Life Moves Pretty Fast
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Hello, folks. Welcome back to the Straight Forward Farming Podcast. I'm your host, Tony Reid, alongside Nick McCormick, and it has been a hot minute since we've been here. It has been. I think looking at the bulletin board here, December 9th was the last time. It has been a while. We apologize. Yep. Had a lot going on, but we're back.

Don't know what we're going to do, don't know what we're going to talk about, but we are back. Yeah, like you said, we're going to do better, but that's probably not true. Exactly, yeah. Here we are. Hopefully the mic sounds okay. Our wives touched all this equipment when there's some major malfunction with the mics and all this other stuff. Seems fine to us. Yeah, we've put thousands of hours on this, never had an issue. Yeah, seems fine. They touch it once. Yeah, because they got the touchies. Exactly. They cannot leave anything alone. Absolutely not.

Yep, I agree. So what's new in your world? Anything good? Nothing too exciting, just working my way through the fog and the rain and the winter and trying to get some stuff done. Yeah, it's been nasty here lately. Yeah, we need the water, so I'm not complaining about it. It's just been crappy out, you know? Yeah, I get it. I mean, today was the first day we've seen sunshine in weeks. I mean, it's been forever. Yeah.

Yep, finally getting back on track in that department, I guess. Last week or two, it hadn't been great for solar panels. No, it hasn't. We haven't had much wind either, so I don't know what the greenies are going to do. Nope. So what's going on this winter? Working on the 014-66? Got the 014 back functional. For those of you who didn't hear the back story from a while back, because it's been a while, the last tractor that my dad was working on before he passed away was a 14-66 that

that he's owned for several years that literally just sat next to the shop. He bought off a buddy of mine because he needed the money to buy his grandpa's tractor. It just sat there forever. And we got in the shop to put a torque and stuff in it. And then he passed away in the middle of that. So I got that going here the other day. I got plenty more stuff to do before it goes to paint, but I did get the tires and wheels in. We're going to put some badass rear tires on it, stack it full of wheel weights and

probably a lot of exhaust and more turbo than it needs, maybe a little more fuel than it should probably have. I'm not going to do much with it other than drive it around. And, uh, yeah, so I got to, like I said, I got to rewire it and some other odds and ends and stuff, whatnot, but I had to get it out of there. I needed space in the shop. So,

We got it running again and moving and so on and so forth, so we'll deal with the rest of it later. Yeah, and this actually wasn't a family heirloom as far as going back years and years, but it was the last tractor your dad had. He actually bought off a good friend of you and I's, and he had bought it on an auction or something somewhere, and then his grandpa's tractor came for sale, so he sold it to dad and bought his grandpa's tractor. But we've owned it for a number of years, but never really did much with it. And we rebuilt the front end and everything on it like last summer, I think it was, and

So, yeah, we'll get it back up and going now. Now it's kind of a pet project of mine. Yeah, it's going to be pretty sweet when it gets done just from everything that I've seen. Make a nice TikTok series if you ever get that far into it. Yeah, yeah. It'd be cool. Yeah, for sure. Teach his own on that deal. Yeah, got the ROPS and everything on it now in the canopy. And like I said, I got...

Some big-ass tires for the back, and we'll get her fixed up. It'll be nice when I'm done. Yep. I don't know if you're like me. I've rode the grain markets all the way on down here. Don't even remind me. What did I tell you that day at the shop when beans were $12.45? What did I tell you? I said, I should go sell them right now. I can get 5% on a CD, take the money there. That would net me $0.65, which would be $13. I'd be happy. That's what I'm going to do. Nope. I'm riding them down. Yep.

Sure enough, I'm waiting on the old $10 mark. I'd like to say it's a roller coaster, but so far it's just that little yellow slide at the fair. I'm just going down. Yeah, agreed. Yeah, it's been more of a skydiving. For those of you in the central Illinois area, we're going downer, Bob. That's right, yeah. Where you always get a free onion. Yeah, exactly. Got to live here local, though, to see where we're going with that. To appreciate that from a furniture standpoint, but yeah.

Yeah, it's not pretty. Not pretty at all. What do you think some of these guys will do? I mean, we're going to start setting insurance prices here later on this week. I mean, and I'm not going to say this is gospel. I don't know this. This is complete rumor mill. I'm throwing this out there right off the bat. I have no idea if this is true or not. But I was told up around Moweek, Illinois, which is 30 miles northwest. That was prime soil. I was told that there was a 400-acre tract up there all in one field,

400 acre field a bank had it took it to a cash rent auction and it brought 705 an acre that guy has a really good pencil if that's the case that's a really good pencil yeah it's my name for that so i want to know because this is the excuse we always hear well we're going to average that with everything else so you're going to take land that you make really good money on and drag the average down to where you're not making very good money on any of it i mean is there any other way to slice that what am i missing

You know, I suppose it's like the old adage, 20 bucks is 20 bucks. But, man, I don't see 20 bucks in that. You know, like, I don't need the experience at this point in my life. That's all right. I'm not doing it for the fun of it. So if I can't make some money on it, I'm not really looking to do it. You know, that seems ugly for me. But, hey, whatever. Teach their own. Like, if you can pull it off, go for it. But that ain't my jam. Man, I just...

And that may be a complete coffee shop story. I don't know. Heard it from a pretty good source. Heard it from a friend. Yeah. Heard it from a friend. I just don't get it. Yeah. It's not my deal, but that seems pretty salty to me. But hey, whatever. Yeah. More power to you.

No doubt. I guess ain't no different buying it for $20,000 an acre probably. I suppose there's been some of that here lately. You know, not in our immediate area. There hasn't been much ground for sale, but you hear stories. Of course, you never know what to believe on that. You see some stuff on the Internet, and Abe Lincoln said you can't believe everything you see on the Internet. Yeah. Seems like you hear the two or three highs, but you forget about the hundred averages in the middle, you know. It is what it is, you know.

It's never penciled, like I said. You find ground that pencils by every acre you can find. Yep. And never penciled. So maybe they'll be the wise ones. Somebody will ground B30. Well, I wish I'd have bought it at 20. Maybe. We'll see. Yep. So, yeah, God, going back to December 9th, I'm trying to think what all we've covered since then. I mean, of course, anybody that follows along on TikTok has seen the 78 Ford that you and I went and picked up. Added that to the collection. Yes.

Absolutely. Good times. It is. Nice little rig there. Little known fact about a 78 Ford. If you're a rather, well, let's just call it what I am, fat guy like myself, portly, whatever it is, seatbelts and those things, not that long, you may be to a point of embarrassment where your friend has to buckle you into one of those like you're a toddler. Yeah.

