OOPSIE WITH THE FARM TRUCK

So this happened...

A couple of weeks ago, after a heavy rain but a few days of drying, I thought I would take the truck over to the garage to load some things into it.  I started to drive away and the back end started spinning in place.

I got out and looked and oops!

Yeah, that's kinda stuck.  We had another overnight rain shower and...

...it sank a little deeper!  A few days later, it was dry again (or so I thought) and I decided to see if I could move it out of the hole.

Big mistake, THAT only made things worse!

With a week long stretch of rain in the forecast, we needed to get it moved.  "J" recommended we call her ex to come help since he has a BIG truck but we didn't want to bother him and would rather "save" that card for maybe something else, ha (in case I get the mower stuck or something).  So, yesterday we called a local wrecker company to do a winch out and about 2 minutes after they got here...

It was back on dry land, the driveway, ha.  They were awesome by the way, and right after they left, I moved the truck... 

...to the driveway!  It will stay there through this rainy stretch we are about to have.

Good timing because this was about 2 hours after they left.  Rains are coming!

Bill the Farm Truck had an adventure (against his will, ha) and will need a bath, though the rains might help with that, ha.  For now, he is safe and sound on concrete.

FARM TRUCK ANNIVERSARY

Five years ago today, we bought the farm truck!

For those that don't know or are new to the blog, it's a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado work truck model.  No extended cab or anything fancy and extra, it even has the old school handles to "roll down" the windows (young people don't have a clue about that, ha!)

I work in insurance and one of our clients called one day to say they had a truck for sale and asked if we knew anyone who might want it.  It had 224,000 miles on it but was well taken care of (mechanically, a few dents and dings outside and the interior was definitely "lived in", ha).  It was only one owner from 2006 when he bought it.  The price was too good to pass up, $1000...I came home and told 2nd Man about it and he and I looked at each other and said, "yep that could come in handy!"

We bought it, put some new tires on it, took it to a mechanic and had the urgent stuff worked on (surprisingly, not that much was needed) and it joined the family.  We call it "Bill", named after the owner who, sadly, passed away a few months later. 

I've trimmed limbs and bushes and used it to haul it to a compost pile...

I've driven it to the well to get water...

...then driven the water to the plants that needed it.

We used it for boxes and moving supplies.

We moved stuff to storage during construction.

And now we are moving the same stuff back into the new house.

I picked up the plants that we bought at the master gardener sale.  I've also been to garden centers for soil and mulch...

...that I can then just drive around to get the supplies to where I need them. When I was picking up the plants recently, there were people loading wet trees and bushes into the backend of high-end SUV's. We don't have to worry about that now.

We've put about 2000 miles on it in the last five years.

It ain't a looker, that's for sure, but it sure was worth it! I like this picture that I made to look kind of old.  It fits in out here on the farm perfectly.  I tell 2nd Man all the time that this was the best money we ever spent!

We love it. Everyone needs an old truck, ha!

FARM TRUCK GETS A NEW BATTERY

Well, we had to break down and get a new battery for the farm truck.

Back in March, when I went to start it so I could move it to mow, it was dead.  The very hard Winter temps the last couple of years with it being parked outside and not driven weekly at times, finally killed the battery.  The portable jump starter worked great, as it always does, but I had to use it every single time and that just become too much of a hassle.  Not to mention if I drove the truck somewhere, I was afraid to turn it off.

Time for a new battery.

It took a few special tools (thanks Dad!) but I got the old one out.  Remember, disconnect negative (black) first and positive (red) second.  I cleaned out the battery box and then I used this cool gadget that I got recently:

It's a battery cleaning kit.  The terminals can be cleaned using the large open end (put over the top and twist) and then you can open it and use the spiral end to clean the cables and connectors themselves.  Lastly, you place the felt washers on before you attach and tighten the cables.  I figured this will work for future battery issues, cleaning the mower battery, our own cars, etc.

Lastly I put the new one in, reconnect in opposite order, positive (red) first and negative (black) second.  I got in, crossed my fingers and turned the key.

It started right up.  I let it run for a bit while I cleaned up everything and then took it on a drive to a nearby store to pick up a cold bottle of water for me.

It ran smoothly and has started up every time just perfectly.  Life is back to normal.  Well, other than the new home construction, LOL!

FARM TRUCK MAKES ANOTHER THOUSAND

 A mileage milestone...

Bill, the farm truck, crossed another thousand miles to 227,000.  I even pulled into a parking lot to memorialize the moment.  Being a 2006, every additional thousand miles is a milestone, ha.

When we got it three years ago, it had about 225,000 miles on it so we've put on a couple thousand.  It's been driven back and forth from downtown to the farm a couple of times and I used it for a month going back and forth to work when my Jeep was in the shop.

Otherwise, it gets its mileage in on errands back and forth to garden centers and hardware stores.

As a reward, we took the truck to a carwash and ran it through.  It was good because it cleaned out the bed/backend of leaves and stuff from Fall/Winter.

It's still ticking, knock on wood!  With as few miles as it's driven now that it's out there (just errands nearby, garden centers, home improvement stores, etc), we are hoping it will last us a long time more.

FARM TRUCK EARNS ITS KEEP

When I had to do some pruning Saturday and the pear tree that was pruned a couple of weeks ago, I had a LOT of large branches/debris.  I started to drag them to a pile elsewhere on the property but then I realized...

WE HAVE A TRUCK FOR THINGS LIKE THIS!

I drove the truck to each pile of debris...

...and loaded tossed it all in the back end.

