Spring Forward

The changing of the clock always brings a shred of hope that Spring is just around the corner. I received my first sunburn for the year while standing at an auction last weekend so Spring has to be close.

This was no ordinary auction. "Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Wayne, a poor farmin' man barely kept his family fed and then one day he was shootin' at some food and up from the ground came a bubblin' crude. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea..." If this isn't a Jed Clampett story, I don't know what is. You'll have to read the next issue of Heritage Iron to get all of the details but long story short, Wayne Crooks was a poor farmer trying to make ends meet when oil was found on his property. The oil company bought Wayne a fleet of new farm equipment. That was in 1982 and Wayne barely used any of the equipment. In fact, one of his 4440s had only 47 actual hours on it. It still had the plastic on the seat! It was always taken care of and looked like new.

The other highlight of the auction was the 7720 combine with less than 500 hours on it. He also had a White 5100 12-row planter that had never even been unfolded! And the list could go on and on. It was an unbelieveable auction and a huge crowd came to witness this one-of-a-kind auction.

The auction was held at the Sullivan Auctioneers facility in Hamilton, Illinois. I had never attended a Sullivan auction before but it didn't take long to see that these guys had their act together. The sale was handled professionally and they didn't waste any time. They would get my recommendation to anyone wanting to have a sale.

If you didn't notice, we've updated the website to give it a new look. If you don't like something about it, please let us know. I've had quite a few irons in the fire lately and sometimes I overlook things that are right in front of me. For now I have to get busy and get another issue of Heritage Iron off to the printers.