpa would refer to him as a pen hooker; one of those people who stay outside of the stock sale and look over every new arrival to see if they can buy the animals being brought for sale straight out of the truck or trailer. The quick sale gives the farmer cash to drive away with at a lower price than the buyers calculate they can collect by running the animals through the sale. It is a gamble but they are pretty good at what they do.

This gentleman must travel the countryside looking for deals to haul to his place and see if he can make a few bucks selling his finds to someone else. Most of what he had was too big for our use but I think we are going to go back to get a hay ring (for round bales of hay) off of him. It is an older solid ring (as opposed to the new ones that bolt together) made out of heavy rolled tubing. It will last the rest of our lives and them some. We passed on everything else but we had a good time talking to him and his wife. We even packed up a dozen fresh eggs to take to them. The wife was thrilled with the gift. The farmer did not think much about it last night but I bet he enjoys it this morning.

It took us almost as much time to get away as it did to look at the items we were interested in. I did take the time to help the farmer unload a very heavy solid wood entry door from a trailer he was weaving through the morass of items he had staged for sale. I have no idea where he got it from, but it was a good one. He wanted it under cover in a large shed he has full of odds and ends that do not necessarily belong on a farm but have accumulated over the years. It would be fun to comb through the building just to see what he has there – much of it forgotten.

If the Lord tarries and Mama and I are many years on this farm I can imagine the same process of accumulation overtaking us. Both of us are packrats, Mama more than me, but both of us like to hold onto things we see as potentially useful. I can already see the signs. Grandpa and I have things in our possession that we each carried with us from our respective farms in West Virginia…cerca 1989 for me and Mama. Some of those items I carried from Kansas City (1986-1989) to the farm…and now here. Grandpa’s collection of tools and various other items goes back a little further, by about a decade.

All of the items we have kept through the years and the moves are finding a home – maybe a permanent one – on the farm in Bowie. We still have yet to recover all of the tools and sundry items. Many are still packed away in boxes or stored in sheds – both here and in West Virginia. Once the shop is completed enough to set them in place we may finally be able to find them easily. Time will tell. I am interested in finding how many duplicates we end up with because we have bought replacement tools for those we knew we had but could not find.

Mama and I will be heading to Amarillo/Borger on Monday morning. I found out last night that she is really looking forward to the trip. As much as she loves the farm and does not venture far from it during the week – mostly because I have the nice car with me – she needs her time away too. There are people there that will be very glad to see her.

I will be happy to have her with me.