Something in me snapped

I've said for a long time that if I was going to quit farming,I wouldn't call an auctioneer,I'd just start hauling things up the road to the crusher.
Monday,I was hauling manure and the apron broke on the spreader with a load on it for about the 10th time this year. That did it. I went up the road,asked Julie what she was paying for farm machinery and she said $250 a ton. I came home and ate lunch,cooled off for a few minutes and called the Agco dealer because I knew there had been a New Idea 3732 spreader on the lot. He gave me a price I thought was about what I had in mind,so I went and bought it. I hauled manure Tuesday,then hauled equipment Wednesday and yesterday morning. I took 3 whole manure spreaders,2 stripped carcuses,a John Deere feed grinder that I was keeping "just in case" but was just taking up space in the tool shed,a CaseIH 781 chopper with a broken feed roll,a four row wide corn head that I never would have used,a bunch of broken gates and round bale feeders and a pair of Farmall cast wheels for an F12 or F14.
I kept all the tires and wheels,PTO shafts,hydraulic cylinders and hoses,tongue jacks,newer chains,idlers,tighteners,a hydraulic drive auger off the grinder,even the spout and corn head off the chopper.
Came home with over $3150 and a lot more room around here.
No,I didn't quit farming THIS time,but there's a whole bunch more that's going there if I do. Julie jokes around when she writes the checks and I know nobody's coming back to camplain that something's not right. On top of that,no commission. Next thing on the list to be replaced is that worn out John Deere 1020 loader tractor and if I don't park that one in the back of the tool shed thinking I'll restore it some day,that one's going to Worthington as a donor tractor. At my age,I faced the facts Monday that this junk sitting around here ain't gonna get fixed when I find another parts machine and nobody's gonna want parts off this junk.
Good ridance to the bunch of it!

spring cleaning came a little early--I need to do the same around here.

Good for you! I did the same darned thing last winter. The Deere RW disk dad bought new but now has bad bearings, my old field cultivator, my beloved 105 combine and more. Felt much better after it was over with, and richer too. Jim

You mean you did not keep the items where every so often some yahoo come stop and ask if it is for sell and try to dicker on the price-shame on you!

rrlund,

Congratulations on a good decision if you didn't need all of that stuff.

Just of curiosity, how did you haul all of that stuff and how did you load it onto something to haul? Sounds like a very productive couple of days.

Tom in TN

The crusher is only 2 miles away. I hauled the combine head and the 2 parted out spreaders on my tri axle 5th wheel trailer.I've got 2 loader tractors here. The header and one spreader,I had to lift with both loaders and back under them. Everything else,I just hauled behind the dually. I made arangements with them before hand to take the wheels off. I loosened all the wheel bolts,took all of them out in fact except two in each wheel. When I got there,they would just pick the stuff up with the loader,I'd take the 4 way and spin the nuts off,then they used the loader to load them back on my truck before I weighed out.

You missed all the fun of putting it on Craigslist and hearing from all the scammers and
cheapskate collectors and jockeys offer you next to nothing?I've started hauing old parts tractors I'll never need to scrap tired of people expecting me to work a couple of hrs for next to nothing to pull off a part.

I just gave a bunch of old parts to a freind for his old machine.

Yup, done that a couple of times. Sometimes when a piece of junk machine ticks me off too much it gets scrapped so nobody else has to suffer with it either.

I'd have given you 750.00 for the chopper for an organ donor for mine.

That's a long ways to haul it though. I'd sell that corn head. It's got one new $268 gathering belt with only about 25 acres on it and one new nylon hub that drives the gathering belt. A friend of mine still runs a 720,so I thought I'd tell him I've got it here if he needs it. He will sooner or later.

Great post RR. I read it earlier and thought about it for a few hours.
There is something liberating about getting rid of your junk. I did it a couple of times when I was younger and it freed me up.
It's hard to do and life always seems to throw some obstacle in your way. Flat tire on the trailer, you left the keys at home 125 mi away, you go to do it and find your old cousin is sick so you visit them instead. But when you finally do it you can look forward and not back a little more. Good for you that you did it.
I could stand to do some of it too.

Yup,the wife complained a little that I didn't take it all,but I told her that I had to keep something around for seed. I hauled a few things in last fall and got $200 a ton for it. This year it was $250. I didn't make that kind of interest on any money I had invested anywhere else. It's better than money in the bank.
I can see where those people on that TV show Hoarders have trouble getting rid of stuff though. I'd have broken out in a cold sweat if I hadn't tried to keep the adrenaline running. I did hold off a day and used that new spreader instead of hauling that junk. That was almost a mistake. I could feel myself loosing the passion to get rid of things. I probably would have backed out if I hadn't kept as many of the parts off them as I did. I just lost some of my welding and fabricating stock was all. But most of the time,I didn't have the drive in me to take the torch out and cut the stuff off anyway.

I know how you feel.. To a point..

I'm much younger than yourself, but about 2 years ago I did a lot of the same.. I looked around at my "empire" and started thinking.. At my current pace, it'll take a hundred years to have done all the projects, so I cut down..

This spring, I started a new campaign: "It runs, or it goes".. at the time, more things around here needed a chain to be moved than not.. I got rid of a lot of stuff since..

Now, I'm on a "do it" kick.. Pick a project and do it.. Take the money I would spend to buy another project and put it towards something I already have, and make it work or make it gone.

All I can think of is my good friend and his brothers and father.. All 4 of them will have to live another 500 years to do all their projects.. They must have about 50 tractors and 20 old trucks they're gonna restore someday.. I've known em pretty well for 10 years, seen 2 tractors get done, and 2 trucks in that time.. At that rate, it'll only take 175 years I guess, if they quit buying right now LOL..

Brad

My Grand Father was a "collector". You could give him a crap pile and he would haul it home. When he passed on and I was able to finally clean my farm up. ( Yes I had the deed but it was still "his" LOL)

I hauled junk for two weeks. I shorted the usable stuff out and just hauled the pure junk. I ended up with over a hundred ton of scrap. Too bad it was only bringing $35 per ton then.

It was nice to be able to park the good equipment inside. I then made a small fenced yard behind the buildings. I make it hold what I am keeping. When it gets full I start hauling.

WOW--lucky nobody was hurt.

Wish you'd snap on over here........

I have the best intentions but cleanup days turn into rearrange days...... Conditioning myself tho and should be getting better....
Wife keeps threatening to order a container and have someone clean the place out...Idea sounds better and better......

2 far to go for just a header. I would have made the trip for the whole thing though. should have fit in my 6x10 dump trailer with the hitch and spout off.