Because in this truck's defense, it is in really nice shape, and I don't think the seatbelt on the passenger side had ever been used. If it had, it would have been like twice. Yeah, because when we pulled it out to put it around you, the seatbelt was one color until we got to pull it out. Like, oh, hey, here's the original color of these seatbelts. It's a little snug. It's maxed out. That's as far as it goes. There's people that are fatter than me.

That's all there is, and there ain't no more. And I was pretty much strapped back to the glass. Yeah. I couldn't even look left and right. Yeah. Pretty much face forward at that point. You basically had a five-point harness on without a five-point harness. Yes. You weren't going anywhere. No, I was secure. Snug as a bug in a rug. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I wasn't going anywhere. Yeah. But you've got a 78 or 9 International Scout. I mean, thinking back now, you've had that thing for... I have. I've had that since...

2001, 2000, 2001. So over 20 years now. I'm going to try to get it back on the road now. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's road worthy. I just, there's some things I need to do to it. And I've acquired some parts here for it here recently. You've motivated me on that. So I've got a whole stack of shit there laying for it that I got to get put on it. But I don't have that problem with it because it just has lap belts. Yeah. Yep. Lap belts. No problem. The only problem with that is like you get pulled over for a seatbelt, even though you're wearing it. Yeah, that's right. Yep. Yeah. It's just lap belts on that. It is funny though. When I take my truck to town now that, uh,

if you whether it's people walking down the street coming out of a store when you're driving by whatever it's literally from our age and up the guys who are staring at it or you even the comments that i've got from people when i've been in a gas station wherever like hey man nice truck and it's always people my age or older it's never the younger crowd that you have no idea what you're not a clue now i get that now i've got some stuff coming for it and some stuff in the works so i'll get it in there and get

Get some of that done so I'll have it ready to roll. You're going to get in on the beater with a heater drive. I am. I am. I talked to the Chevrolet dealership, and they're going to let me test drive a brand-new Chevy for that. Are they really? So I figured that's the biggest pile of shit I could find for that deal would be to show up in a new Duramax. Or a Peterbilt. Hit Peterbilt up if Chevy falls through for Ryan Kelly. Actually, I would take a Pete way before I'd take a Chevy. So I – let me rephrase that. I would take a Peterbilt –

Yeah. Let's not get, let's not slur my words here and mess them up. I would take a Peterbilt way before I would take a Chevy. I don't mind Peterbilt. I just, I can't afford the apparel, Tony. Exactly. I don't have the t-shirts like a Harley. I can't afford all the shit that goes with it. Like, it's not the vehicle that kills you. It's all the assless chaps and the t-shirts that you got to have to go with it. I just can't afford all the stuff. So,

I don't mind. I love the looks of Peterbilts, but I just don't feel the need to set that close to the person that's riding with me. It's one thing if you're just driving it whole and grain by yourself. But in my case, we're going tractor pulling. Dad and I were close. We didn't need to be that close. My drink holder should not be on his seat. You know, just have one in the middle where we can both reach it. Agreed. That's where I'm at. You know, Volvo is a family thing. You can put your whole Pakistani family in the back of that thing.

You know, we didn't cut a hole in the floorboard, but other than that, we just switched on, off, drive, back and forth. It's fine. But, yeah, so I'm going to get a new Duramax for that beater with a heater. Perfect. There you go. That's going to be awesome. I've talked to them. I think they're cool with it. Yep. So for those of you that maybe missed it on TikTok, I don't know who listens to this and ain't on TikTok, back and forth, whatever. So...

Every summer, we do these tractor drives, and we have all these fun, you know, whether it's Jeep runs or whatever. A lot of people on Ticket are like, man, you guys have so much fun around there. So we've decided, and this is a non-section event. This is not my event in any way, shape, or form. Just throw it out there for liability reasons that we're going to have a beater with a heater on. So it's going to be mid-ish July, thereabouts, and we're going to be doing a lot of fun.

When time gets closer, I'm just going to throw it out there that I'm going to be at such and such bar with my beater with a heater on whatever day. And if you want to show up there, you can be there. That's fine. Yeah. And the bigger piece of shit, the better. Try to make it roadworthy. Like, we don't want to spend all day loading shit, towing shit, pulling shit. But...

Try to show up with something that will make the trip. Yeah, make the trip, yeah. But, you know, if you want to show up in a 77, you know, Lincoln Continental, hats off to you. Agreed. I'm kind of in the market casually for a late 70s Lincoln. We had one when I was a kid. So I'll preface this with, we used to drive past the Ford dealer. My mom's a car. She loved this great car. Loved this great car. It was sitting out front.

And I did too. The difference is there was two great cars out front. I thought they were coming home with a Stingray Corvette. They showed up with a 77 Lincoln Continental, which is way more functional for a family of four. But I have my heart set on that Stingray Corvette. So I also have a soft spot for Lincoln Continentals at this point in time. So I'm casually looking for a big Lincoln, but I'll probably just get a new Duramax and just take it.

If it'll make the trip. Will a 2024 Duramax make that trip? I don't know that it will. Are you going to delete the exhaust system before you go? No. I will make sure I throw in a tow strap. Surely somebody can drag me with something. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not going to say either way on that. Are you taking the Buick? I am taking the Buick. I am. Yep. I can't go with him in the Buick, folks. The day we got the 78 Ford, Tony had driven to my house to meet me to leave.

I left the Buick there. So we got back to the shop. I dropped him off. He took the 78 Ford home. I said, no problem. I'll go to my house. I'll hop in the Buick. I'll take it to your house. You give me a ride back in the 78. Perfect. Took me a little bit to get in the 78 or the Buick. Then when I got in, I was in. Yeah. I thought we're going to have to go drive to the fire department, get the jaws alive for somebody to drag my ass out of that thing. Turns out.

I don't, Nick don't fit that well in the Buick. You have to like on police Academy. Well, let's just rip the front seats out. I did have to do that. I liked when I got to your house, like I opened the door. I'm like, I'm stuck. I'm I'm, I end up just like kind of side diving out of it and just crawling a little ways and then getting up and shutting the door. But yeah,

No, they're wrong with the car. It's just the fact that I'm portly and those cars set low. Now I understand why that generation has went to crossover slash SUVs. They can't get in cars anymore, and now I appreciate that. I can't either. I'm not a guy now. I'm not a car guy at all. I mean, that car was literally a half a mile down the road, 300 bucks, runs like a champ and gets 30 miles a gallon. It's like, you can't go wrong here. But yeah, as far as if you said, this is your vehicle for the rest of your life, I'm hoofing it. I'm done. You know, the funny part about that is, like, I can get my dad's 69 Charger.

