borderterribles
Member
- Location
- South Shropshire
Top post and good advice. I could've written something similar, except that we have Rita the Zetor .A small (but relatively heavy Zetor) 75hp tractor with loader (Dirty Mary) lets me grade my road, deal with big bales that are more cost effective in time and money than interminable amounts of small bales, offload deliveries of feed without bothering my neighbours and comes in a tonne tote rather than forty bl00dy bags, allows me to help my neighbours turn their hay and I can turn mine, I can cut my hay with a 9' mower when I want, powers my log splitter, clears snow from my drive, and does a multitude of lifting and carrying jobs every year. I regularly lend it to neighbours with my Wrag post chapper or my tine harrows buying me some grace in the Karma bank. With skids on my mower I top my fields any time I like (no seeding, senile, less nutritious grass on my place) and so do my small scale friends with their fewer acres.
I'd rather sell my Gator than Dirty Mary.
I bought the post chapper when the labour and materials mark up bill for fencing my place when I moved in would pay for me to buy one. So I did the work myself and still have an asset.
I buy reliable, no fuss equipment and look after it. The tractor I bought 6 years ago is still worth what I paid for it, the post chapper is still probably worth 80% of its purchase price and paid for itself anyway, the drill I bought 14 years ago at what seemed like an extortionate price has just given up the ghost after tens of thousands of screws and many post hangings. My expensive Krone mower has done all I need and many acres for friends for ten years with nothing more than a oil changes and some blades.
Going to work for others who have crap or no equipment is an utter 8all ache. Needing something yourself at 3am when disaster strikes and you just get on with it is worth its weight in gold for the contentment it brings and the piece of mind. I've been to farms that had no decent socket set, no angle grinder, no fencing pliers, no air compressor and they are, each and every one of them miserable places to work.
Owning equipment and maintaining it made me better able to fix stuff without relying on mechanics at rates 4 times what I was earning and made me asset to folk I worked for.
Being able and willing to help, contributing to the ease with which my neighbours operate has paid dividends in the quality and number of friends we have amassed in 15 years. Since covid came right along with my cancer diagnosis my wife and I have wanted for nothing, no livestock activity has not been performed exactly when I'd like it, my lambing shed was a hub for friends to come and blether and yes, assist. Being in a position to give aid has been rewarded ten fold.
Could I have saved money having no kit, maybe but it is debatable. Would I be where I'm at today with my utter contentment with my lot, nah, I don't think so.