Our New Farm Tool

I can't say I was all that enthused when Shaun showed me a craigslist post the other day of this truck, implying that this was "the one". We've been talking about the need for a more powerful farm vehicle in order to more efficiently haul wood, compost, timbers for building and even a flock of sheep if need be…we've been borrowing my parent's tow-behind trailer since moving here and it has been more trouble than it's worth often times. When talking about the purchase of a new (used) truck, I imagined a shiny coat of paint with room for two children in the back and a quiet engine. My husband, on the other hand, had a "working-man's truck" in mind as he calls it. And boy, did he get one.

And by the way, I'm not sure whether it's comedic to keep the plate frame or pass it on...

Pros: 

We'll be able to do most all repairs with the help of youtube.com tutorials and a manual

We can haul one TON of whatever our hearts desire

We fit into the North Idaho scene even more now

Cons:

It's annoying loud

There's a lot of repairs to be done

I can't fit two babies in there with me

and here's the kicker…8 miles to the gallon (I think all our energy-efficient, homesteading efforts will now be off-set by this beast)

The original color was this (shiny) apple green and as a compromise, Shaun has agreed to paint the truck in the same fashion. If you're going to drive something like this around, at least do it in style, right? To be honest, I can't believe I even care and it's hard to believe we've come to a place in our homesteading process that we feel the need to have such a powerful vehicle as this one. When we first started this way of living 6 years ago, everything we did was by hand. It was quiet and peaceful. And we were really tired a lot of the time from the manual labor.

There's a balance to be made when a large majority of the time we are physical exerting our bodies while working in the forest, the garden, with the animals, and building. We also want time for play and energy at night to do the crafts we've been longing to partake in since waking. So I think this new tool will prove to be a helpful one and one that frees up a bit more time to spend with Lars in his backwoods fort or spinning on the front porch midday because we got the chores done more efficiently…Just look at all the wood we can haul now!