Simple Life: And Another New Project!

Before I get to the newest project I want to put in a plug for the novel "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. I am not a movie guy and havent seen the movie but number 3 son Matt gave me the book for Christmas and I am 2/3s finished with it and have really enjoyed it. It takes place in Sweden so some of the references are a little obscure but it really sucks you in. There are some graphic parts though that may offend some people so be aware.

Ever since we started planning for our retirement and decided to purchase a small farm/homestead we have made lists of things we needed, things we wanted, and things we just positively didnt want. This helped us plan and save money for things and as we liquidated our old life we put that money toward the new life;...sold the fishing boat...money went towards the new tractor; sold the Harley...money went towards the 4 wheeler and garden tractor...etc. One of the things we had always planned for was a trailer made out of an old pickup bed that we could use around the farm to be towed behind either a truck or a tractor for hauling stuff or even red neck hay rides.

I remember winters in Alaska where we would peruse Craigs List from places we were considering moving to and looking in the Farm and Garden section and seeing things that we thought we would like to have. And always we found many old pickup bed trailers on sale for a couple hundred that would fit our needs. It wasnt a high priority until recently when several times I could have used one...yes we have the equipment trailer but its too big for a lot of the things we need and it looks funny being hitched to the IH. All of the sudden, probably due to the high price of scrap metal, these things got scarce and expensive. One trailer we looked at the guy wanted $650 because he said the bed came from a 1965 Chevy pickup and was a classic....ahhh yea. But last week I was on the Homesteading Today forum and the topic came up and one of the members turns out had one for sale and lives just 70 miles from our farm sooo...road trip!

We drove down, met with the owner and it was exactly what we had been looking for. Its even in the International Harvester colour scheme that will match our tractor.

This thing has a good step bumper and the bed isnt all rusted out like most of the ones we have looked at.

Its lights are wired for towing and it has safety chains but we dont intend to take this off the farm.

One of the things we are pleased with is that it has an extended tongue so it will work fine with the tractor. All in all we are very happy with the trailer, the price we paid, and we enjoyed meeting the seller. Thanks furholler.