Gardening With Chickens and Other Trials of Farm Life: Wheeling and Dealing

Bruce limped through the last of bean harvest with a damaged, beyond help, bean head on the combine. He started looking for another one, he had his heart set on a #920 but the ones he found online were a bit pricey. There is an implement dealer near Fort Dodge that had one advertised so Bruce called him and found they were having a big implement auction December 3 and there were a lot of bean heads on it.

Bruce and his good buddy, Grassy, stopped at the lot on the way home from the IA/NE game to see what they had. It was a little difficult to see everything because it was dark by then and all he had was a small flashlight but they decided it was worth going to sale that started at 8:30 AM.

Bruce and I went to Tom's Repair to buy a trailer to haul the head back on, he wanted to be prepared. The morning of the sale, he left at 5 A.M., I was so happy Grassy went along so I didn't have to, I knew it would be a long day but didn't realize just how long. I tried to call him about 5:30 P.M. but the phone went right to voice mail so I figured he had the phone shut off.

The night wore on, I called again about 8:30 and heard, "Yeah?" Oh, not good! Yes, he did get a head but it wasn't the one he wanted and it was a very slow, 40 MPH drive home. Now I'm really glad I didn't go. Bruce rolled in about 10, very, very tired but with a story to tell.

He bid on a #216 but it went for more money than he was willing to part with so ended up a #220, a nice enough head but not exactly what he wanted.

Bruce had never used a head carrier before so when he and Grassy were trying to figure out how to strap it down, you don't want to be going down the road and have it bounce off. A guy came over to help them out and here he lives just about 12 miles from us, Bruce and Grassy both knew him. He was at the sale and bought a head and he had a #920 for sale! Bruce asked him how much he wanted for it and the price was right, he told him he would be very interested.

The next morning Bruce had me take pictures of the head and put it on Craigslist.

We know someone is reading Craigslist, the next morning Bruce got a call from Foof, his brother in law down in Texas, "Hey, Bruce, someone at Meriden has a 220 bean head for sale!" So far he is the only one to call.

Bruce called the guy with the 920, went over and bought it, Grassy told him on the way home, "Frenchy, you are the luckiest person I know!" Here this head was so close but if they hadn't gone to that sale, they would never have known about it.