2024, animals, Farming Update, Uncategorized, work

The Price Is Right

30 Comments

Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben.

Got the latest show open at RCTC. The Curious Savage. It’s a nice group of kids.


The paint was even dry. I finished the set, oh… tens of minutes before the doors opened.

There are always last-minute things to do, and I even added some set dressing bits after I finished the last of my set notes. I used the ‘rollerwall’ painting stencil to make wallpaper. It takes some practice, but it’s pretty cool.

“Rollerwall.com” – there are hundreds of patterns available. I also used two different rollers to make a pattern on the carpet. (There are plot points in the script regarding following a pattern on the carpet. “If people walked around the outside of the carpet… it would save wearing out the middle.”)

I’m Behind on a weeks’ worth of newspapers and evening news, which isn’t really such a problem to be honest. 


The grass is turning green, we’ve gotten some nice rain, the temps are warming up, and it really does look like spring is here. Should be a really nice weekend here in Minnesota. I’m starting to think it might be OK to take the snowblade off the tractor and hook up some tillage equipment.

Last Sunday Kelly and I went to Tractor Supply and picked up another dozen chicks. Supposed to be girls. Pullets. The sign said “pullets”, but when we went to check out, 8 of the 12 were marked ‘straight run’, meaning boys and girls. Time will tell. All the chicks are doing really well. Sixty of them sure do eat a lot.

I went to Fleet Farm and picked up two new feeders, plus another small waterer for the chicks, and a large 7-gallon unit for outside once they get a little bigger.

I know I have / had more waterers around. Evidently, I’ve put them somewhere. They’re the same place I’ve put the dogs tick meds, and some other things from home I can’t find lately. Maybe next week my head will be clearer, and I’ll find them. Especially now that I’ve purchased replacements.

I bought a flat trailer at an online auction this week. This trailer has open sides so it’s easy to load and unload pallets.

This was a construction equipment auction, and it was astounding to see the prices some of the equipment brought.

The dogs had to come along on the drive to pick up the trailer. It’s Luna and Humphrey in the header photo. Luna is an anxious traveler. Bailey was in the passenger seat with her nose on my hand.


This trailer is one of those things not critical to daily operation, but it helps at certain times, to make life easier. And I’ve been thinking about that lately. I watch a YouTube channel of a young lady that works on a dairy farm in Maine. https://youtube.com/@tayfarms?si=lFN-zT3XcZzWxrM9

They run some older equipment, and it doesn’t appear they have a lot of money. This spring they were having trouble with the barn cleaner chain. That’s the mechanism that takes the manure out of the gutters and, in their case, pumps it too a lagoon. One morning she said the chain had come off 3 times. And they’re always fixing something with the pump, and it just makes me sad. Life is too short to spend so much time fighting with stuff like this. And yet, replacing costs money too, and it’s a tough situation when you don’t have the money for some needed repair or upgrade. 

We’ve probably all been there. I certainly remember being young and newly married and trying to get ahead. But at what cost? 

Dad was proud to leave me with decent equipment when he retired. He always said his dad had left him junk and he spent more time fixing than farming. And I guess he instilled that in me. I’ve kept up his habit of having decent equipment and not ‘junk’.

WHAT HAVE YOU PURCHASED THAT YOU REALLY COULDN’T AFFORD?

30 thoughts on “The Price Is Right”

  1. I’ve been lucky to have married someone who is a saver – we joke that I’m on the planet to teach him how to spend $, and he’s on the planet to teach me to save it.

    I remember putting things on layaway (remember layaway, before credit cards?) in my younger days – mostly clothing that I couldn’t afford at the moment. And shoes, I’m sure I’ve overspent on some pair of shoes I just had to have.

    Glad the opening went well, Ben – that rollerwall is really cool.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

      1. I’ve not seen other designers around here use one. And because painting isn’t my strong suit, it makes me nervous to use. Since it’s the last step, it’s back to square one if I mess it up.