No problem. The old Buick, yeah, it's a struggle. It is. You would think it would be the other way, but it's not. Yep. What that thing needs is an automatic seatbelt. That would be the caveat that would literally trap me in that car. Yeah. Yep. I will admit them old Ford trucks, it is cool, the quirks and stuff that you remember. Yeah. Once you get back in one, the noises, just the little stuff, it's pretty neat. Absolutely.

I don't regret it. I drive the shit out of it. I don't leave it set in the shed. So I drove past the church and the school today. You were there. I was leaving work. I damn near turned around to shoot a quick video. Like, hey, it's 1978. Yeah. Because it was just, you were on the end. There was no other vehicles. And it's like,

When was the last time you drove past a church and the first vehicle you saw was a 78 Ford? Like, probably 1987, maybe, was the last time that would happen? It was funny, too, because when I got that truck, it still had, or I'm not going to say it's the original muffler, but it still had a muffler on. It was quiet and whatnot.

and told the boy i said yeah i'm gonna put dual exhaust on it glass packs this i was like what are glass packs you he had no clue and i'm like well it's gonna get real loud in a hurry this truck's got a 460 in it with a four speed and so he rode with me that day we went put him on and man we watched the guy through the glass there to show you just a just a one-man show shop you know just a guy there and he worked on it and of course when he we're watching through the glass when he

Took it off the rack and backed it out. I mean, you could tell it was louder, but it wasn't too bad. It's not bad at an idle or whatever. No, it's not. And he didn't run it. He brought it around to the front door, and we settled up and paid him or whatever, you know, and got in it and told the boys, I said, roll the windows down. So I started up, and he's like, oh, this thing, you know, he's like, it's not as loud as I thought it would be. I said, ah, just wait. So we got it on the highway. You know, of course, being a force media, you can rack it off. Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, by about the time we was going into third gear, he's like, holy shit. I mean, because, of course, you know, it'll cackle every time you go to shift. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, he thought that was pretty neat. So he was all wound up then. He wasn't an old Ford truck with a four-speed in it then, too, you know. Last time I had the Scout out, my daughter was riding with me, and she's like, why do you keep doing that? And I keep, it's an automatic, but I would click it down, rack it off. She's like, why do you keep doing that at every stop sign? I'm like, same reason a dog does what it does, because I can. Exactly. And it's cool. Like, I don't know.

Yep. Who doesn't like a glass pack? But these kids, that's just not American. These kids don't realize like we drive through the high school parking lot now and it's literally all cars, maybe two trucks, but they've still got the muffler. And I'm like, you don't realize that when we were leaving school in the mid nineties, it was a smoke show. I mean, who had the loudest pipe? I mean, it was just chaos. It was a challenge. Exactly. Yeah.

There was a goal, and you wanted to win. Yep. And then finally, back then, you'd have somebody that finally would have like a 6.9 diesel, and they'd tear the muffler off of it, which was louder than all get-out. Yeah, no doubt. They could just scream, but I mean, it was always every day. It was just every day. Yep. Good times. Yep. They have truly missed how to leave school. So I'm going to have to go out and show them one of these days how you properly leave school. I remember back in the day when my dad was hauling a tractor.

on the road next to our school and turned down the highway and we just shut class down we had necessary international with a big turbo on one another and it whistled like who wouldn't have it yep and he was grabbing gears had a five and a two and he was grabbing them all taking off and that thing was geared low as shit anyway so you shifted a lot yep to get up to any sort of speed because like 62 or three was wide open and uh yeah the final teacher just hold on a minute and he just yep yep

One after the other, and he finally got up to speed and got out of the way. That was that old brown and white one, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. Yeah. That was good times. Rode many a mile in that truck. Yeah. Yeah, these kids just don't know what it's like. I mean, every day. I mean, say, if you stop and think cumulatively between our freshman and senior year, like before we could drive till we could drive it up to our senior year, the amount of tires that were ruined.

Leaving school cumulatively. And it wasn't necessarily always us doing it, but it was always somebody. It was somebody, yeah. Just a complete smoke show. It was one a day, yeah. Somebody every day. But now I'll bet you'd have to go back 15 years before there was a blackboard. I bet you can't find a kid at that school that's left a patch. No. Done it correctly. No. If they had a rear-wheel drive car to even do it with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Back then, it was a challenge. You remember the challenge? Like, you could pick out somebody's black marks. Like, you'd be driving them down a country road going, oh, those are Mike's black marks, or those are Jim's. You could tell by the width of the tires. By the way they had done it. Like, we had a buddy who remained nameless, but he would back up super fast. He had a Mustang with a five-speed. With a five-speed, and he would dump the clutch in first, and it would leave these nice little loop-de-loop black marks.

marks. And if you saw those loop-de-loop ones, you knew damn good and well that was his. Yeah, he'd get going 30 in reverse probably. Yeah, every time. Slam it first and just dump the clutch. Dump the clutch, let it go. Because you're still going backwards while you roast the tires and it'd leave a nice, just like a big J hook. Yeah, and fortunately for Tony and I, we did not have 5.0 Mustangs, but he really liked to see the tires smoked off that car and be like, hey, I'm too busy over here. How about you guys smoke the tires off of my car for a little bit?

Okay, we'll go do it. We don't want to. We were going to stay here. You insist. Yeah, but if you're going to force us to do it, we'll go out and lay black marks in your car if that's what you want us to do. So we'll go do that. Yeah. Yeah, these kids nowadays just have no clue what it's like back then. It's not like we were the only town in America. You know what I mean? It was everybody. It was everybody. That's just the way it was back then. Yeah.

If you walked into any town in America now in the Midwest and said IROC Camaro, they'd look at your cross-eyed. They wouldn't even know what it was, you know? Yeah, it's funny how all them vehicles are gone. You know, cash for clunkers ate a bunch and whatnot. But when was the last time you met an IROC on the road? I mean, I couldn't tell you the last one I've seen in person. Oh, my gosh. And there was a hundred of them. Oh, my God. In this town. Yeah, they were everywhere. Yeah.

Yeah. 460-pound doors, you had to get a run at them, get them shut. Yep. And then you had, what, Formula Ones? I mean, there's all different... I did see a Trans Am or a GTA, I don't know which, I didn't get that close to it today, like an early 90s one in Effingham today. Really? Yep. They're sitting at Chipotle, actually, which I'm like...

I think it was Chipotle. I'm like, that's kind of odd. You wouldn't really think that, you know, probably a mullet man was at Chipotle. Agreed. But it was right there near it. It might have been in something else next to it. And the funny part is, is when we were kids, those were fast cars, and they really were. Now it's like this thing. Yeah. Now you hop in and it's like, so that's what 185 horse is like. Yeah. Huh.

