Red is in the Shed! It's Locked!

It goes against everything we have preached to fellow farmers.  It rusts, rots, and depreciates.  In fact, it's probably been on more depreciation schedules than we can count.  It really has no purpose, other than the occasional parade for advertisement.  It will not haul hay, cattle trailers, or even fit all of us in it.

Our New Truck.

Actually, Our New Old Truck.

After 13 years of farm ownership we splurged.  We've been shopping for awhile now, and finally found "the one".  Its a 1978 Ford F250 4x4 with a 460 engine (if that matters to you).

Back in the day, when Rick and I met, we owned 4 trucks between us.  And a Ford Explorer. No kidding.  A little heavy on the vehicles.  Knowing that we were going to be applying for loans to start the dairy, we started to weed out things not needed and sold them, in attempt to have as little debt as possible before we went to the bank.  It was hard, but we sold two of them right off.  Rick's 79 Ford eventually left the farm on a trailer to the scrap yard, and mine (the last truck) was sold when we needed a tank compressor to cool the milk in the barn.  It was heartbreaking as the buyer loaded it up onto a roll back truck. Lots of memories from Big Blue.

But, that's life, right?  We knew the sacrifices that were to made if we were going to be successful.  In fact, we actually farmed with no truck at all up until 2005 or so.  We had to borrow one every time we needed one for something.  That is not easy when you farm full time!  But God saw us through.

I found Red online-but she lived in Texas.  When I scrolled through the 51 photos, my heart jumped and I couldn't wait to show Rick.  I told him I was ready. She was the one!

We have friends who own a trucking business and Rick arranged for them (and him) to pick it up.  They team drove the semi to Fort Worth during what was suppose to be our family's fall camping trip.  We all know about sacrifices, so I went camping with the kids while Rick went to Texas.  I think he got the better end of the deal :)


They had a pretty light load going down....

They enjoyed some Texas fare....


 And a trip to the Peterbuilt Factory...AND a dinner at Lambert's....

 

Loading the truck on trailer-it was 105 degrees.
 

Home!

My Grandpa really liked trucks and had a few nice ones in his day.  When I took her for a drive down to the neighbors and back, I thought about him.  Oh how I wanted to show him!  Grandpa signed on my first loan to buy Big Blue.  How neat would it be to show him Red. How neat would it be to show him that after all those sacrifices, we got one back.  There's a song that describes that drive...

If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away

 

 

God is great.  There are many times that He has made us wait for things that we longed for.  Some of those things were little and not really important.  Some of those things were big and led us through very trying times while we waited.  Some of those things are things that require long term hard work and dedication, and you don't get them until you realize that they are just things, and you don't really need them after all.  This is probably one of those-but I also believe that God wants us to enjoy our time here on earth.  I don't believe His intentions include all the struggles we face today.

 

Jer. 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

 

Thanks, God!

 

For those who were wondering.....its paid for. :)