It seems this summer I’ve gotten to where I worry about buying parts for everything. Maybe that’s because every durned piece of equipment I have needs something fixed. It seems I’m having to prioritize which repair is most important.
My tractor has a half turn of steering wheel play in it. I’ve been reading and watching videos online about how to fix it. It seems nothing I’ve done has improved the loosey goosey steering on that tractor. Out in the fields it’s no big deal, but when I drive it down the road and meet a car it’s fairly sketchy whether or not it’s going to dart out in front of oncoming traffic.
My round baler needs chains, sprockets and a net wrap actuator. If I bought it all at the John Deere place it’d be a couple thousand dollars. My side by side, four wheeler, and lawn mower all need a repair of some sort. If I hauled all of them to the small engine shop I bet a thousand bucks could be spent pretty easy.
I need tires on trailers, trucks and the disc. The sprayer needs repaired too. My brushhog gear box doesn’t hold oil, so I’ve been using grease in it for a few years now. That gearbox has a whining to it that’s unmistakable.
At least the parts store repairs are tax deductible at the end of the year. Here lately when I’ve bought groceries and the cashier asks if I want the receipt it kind of gripes me.
Shoot, I wondered what percentage of the cost of a hamburger patty is just paying the parts bill for the farmer that raised that calf. Everything in the grocery store is affected by these higher prices. Corn flakes, bread, eggs, butter and salad are sure enough farm fresh items.
If us farmers could band together and open our own parts stores we’d be money ahead. I see so many businesses consolidating. Hospitals, banks and even the hair salons are becoming less and less locally owned and becoming more of a chain. We need a farmers part store. I guess I could order more stuff online, but it’s hard to return stuff when you don’t go to town that often. I told my son the other day I think owning a parts store would be kind of fun, he gave me a funny look. I said you’d get to work inside out of the weather and everyone in town would come by for parts and to visit. I think it’d be a cool job to have. Sure beats changing the mowing machine blades in the middle of the day in July.
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
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