My Polaris Razor's got 40 more horse than that. Sweet. I mean, I don't have a Polaris, but in general, a Polaris Razor would have more power. And they're way faster. Yeah, those things were not that badass when you get down to it. No, I mean, we've talked in the past before, you know, a 6.9 diesel with a turbo on it when we were kids. You're like, man, you know, this son of a bitch will pull some shit or whatever. You get one of them now, it's like, this fucking thing won't pull anything. Yeah. So south of us a ways, there's a town called Galconda.

And there's a big hill on the interstate. Remember, that was always a challenge. You had a pickup truck and a trailer. Like, how fast you could top that hill without blowing the damn thing up? I've been up that thing a thousand times in the newer stuff, and it's like, hmm, yep, there's a hill here. It's not a mountain. It's not Pikes Peak. Doesn't even slow it down. Agreed. But back in the day when you were in a, you know, a 350 Chevy, a 454, you know, a 460, a 351 or whatever, like,

That was a load. Yeah. You burnt like 10 gallon going up it, and that was a load if you could cross the top without having to drop a lot of gears. Well, it's like we talked when I got my 78. It's a four-speed, and it's geared a little bit high, but still...

If I turn on Main Street into our local town and Nick lives just not quite a block from where you turn off the highway to come into town, it's like I can be in the third gear racking them out pretty good and I'm running 35, you know. A new truck nowadays, when you do that, you're running 75. Yeah, you're exactly right. They're just way faster, I mean, with more power. It's a way different deal. You can't hardly rack the pipes off because you're going 90 in a city block. Yeah, you're going too fast. Yeah, that's for sure.

That old stuff is cool, though. I don't know. The older I get, the more I like that stuff, which is opposite. You'd think you'd want the more luxury and stuff, but I don't know. I don't know. It goes in phases, I suppose, but I'm at a point in my life now where some of the newer stuff, like we're just making shit up now. We are. Like we're just making features up. And some of them are nice. I'm not saying they're not, but like we're literally making shit up to put in vehicles.

Tractors are the same way. Like, we're making up creature comforts that may or may not be necessary. You know, they don't necessarily affect your performance through the day. Yeah, my old truck out here, so it's got two fuel tanks on it. The front tank, which is the main tank, it's a big tank.

and it sets sort of, I'm not going to call it a cradle, but kind of like a shield. That's three sides of it are shielded, but it was all rusted out. And I mean, that's what holds a fuel tank on. I mean, when the bottom rusts out, the tank falls off and it was almost there. And so I, I took all that off and done a bunch of shit and kind of rebuilt some braces, you know, to put it back in this. And I'm like, yeah, try this on a new truck. You know, you'd never got the tank off to begin with. God only knows what it would have took to get it off.

Some sensor would have been bad, and then the computer would have been screaming at you. Yeah. It is neat to pop the hood, and there's the motor. Whatever you want to do. You want to work on this side? No problem. That side? No problem. Yeah. Yeah. You pop the hoods on some of that newer stuff, like, you can't prove there's an engine in there, because you can't see the engine. Physically, you can't see it. You know? It's in there somewhere, but you can't see it. Yeah. I'm just...

kind of over this stuff anymore at one time i thought man that stuff's cool the more bells and whistles and computers i mean man look at what all you can monitor but i'm convinced now all you're doing is padding somebody else's pocket and they got shit to do with giving them your data so they can figure out what they need to sell you the next time yep said it 100 times on tiktok you know everybody oh you got to have precision planning and i'm not saying this stuff don't work don't misunderstand me it works just like they say it does

But I just find it damn funny that when they plant all these plots with a John Deere 7000 with a 6430 on the front, that it's 25 bushel better than my corn. Yeah. So how does that work? Yeah, it does make you wonder, doesn't it? Yeah.

Yeah, that's life, though. I suppose we're crossing that bridge now where we're getting nostalgic on the shit we used to have that we can't find anymore. You know, when we were kids, like, buying a 78 Ford wasn't a big deal. Oh, hell, it's like, yeah, it's like, well, shit, I don't want one of them. I'd rather jump up to, like, a 1990 or 95, you know. Z71s, I mean, God, everybody, right? Everybody has Z71s. I think you and I were the only two that literally did that one. Yes, that's true. Or we weren't gay. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And I didn't feel like having the passenger put the tape in for me. Yeah. Because literally, the tape deck on one of those is on the passenger side. It's like, glove box, nope, that's tape deck. It's over there where the passenger can run it for you. Yep. Safety first. I swear, there was 200 Z71 extended cab short bed four-wheel drive with glass packs. Yeah. Around here from every color variation. And every time. So, where the shop is, like Tony says, not that far from the end of the mile. So...

You hear this truck, and you're like, oh, this guy's freaking getting it. And you look out there, and the guy's going 15 mile an hour. Just popping and cacking. For all it's worth. Yeah, all it's worth. Nope, it's just a Z71 with a lot of exhaust going 15 mile an hour. Yeah. Two kids on bicycles passed him on the way to the gas station. Like, they are not getting it that hard. That's just all it is. Yep.

Yeah, it definitely changed. And like I say, I will give them that. I mean, new trucks now, I mean, you can get a diesel pickup now, and in a quarter mile, you're running 100 miles an hour plus. I mean, just flat fly. Yeah, while your back's being massaged and your butt's warm. Yeah, and you got cameras pointing every direction you can see. The radio turns up and down based on the speed you're going. It's doing all the shit for you. Yep. And the funny part is, and I don't know if I mentioned this on TikTok or not,

So Henry had, of course, hanging out with me on the farm, whether it's old grain trucks or whatever. He knew what a stick shift was. But my daughter, the one who's 12, and of course I'm the little one. I mean, there's no way she would have.

They both got my 78 and were like, what does this do? They'd never been to stick shift. Probably not. They hadn't. Yeah. They're like, well, that's weird. You've got to shift it yourself. Josie's, of course, being sick. She's like, this truck's kind of sketchy. I'm like, no, it's not sketchy. This truck's badass. That's how it is, Joe. Exactly. Calm down. Yeah. Yeah. You just don't think about little stuff like that, but that's true. But farm tractors are no different. You're right. You know, everything's power shift or CVT now. Like...

To have to actually physically move the lever between your legs? I mean, I realize Alice Jemmers used that for like, you know, into the 90s. But everybody else kind of got rid of it somewhere before that. And it's like, yeah, it's just not normal. No, it's not. And yeah, it just makes you wonder. I mean, a lot of this changed. I mean, overall, I mean, you can't argue. I mean, it did change physically.