Here's from Saturday when I had to cut back some limbs/branches.  Same thing, I loaded it all up...

Drove to the corner of the property where we dispose of debris like this, hoping for some nice compost or a future place to plant stuff...

And emptied it all out!

It's so nice having an old truck where we don't have to worry about scratching the bed or paint or getting things dirty with leaves and soil.

Side note, it's also nice having a property where you can just drive wherever you want.  On Saturday, I drove along the side of the house and behind the orchard area along the fence line.  When I was done, I circled around through the front yard and parked it back in the shade.

Bill has earned his keep once again!

Time to reward him with something...

I'll have to do some online shopping.

 

FARM TRUCK HAS A TEMPORARY PARKING SPACE

Now here's something we don't see all the time, ha.

See it there?  In the distance?  The farm truck has been parked between the barn and shed.

Side note, this shows how big the front yard is, ha.  We took this picture from over where the truck is usually parked in the front yard.  Yeah, it's a long walk, ha.

We moved it over here to get it out of the way of the tree/brush clearing crew and it fit nicely.  We kind of like it here.  Might leave it here more often, except maybe in monsoon rains if the yard is flooded.  Of course, if it got stuck there, that just means it wouldn't be driven until it dried out, ha.

More update tomorrow or Wednesday.

TRUCK USAGE AND SOME NEW BLING

We've been gathering up boxes so we'll have them when we start putting some stuff up and packing things up inside the house.  For now, they'll be stored in the barn until we need them.

Every few weekends, we a load of boxes (from our downstairs recycling area) and store them.  I forgot to get pictures each time but before we put all of the last batch up, I got this one.

The truck worked great to carry stuff, as trucks are built to do, ha.  It was such a great decision to get it.

We figured it was time for something new for the truck so I picked up a sunshade for the front windshield.  Hoping it will benefit by keeping the heat off the dashboard and interior, at least maybe not as much.

Here it is in place.  Looking good.

We hope Bill is happy with his new sunglasses, ha!

 

THE TRUCK GETS A NEW USE

 Bill the truck gets a new handy use...

Watering vehicle!

Last month, we posted HERE about the pear tree we have that's covered in fruit even though we never watered it.  Well, apparently, that works great when Mother Nature is helping with periodic heavy rains, but this year we are in an epic drought and have a tree covered in fruit for the first time.

We are not going to lose that without a fight. 

The tree isn't anywhere near a watering source, no faucets or even electricity for some sort of pump.  So we had to think outside the box.  That's when we realized the truck could help with that.

We decided on 5 gallon buckets and bought these three and figured that would work for what we needed.  

I put them in the back of the truck and filled them up, each one holding 5 gallons of water.  With the truck bed, no worries if water sloshed out while driving, like if it was in the back of my Jeep, ha!

Once they were filled, I drove the truck to the water faucet.  You can see the path here.  Because of the dry weather, no worries of getting the truck stuck.  Of course, if it was wet enough to worry about driving the truck back there, we wouldn't be worrying about watering, so there's that.

I drove to the pear tree, backed up and let the lift gate down.  Then I just grabbed each bucket of water and poured it around the base of the tree.  I did this for the three buckets and went back and refilled them and came back again.  That's 30 gallons of water for the tree.  That should be good during this hot, dry weather and help the pears to get bigger and juicier.

It's the best we could come up with without having any water source near the tree and wow, it works perfectly and becomes another great use for the truck.

As a reward for his hard work...

...we bought Bill some bling, LOL!  We think he looks cool with these fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror.

THE TRUCK HAS A NAME

We like to name our farm vehicles.  All of you know our John Deere mower as the Zen Machine.

Well, now that the truck we got last year is living full time at the farm, we felt like it needed a name.

We bought the truck from a customer at my office.  He had retired a few years ago and the truck was just sitting in his garage so he decided to sell it.  He was the only owner, bought it brand new in 2006 and put all the miles on it while he started and ran his own business. 

Sadly, we found out last week that he had passed away after a hard fought battle with cancer.  We figured since he spent so much time in the truck as his mobile office, we should name it after him.

I printed a picture of him and put it in the glovebox.

So, the farm truck will now be called BILL...

FARM TRUCK IS HOME

 I started driving the truck to the farm the last few weekends but we hadn't been ready to leave it out there full time.  We had to get new tires and then break up the engine work into a few trips to the shop.

But in between those things, we have been using it to run errands related to the farm and when my Jeep was in the shop with a tire issue recently, I was even able to drive the truck to work daily for a couple of weeks.

We wouldn't mind keeping the truck in town for now but we have to pay monthly for parking an extra vehicle in the building parking garage and after a few months, we'd end up paying more for parking than we paid for the whole truck!

It's in great mechanical shape now, we've had everything checked out and/or updated.  There was nothing major that was wrong with it, in fact the mechanic said that it was in really good condition and well taken care of for the mileage (225k, one owner).  So we had new hoses put on, new belts, all the fluids flushed and refilled, had the a/c freon filled (it'll freeze you out now) etc.  The last thing we had done was a new wiring harness and the worlds biggest Duracell battery, ha!  The guy at the shop said, "you should be good for 100,000 more miles".

Now that it's all done, yesterday 2nd Man followed me out there and we took the truck to the farm to live out the rest of its life. 

Here it is, sitting in its new parking space.  It kinda looks at home doesn't it?

It'll be nice to have out there so that we can use it to move stuff around, we can buy bags of soil at the garden center and toss them in the back or lumber for projects, furniture moving, hauling off trash/debris, rocks, compost, all sorts of fun stuff in the future.