        Like

        Reply

  2. I’ve always been pretty frugal, and considered purchases very carefully. I remember buying an air conditioner on a Sears credit card when I was in my 20’s. I had moved into a brick apartment building and discovered that it really held the heat. There were windows on only one wall, so you couldn’t get a cross breeze. I justified it by saying it was helping me get better sleep, so I could work effectively.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  3. We are pretty frugal with some things not so frugal with other things. We don’t have boats or motorcycles or lake homes. Our two vehicles are 10 and 12 years old. We do spend for sound equipment, music cd’s, musical instruments and fancy food.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  4. Many years ago, I signed up for a lot of premium cable entertainment packages. It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t afford the money cost as the time cost. Also, it is unhealthy being a couch potato.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  5. We don’t have a ton of money, but then at 75 we don’t have a ton of time either. I can’t say we’ve ever bought anything we truly couldn’t afford. It helps that we make our purchases for their utility, whatever that means to us in that circumstance, and not for fashion or status. We don’t deprive ourselves much. Our time is limited. We try not to forgo opportunity for the sake of imagined thrift.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  6. I really couldn’t afford the house I bought in Waterville. For one thing, it was just too much house and yard for me. I’m not handy enough to make some repairs and I didn’t have a lot of money. All my money went to home mortgage and repairs or maintenance. It eventually might have reached an equilibrium had I wanted to stay there and continue struggling through it. There were many reasons why Waterville was an expensive choice.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  7. We also hardly ever go out to eat. We love to cook at home. Growing our vegetables isn’t a money saver at all, but they taste better than store bought.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  8. April weather is so unpredictable here. Today it is going to be 75°. Late next week they are predicting wet snow. Keep those snow blades on, Ben. I remember a late April snow storm that dumped 18 inches of snow just as the tulips were starting to bloom.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  9. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Long Term Care Insurance. It was expensive, I bought it anyway, and thank goodness I did. I would not marry Lou if he did not buy it, and now we are about to use it for his care for the next three years. Every year when those high premiums came up, I feel/felt the pinch and did it anyway.

    I had seen my parents be able to get through illnesses with this insurance. My mother, who was financially very able, bought it for them and it saved so much grief and expense. 

    I do like to play the stock market a little bit, but I consider it gambling, so I do this cautiously.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  10. I may have told of my first San Francisco apartment, with three other roommates – a very nice 4-bedroom in the Marina, right next to the Presidio. Halfway through that summer we realized that we were paying so much for the apartment that we couldn’t afford to go out to eat, etc. We found a two-bedroom one in the Sunset area (nearer the beach) and doubled up on the bedrooms. Ah, we were young, and knew it was temporary… Enjoyed the rest of that summer exploring The City.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  11. OT- I made 20 chapati today, as we are having chicken biryani for supper, and almost all of them poofed up like footballs when I cooked them on my lefse griddle! That was fun, and they taste wonderful.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

        Well, chapati are an East Indian flatbread made from Durham flour and yogurt. They are fried on a griddle. If you make them the right way, they poof up like pita breads. Mine poofed, so you could stuff food in between the layers.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  12. i have daughters with automobile issues

    just bought my second car for the daughter that blows them up I got the one she blew up fixed and will sell it but it was more expensive than I thought

    other daughter we bought her new used car and sold the one she was driving

    this will be the last for both of them

    they have proclaimed themselves full nest departees

    my broken leg cost me 3 months work and I need to look into insurance claims on the guys driveway that had the ice patch

    now!!!

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  13. After all of my years as a single mom my first thought about an answer to this question was everything I buy is something I can’t afford. But obviously, I’m surviving. The kitchen redo was a chunk of change. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t had to do the bathroom last fall. So we’re feeling that right now every month when we have to pay the bills! 

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  14. I’ve had a lot of buyers remorse, but most of the farm large expenses really have proved to be worth it long term.
    I really shouldn’t have spent so much on the truck in 2019, but it’s only gotten worse since then.

    I bought a cheap (inexpensive) manure spreader in maybe 1988.
    It had multiple minor issues that just made life tough for several years.
    When I finally traded it in, it had very little value, and I got a much nicer spreader that time.
    That’s the thing about John Deere- they hold resale value well.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.