Probably for the better. I suppose. A lot of stuff that I don't like about it. Some of that stuff. Like you say, we're getting to where we're just starting to think shit up now just for the sake of doing it. Yes. Like Bruce Wills would say, we've got a room full of people just thinking shit up. Yeah, that's right. To tell the next guys about some more shit, they should be thinking shit up. I'm not knocking this as a company at all. I'm truly not. I think they've got good products, but

I've always said that I can get in most equipment, whether it's a track hoe, a dozer, combine. You'll at least get it to function, to move or do this or that or whatever. May not know what every button does. You get in a Fent tractor, I'm lost. I mean, I have never seen so many buttons and shit in my life. It is unbelievable. They have a purpose, but it takes a little bit to get used to it. Man. But I suppose that's anything anymore like...

You know, you hop in a vehicle now, it's like, oh, it's push to start. All right. So I push to start it. Well, it doesn't have a gear shift. I got to turn it up. Okay. Which you can kind of figure that out because they're fairly clearly marked and it is what it is. But you hop in something like that with all those buttons, it's like, oh, shit. I don't know if I'm turning the rear wiper on or making it go forward, you know?

Yeah, it's not the same as hopping in something with two levers. It's like, well, I bet if I push one of these levers, something will happen. Yeah, and I've never been in a Fent Combine. I mean, I sat in one at the farm show, but I've never been in one while it's operating. But you know how it is. Whether it's a deer, a case, a New Holland, they're pretty close to the same controls. I mean, the emblems might be different on a button or two here or there, but for the most part, you could make all three of them run. You can muddle your way through it, yeah.

When it comes to the vent stuff, I'm out. Bob's your uncle. I'm going to have to have a little guidance on that. Yeah. Well, and when you start talking this big joystick that looks like a hydrostat, but you just bump it one way or the other, and it gets weird. I don't know. Yeah, no doubt. But I suppose the more features you put on, the more controls you've got to have. And, you know, back in the day, there wasn't that much stuff to control, you know.

I still say that someday that shit's all going to come down to it's all on there, but this is a central Illinois tractor. I need four remotes, maybe a PTO. So they're going to turn shit on or off. You don't even need this part, so it's there, but it's not even on. You can't even access it. Yeah, I'd say that's probably accurate. You don't need it. Moving on.

Yeah, they're going to do that with horsepower. They'll just make a small, a mid, and a large frame tractor. You'll just pay for the horsepower you need that day. Move on. I truthfully can't believe they don't do that now. I can't believe they haven't started in five years. I think they're pretty close because they're getting tired of guys buying a small model, turning them up, whatever. And honestly, at some point in time, like you're just paying for the – it's the same tractor, so you're just paying for the power going up. So maybe you're better off to pay subscription-based and just pay for what you need that day, you know? Agreed.

Or that week or that month, whatever it is, you know. But you don't need 400 horse when you run the auger cart. Yeah. You know. Well, they'll find a way to, everything is going to subscription-based, though. It's like, oh, you need storage for your phone? Here's 99 cents a month. Oh, you want to do this? Here's 10 bucks a month. Here's that, you know, that steady income they got locked in on a year contract. They can predict their, they can forecast pretty well. Well, we know we got...

200 people signed up for this deal or 2,000, 2 million, whatever it is, signed up to pay us this much a month. Yep. Pretty easy to go to the bank then when you got all these guys locked in and guaranteed on a contract. I don't care if you're paying for phone storage, cable TV, or 400 horse in your 409R or whatever the hell it is. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So you want guidance and row shutoffs? Boom. Here it is. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm not going to use your rose shawls this fall. How about we sell you, you know, some other feature. All right. And how is it that deer, and is it just because ag...

And I don't mean this to sound shitty because I don't mean it this way. Is it like people don't put this much thought into it? So let's just take the Amazon Fire Stick or any of that stuff. I mean, all the time you can get on Facebook, I got one here, this jailbroker, an iPhone, this jailbroker. You got all this other shit that's been hacked into. But when it comes to ag stuff, it's like nobody hacks into it. Apparently. I don't know if the market's not there or if the shit's that much more secure or...

I don't know. I've always wondered that. Anything else you can buy one on the dark web or wherever that's been hacked into that you ain't got to pay for nothing? Yeah, we'll get you around that. But when it comes to the ag side, of course, Deere's pretty adamant that software and that wiring is theirs. And I guess, too, when...

you know that they could sit there in their office whether it's mulling pick your city and can watch that and it's like well we know this son of a bitch hacked into i mean this yeah this serial number should not be moving through the field right now where the netflix guy he don't know what tv you have or who's watching you know they have no clue within this house you know it's a little funny though like so to that point okay so you've got this tractor and you can't hack into it whatever meanwhile

Jim Bob over here has got a Netflix password, and him and his cousin and four other people are using that same one, although they've caught on to that a little bit. Now you've got to add users to it. But it took them years to figure that out, apparently, or make that work. They didn't think that Bob in Kansas and Bill in New Jersey were going to use the same IDs and passwords. But the egg side, they kept that shit locked down. Yeah, and that to me almost makes it a little more scary as far as

And like I say, maybe it's just because the market's not there for it, but that tells me that there's more people watching your stuff or it's somehow a flag that says, you know, it just automatically comes up that, hey, this tractor's unlocked and it shouldn't be. Yeah. You know, and I don't know. Mother deer never misses a trick on that shit.

No, they don't. And actually, you don't hear it on Trimble. No, you don't hear it on any of it. Nothing on the ag side. So I guess we're just advocating for if there's a hacker out there listening, we would like to get in touch. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. We're rolling out a 78 Ford. You can't hack shit on that thing. That's right. But it does make you wonder why it hasn't been. Do you find it a little humorous that...

While we were rolling around that truck, the combined dollars of our phones are more than that truck probably sold for new. Yeah. I mean, when he's thinking about it, how crazy is that? Like there's more technology in my phone, your phone, the combination of the two to buy them retail is more than that truck probably sold for. Yeah. And more technology in our pocket than what's on that whole truck. Yeah. Yet it will take you from here to California. Man, my phone will just get me nowhere. Yeah. It is a little interesting how all that works. It is.

Yeah, it's fun. It's fun to have some of that older stuff. I mean, and I honestly thought this fall, going back to 96, Dan, I thought, man, and I wasn't scared of it. I really wondered. I thought, man, you're literally going from the latest and greatest back to this. You know, is this going to be a big step back? And it actually wasn't. It was great. I loved every minute of it. You're still getting it done is what it is. My brother always gave me a hard time. Our first 1460 was a twin stick.

And he always harassed me about that. I'm like, eh, I kind of prefer that over the electric hydraulic. Like everything. Yeah. He's like, well, you got to have multiple arms. Well, you just gotta be quick, but, or have big hands, which I do, but I didn't, never did bother me. Like everything works, functions correctly. The float works good. Like it kind of works better than the electric version. You know? Yeah. Like it never did really phase me any. I mean, my dad specifically sought one of those out when he was buying one for that reason.

