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May, 2009
Greetings from North Alabama, I hope this finds you all happy and in good health going into the spring.
For those of you who missed the Spring Show/Meeting, I hate to tell you this, but it was warm and nice in Florida. We sure thought about all you folks up north that couldn’t make it. Nothing like sitting out under a shade tree in 70 degree weather in February.
The Florida show was a great success and I for one enjoyed myself immensely. The Quality Inn where I stayed was a nice motel at a great price. It wasn’t the Hilton by any means but the room was very large, the beds comfortable and had a microwave/refrigerator in it. All in all, for $45.00 per night it was a bargain.
I took several pictures and also videotaped the meeting. I’ll be putting them on the website in the near future. And, speaking of the website, I have finally upgraded the site software to the latest version. It took me about 3 weeks to get it to the point where it is today. I still need to dedicate some more hours to tweaking it out. Unfortunately, during the upgrade there were some items that I just couldn’t get to convert to the new software because I also had to upgrade the database engine on the server. I never could get the old forum messages to come across after several hours of work and long conversation with tech support at our host company. Additionally, while the pictures posted in the galleries are still in the database, I can’t find a way to reconstruct the user albums while allowing ownership to reside with the album owners. So, if you’ve posted pictures to the photo gallery, then you will need to repost them. Hopefully, this will be the last time this will occur.
In other news, we seemed to have come out of our drought here in north Alabama. Now farmers are wishing for about two weeks of dry weather so they can get their corn in. The window for planting corn is closing fast and more rain forecasted for April.
Experts predict that only about 60% of the 150,000 acres expected to be planted in Alabama north of Birmingham this year is in the ground. All of the farmers are under the gun to get it planted within the window for the best chance of making a decent crop in this area.
So far the corn planting season is the only one affected by the spring rains according to Eric Schavey, a regional agent for the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. The cotton planting season starts around May 1st and then is followed by the soybean planting season.
Cotton planting is expected to be below previous years due to predicted low prices and little chance of turning a profit. Soybeans are expected to be the “money” crop this year, according to Mr. Schavey.
With soybeans able to be planted as late as June 15th and still produce a good crop, predictions that the overall acreage planted will be up about 40,000 acres in Alabama this year. Mr. Schavey said soybeans are less expensive to grow than cotton or corn, making them a lucrative crop in the current tough economy.
With apologies to Roger Welsch, here are the 10 rules for collecting Avery Tractors (and staying married)
1. Collect only B.F. Avery, when all your tractors are red and the same shape, it’s harder for anyone to figure out how many Avery’s you actually own.
2. Never, ever, line all of your tractors up in the yard. Nothing fuels a debate with your spouse more than seeing all that money sitting out there doing nothing. Keep them scattered around your place. You know a couple at the barn, a couple behind the barn, one or two over in the pasture under the hay shed. Even a couple stored over at your cousin’s house is helpful to keep peace.
3. Never, ever, number your tractors when you buy them. That’s like taking an ad out on a billboard or waving a red sheet in front of a mad bull. If you number them it will come back to bite you. Do like most guys and name them. That way, you’ll know exactly which one to cuss when you bust a knuckle. Remember, if you don’t name’em you can’t cuss’em.
4. In the beginning of your tractor collecting, buy a tractor you don’t want and keep it a short time and then sell it. That way when the spouse wants to know why she can’t park her car in the garage because of the tractor in there, you can reply “I’m getting it ready to sell, like that other one I sold awhile back.” If your lucky enough to have a friend or relative close by, play the swap out game, every so often one of you drop a tractor off at the other one’s place and say you bought or sold it. Just be sure you keep the sales price private.
5. Never, ever, pay for a tractor with a check. It leaves a lasting impression on your spouse and will be waved in front of your face every time you tell her you can’t afford that trip to Florida in February to the Flywheelers Show.
6. Always practice “liability averaging”. When you buy a real nice tractor, try to buy a couple of Junkers to haul home with it. That way you can tell the wife how much your gonna make parting out the Junkers and selling the parts on Ebay. Just tell her it’s gonna be like getting the nice one for free.
7. When the subject of “tractor collecting” attains “critical mass” in lively discussion, (you know, the one where you keep repeating “Yes, dear” a whole lot), bring home some parts of tractors, like just the front end or rear end. That way when she exclaims, “Another tractor!!!! I thought we had an understanding you weren’t buying anymore tractors till I got the new refrigerator!!” You can then respond, “tractor, what tractor, that’s just some spare parts I’m gonna fix up and sell at the auction or on Ebay.” Don’t overwork this excuse or you’ll be taking a cruise and spending all of you tax return next year.
8. Have a friend (co-conspirator) call when your not at home and tell your spouse that he knows you was interested in a tractor that sold at auction he was at, but it sold for $3,000 and he knew you wouldn’t pay that much. Then when you drag home a tractor like that one, you can tell her how much money you saved by only paying $2,000 for it.
9. If you spouse insults your tractor collecting by calling it “ACS” (Avery Collecting Syndrome) or “Red Rustardation”, just smile politely and remind her that there are no telethons or special weeks dedicated to either of the afflictions she referred to. At this point a long bathroom break is called for, so disappear for a good spell.
10. In the event, that your spouse hits you with “Who do you love more, them old red rustbuckets on wheels or me?” Do not under any circumstance ask for more time to consider your answer. And if she should ever say, “If you bring home another tractor, I’m taking the kids and going home to Mama”, don’t even think of telling her you sure will miss the kids.
Ok, enough for this issue. So until next time, “May your furrows be straight and deep” and I’ll see you in Iowa come July.
Dave Reasons
Webmaster
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