Yes, the other ones are easier to run, kind of, sort of. And they should have never made the manual versions, probably. But they work real nice. Sure. You can get past the fact that they're not electric. Yeah, and I had actually never been around them until yours was the first one I ever seen. It was a twin stick. I thought they were all electric over at Relic then. I didn't realize that. No, ours was a twin. Yep. Yeah, you didn't see many of them before.

Of course, I think once most guys knew you could do it all right here with one hand and click a button. It was 78, 79, maybe some of the 80s after that it was over. They were all electric after that. I don't know where the brake cutoff was in there. I think it was somewhere in 80, I think. But, yeah, ours was a 79. It was a 78, actually. Have you ever put the pencil to it, though, whether it's row shutoffs or some of this stuff, as to what it actually really, truly does save your life?

You know, I will say the first year we had shutoffs on a sprayer, like our prepay come down to like $4 with exactly what we had bought. To where normally it would go $1,000 over? Normally it would go over. We don't have a square field to speak of, especially back then. We have a few now, but then we didn't.

So you could probably pencil that ish because it was the technology. I mean, we bought the pretty primitive shit and didn't have anything special on that. So it probably penciled out some of the other stuff. Like I could kind of argue against the row shutoffs. Like we've got them. I like them. But by the same token, sometimes my best corns where it overlaps. Exactly. You know, so by that point,

notion should i be planting at 45 000 like am i way short like where it's doubled up as good depends on if it rains or not but you tell me the weather i'll tell you what technology i want you know but it is interesting and hydra has paid off for me on on shutoffs on that you know just having one or two three section controls like i've seen some benefit there from a dollar standpoint

Because it's hard to track yield on that shit. It is. It's hard to remember how I put the anhydrous on. Because once in a while, you're just filling in a map, right? Exactly. Like, I'm not planting over the top of this. I'm just filling in a map. So I'm not be going crossways where I'm planting lengthways. Yeah. Just by the way the field lays. And I'm just, you know, because the bar is so much bigger than my planter, I'm just filling it in. But, yeah, it is interesting. Some of that stuff, you probably don't want to pencil. You know, I mean, as we've talked before, I can pencil anything I want.

If I want it bad enough, like I can show you on paper where I just, I can't afford not to do it. Tony, you've heard the saying a thousand times. I can't afford not to do this. Couldn't afford not to trade. Couldn't afford not to buy this technology. Like I can make it show if that's what, if that's what my heart's set on anyway, I'll prove it to you. Kind of, sorta. Yeah. But yeah. Like anytime when somebody tells me that I couldn't afford not to trade this truck. So you mean to tell me that the dealership took a loss. They're in the business to take a loss on this deal. Yeah, exactly. I don't believe that. No, they didn't.

They didn't. You could have afforded not to not trade, but... We can all come to the agreement. It might have been the best time to trade. Agreed. But it still cost you money. We can all come to the agreement. AutoSteer is super nice. It is nice. Whether it cost you a dollar an acre, most guys would probably even at that point say, you know what, if it just cost me a dollar an acre, I'm still going to pay it. You know, the one thing about AutoSteer I will say is you don't feel like you've had your ass kicked at the end of the day. Totally agree. If you have to plant at night, so on and so forth, like...

You're a little bit more refreshed when you get in. Like there is some fatigue benefit to that, especially depending on how the spring goes, where if you don't ever get a break, uh,

And having auto steers sure plays into feeling good. There's been times, literally, putting an hydrus on that you could not see your track after dark. Not whatsoever. And had you not had auto steer, you were quitting. Plain and simple. I mean, it's bailed me out on that numerous times. That's a fact, yeah. I'm not going to sit here and say that I can tell you, farming 1,000 acres, that it's going to save me. I cannot tell you that one way or the other. Is it nice? Absolutely. But it is nice, yes. The row shutoffs...

Same way. Yeah, I can go back and forth. I can prove it to you one way or the other, you know, depending on what I want. But no, it makes you wonder. I mean, I'm not saying any of that stuff don't work. I don't mean it like that at all. Most of it works exactly as advertised. Yeah. But it just makes you... Is there a ROI on it, you know, or are we making any money on it? And then some of that depends on how much you're running it across, you know. Sure. Yep. I don't know. Sometimes you just wonder if you don't need a little bit of a reset.

bring shit back into check i suppose that happens eventually you know yeah i don't know or you age out of some certain certain things you know you're all gung-ho on some of that shit when you're young and then you get older you're like yeah don't get don't care yeah don't know don't care yep i know like the louisville farm show is coming up here in two-ish weeks roughly i have 16 days i haven't heard of anything mind-blowing that's going to get unveiled there i don't know i'm not on the up and up there i'm sure there'll be something but yeah

Yeah, most of them farm shows, I tell you, if you hit them once every four or five years, you still see it all. Yeah, generally. Still worth going to. They're still fun. Sure, they are. Catch up on some stuff, meet some friends, catch up with old friends. Yep, I don't know. What else is new? Anything? Nothing too exciting, really. Nothing too exciting. Just, you know, I tell you, you always hear from, I don't even call them old people, but you just hear in general like,

You know, enjoy every minute with your kids because, you know, it goes fast. You're like, at that point in time, you're like, you just had kids and you're changing diapers. And you're like, oh my gosh, this can't go fast enough. Now our oldest are in high school and it's like, holy shit, is it flying by? Yeah. Holy cow, is it flying by? I was scrolling through something and I'm looking for a specific picture. Nothing to do with the family, but, you know, going through pictures on my phone that had my kids in it. And it's like, wow, that seems like two days ago.

And it, you know, it's been years. It's been, of course, COVID kind of screwed some of that up. Like, it seems like we lost a couple years in there. But holy crap, is it going fast. Boy, it is. My daughter's going to be gone here soon. You know, like, it ain't going to take much longer. And I'm going to blink, wake up, and she's going to be in college and be gone. And then Max will be gone, and it's going to be like, man. Yep, and God only knows where they go from there. They could live around here. They may live five states away. Who knows? You know what?

you know, you're, you're in your twenties or whatever, and you're, you're dating, locking shit down and, you know, planning for the future and okay. So on and so forth. And you have some kids and you're like, okay, you know this. And then next thing you know, you wake up and you're, you're old, you're an old person. You're, you're the, you're the person that you were making fun of. Not that long ago. Like, Oh, that guy's, you know, 45, he's bitching about this, that, and the other. Now I am that guy. And, uh,

And it goes by fast. I hope none of my kids move away from here. I'm not going to stop them if they do. I hope they don't go far. And it's hard to say. I mean, really, and as bad as I hate to say it, in the area that we live in, there's not much for women around here. I mean, you know, it's your basic job. You want to be a nurse? You want to be a dental hygienist? Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I get it, but times change. And you and I have joked about this. We joked about it with my wife. If my wife that I met and dated in her middle 20s would know my wife now, completely different person. No idea who one or the other even is. Agreed. You know, career Kelly is drastically different from housewife Kelly. Love them both, but drastically different people.

I'm still the same dipshit I've always been. For the most part, I haven't really changed much. Got a few pounds on me, a little bit of gray, but I'm still pretty much the same person. My wife is a drastically different person. Both great. Love them both. But, uh,

You know, time just goes by so fast. Like when you're in high school, like you just can't wait to get your license and get your life. You can't wait to get out of school. Can't wait to go to college next year. No college is over. Okay. Can't wait to get my first job, do this, that, and the other. And then bang, you're 40. Yeah. Some years old and you're trying to push the brakes. Yeah.

And there are brakes on a 65 Ford, and they're not power, and you're shoving as hard as you can. You can't slow the time down. I remember when my dad turned 40, I thought, man, he's an old man. And now I'm 43, soon to be 44. It's like, gee. I look back, and I'm like, what was my dad doing when he was my age? I'm like, shit, I think maybe he was a little better than I was on a lot of things. I understand now why he didn't want to do some of the things I wanted to do then. It's like.

this goes by fast yeah and i remember my grandpa when he was 68 69 years old he was an old old old man you know and hell now my dad's 73 74 and to me he don't he don't seem that old i know he is but he don't seem that as old as what my grandpa did at 68 or nine yeah and then i look and it's like oh i'm already you know assuming i live to normal expectancy

I'm already past halfway. It's like, well, I don't want to take that on because I'm not going to live that. I don't want to do that because, you know, I'll be super old by the time I get that done. It's like, well, shit. You know, what am I even doing? You know, it's tough to get around some of that. You know, it's just, it's tough. Like I said. I will admit that I've taken a step back in the last year or two and I've actually had more fun

especially this winter here that we're in right now because I'm ready to enjoy life. I'm not doing this rat race anymore to where you get up every morning and you're pissed off at the world and you take it out on your wife and your kids and everybody else, and I'm just not doing that anymore. Well, you and I have talked about it, and I had this conversation with my wife. I'm like, I'm going wide open. She's like, what do you mean? I'm like, we were planning for the weekend, and I was laying out all the places I had to go, things I had to do. She said, you're going to get all that in in one weekend? I'm like, yeah.

It's like, there's no way. I'm like, nope, I'm going wide open, full throttle to hell with it. So you're going to be super tired. I'm like, yep, sure am. Don't care. I'm living today for today. I'm going wide open as hard as I can go. I'm going to have as much fun as I can have. Tomorrow's not promised. And I'm going to get sold at some point in time. I can't do anything. And going as hard as I can is probably going to play into that. Sure.

While I'm young enough to do some of it, I'm going as fast as I can. I can name numerous people with piles of money that are the most miserable people I've ever met in my life. So what good did that do you? Lived every day as soft as they could to save for later and not have any fun now because we're going to, you're not going to get all that traveling in later on. No, you're not. You're simply not. Look at your mom and dad. Going to do all this traveling later.

Can't do it. Can't do it now. Nope. You know, my parents, same way. Dad was like, well, I'm going to keep this little truck here. I'm going to wear it and take that traveling. When we retire, never retired, still got the truck. Yeah. How much of your dad's retirement did he draw? Zero. A big fat zero. None of it. None. Never did any of that shit. You know, he had plenty of fun along the way. Sure. But as far as just taking off, you know, not all that long ago, my mom went to Germany.

And dad told me before that he's like, I'm thinking about just grabbing your nephew and I'm going to go out to Colorado, Wyoming, whatever. I'm like, go. Okay. Okay. Well, he never did do it. Well, obviously he can't do it now. And it's like, you might as well went like, you know, I wasn't going to hold you. I told you to go, you know, like go ahead and go. It's fine.

Well, you know, I got this to do and that to do. That shit will wait until tomorrow. Yeah. Never do today what you can put off altogether. Exactly. I don't have to tell you, you're local. I've had numerous, numerous cousins, relatives fall over between the ages of 40 and 50 of heart attacks. Yeah.

What good did it do you? Save all the money you want, you could have been a multimillionaire, and it done you. No good. No good. None whatsoever. No good. And I'm just the point, I'm not living like that. No. I'm not. I'm just, I'm pushing the throttle forward. When I'm tagged on the toe, dying, dead, whatever, I want my kids to be like, yo, it sucks, dad died, but man, we did have fun. I wrote a letter when I was probably a senior in high school.

maybe in college, and I left it at my nightstand just in case something happened to me, to my parents. Basically saying, if I was out jacking around and something bad happened, don't blame my friends because I willingly participated in it. And two, just know that I was living it up and I'm having a great time. Let it go.

And I hold by that at this point in time in my life. Like, don't mourn for me. I had a great time on the way, and I'm still pushing the throttle forward. I'm still going hard. Like, it is what it is. I'm

Growing up or growing old is no excuse for growing up. And I'm not, I'm not, uh, I'm not growing up yet at this point in time. I'm going as hard as I can. I just have no desire to be some big swinging dick farming 10,000 acres that, Oh, look at me. And I got me a big grain leg and I got five semis and nine employees and six quad tracks. And I do this, that, the other. Okay. Big deal. Fine. You have no life. You don't get to enjoy any of it, but you can sure tell everybody around town how big of a swinging dick you are. Well, that's fine. And to each their own. I'm not knocking the guys. You do that. I got,

plenty of friends who farm big. More power to you guys. I'm not knocking nobody. I don't hold it against you. That just ain't my cup of tea. No, just everybody's got their things and my thing is at this point in time in my life, I just want to be happy. And some days, that's as simple as a good cheeseburger and some good conversation. Like, you know, we could go tomorrow night. We could go to a country music concert. We could go see Monster Jam. We could go do whatever. Some days, I'd just rather sit in your shed and drink beer. Like,

A couple nights ago was a prime example. Like, we had some places to go. We were over here just bullshitting. Like, you had to twist both our arms to leave. We had to go, and it was fun. I'm not saying it wasn't once we got there. It was perfectly fun. It was good, and we needed to be there. I could have sat underneath that roof

The rest of the night, I've probably been fine. Yeah, like you say, as you get older, it's more about with your friends and just jacking around. When we say, man, we're going to just go full throttle, that don't mean we've got to go out and every weekend we're going to a tractor pull here and we're buying hotel rooms here and we're doing this and that. I'm not saying that at all. Some days it's as simple as I'm going to go out four or five nights a week and just shoot the shit with my friends. And it can be over a Pepsi and...

Some bullshit farming-wise, and I realize women are perplexed on how we can farm all day and talk about farming all night. I totally get that. It doesn't make any sense. But if you want to talk tractors, farming, random bullshit, I can do that for hours on end every day of the week, even though I do it all day. But you put me in a quasi-social setting on it, especially where I can, I won't say pick the crowd, but kind of sort of pick the crowd.

I can do that pretty regular, and that's what I enjoy the most. Like, one of my favorite things in the world is to talk to some of my friends that don't live super close to here on the phone, maybe have a couple cold beers while you're doing it, just sitting at home, just shooting a show with them on the phone, talking to them about what's going on in their lives, catching up. At some level, that's better for me than going to said big social event. Yeah. You know?

I like big social events. I'm a social person. I love people. I like to go out. I like to hang out with people, whatever. But some days, rather than just go to bed early or sit around and watch the boob tube,

I'd rather talk to a buddy of mine in Montana, a buddy of mine in Colorado, a buddy of mine in Florida, a buddy of mine in Georgia. You know, it could be 25 miles from here. You know, and just shoot the shit, catch up. Like, I really enjoy that. That's just what I do. Yeah, I totally agree. And that's where TikTok has been cool as far as my circle of friends has gotten so much bigger of people that I talk to on a regular basis that I didn't even know four years ago. To the point that it's got hard...

to catch up with everybody because there's not enough hours in the evenings to make it happen. Yeah. You know, Saturday afternoon, I talked to a buddy of ours from TikTok for two and a half, three hours. You know, I was cleaning the shop, just doing, you know, nothing loud, just,

pushing the broom cleaning work benches off this that and the other i was going to do a couple other things and we got to talking i'm like you know i need to get this done anyway this would be the perfect way to work my way through that and i can do all that without even noticing i'm doing it you know it's not work at that point i'm just shooting the breeze to getting all this stuff done and i did and it was a great day you know so i don't know

As society, it seems like in a post-COVID world, we interact less with less people as a society. I don't think that's the case for you and I. But as a society, it seems like that's where it's went. I'm the other way. I'm the opposite on this point in time. Like, I want to talk to more people. I want to do more stuff. You know, I'm...

That's just what I enjoy doing. I get more enjoyment out of talking to complete random strangers, like at the Louisville Farm Show or wherever. I get more enjoyment out of that than I actually do out of talking to people that I know, which I guess maybe because the introduction's been made and so I know more about this guy and how he farms, how he does that. Yeah. I don't know if you've been comfortable talking

I don't know if that's the right word, but it's kind of like, well, the noon is wore off, so you kind of know that guy's gig. So now this is some random guy from Minnesota, and he tells me something that he's done that I've never even heard of. Yeah, absolutely. It's cool to hear all that stuff. No, I know what you're saying. And I so dearly love talking to the people that I know, too. Oh, for sure. Like, I've got a buddy of mine from Pennsylvania. We talk three or four times a day.

You know, I talked to him on the way over here, like just because he's getting ready for the farm show. And so just stuff on that, like I just truly do love that, even though I'm caught up with what's going on in his life for the most part. But he's also not right here where I can just walk into his shop. So, you know, we catch up on the goings on of the day or whatever's happening, whatever he's, you know, preparing for in the pulling circuit, whatever. That's just what I like to do. And it was funny here.

I don't remember if that was the big party that I had last fall or where this topic come up at. And I made this comment, and I wasn't trying to be funny when I said it, but I said it to somebody, and this ain't patting myself or you or anybody on the back. I made the comment something about, you know, we're kind of pioneers of this social media stuff. And whoever it was looked at me and just started dying laughing. I'm like, what's so funny? I was like, well, you call us pioneers. I'm like, we are. The generation before us,

Didn't do this. I mean, we're the first ones that the generations before us didn't make friends from Montana and all over the U S from some stupid Chinese app that was designed for 12 year old girls. Yeah. They didn't. I mean, it's just the reality of it. Yeah. And it's, I've met some of my very best friends in this world that I talk to every day that I don't even talk to people four miles down the road. I've known my whole life. Yeah. No, that's a fact.

That is a fact. And so I didn't mean that as a pat on the back, but I just meant that we're truly that new into all of this that we inadvertently were the pioneers. And it may not last that long. No. Like, the next generation, it'll be something else. It could be completely different. Like, this may be a one and done or a two and done. You never know. Yeah, it could happen pretty quick. And it's funny how, too, like, out of the whatever I've got, you know, I'm just going to call it 500,000 followers, that how...

Sometimes you just get a feeling. Because, I mean, I get just literally hundreds if not thousands of messages a day. And they're all good people. I don't mean this in any way, shape, or form or ill intent towards anybody. But, like, I'll never forget it. The first time I ever seen Chuck Weldon on TikTok, he...

I forget, I had made a video about something and he more or less done a reply or whatever. And it was just something about the way he presented that video and the way he carried himself. I'm like, that's a good guy. And somehow we exchanged numbers and have become super great friends and talk a lot now. And it's weird how some people fall into that clique on TikTok. I've met hundreds of people. It's odd how some of that just rolls into... Remember the summer I called you?

Three guys showed up at the shop. Oh, yeah, from Georgia. From Georgia. Like 4 o'clock, 4.30. It was pretty close to closing. Not too far from closing. It was in the summer, if I remember right. And I called you. I'm like, hey, you got to go to the bar. We'll be there in a minute. Okay, but where are we going? I'm like, well, I got three guys here from Georgia. Great guys. They want to meet you. I got to go pick my daughter up from softball practice, entertain them for a bit. I'll be back.

She's like, okay, no problem. You roll to the bar. They met you there. I picked my daughter up, dropped her off at home, turned around, swung back.

I just talked to Grayson two weeks ago. Had a great time. Yeah. Had a great time. Like, all super nice guys just on a random whim. Like, and learned, I learned a ton of stuff about topics that night that I had never heard of in my life. Like, the fact that, I mean, I always liked 306-cylinder Fords, but apparently those power every weird harvester deal there is from, you know, the Kentucky line south. You know, that's just what they use. Yep. Yep.

Yeah, I just talked to him. Out of the three guys, I remember Grayson, the guy's name from Georgia, far down there. Yeah, I just talked to him two weeks ago. But, yeah, it's funny how some people, I don't know, you just. They were just randomly on their way to the John Deere Commons, I think, because they got rained out of something. Yeah. And they're like, well, we'll just take a quick vacation trip here or whatever, and we'll swing past these two dipshits, and then we were there. Yep. And, you know, they stopped in. It's just funny how some of that clicks, you know.

Yeah, I've met a ton of good people through that. If nothing else, if they cancel TikTok tomorrow, that is one thing that I can say. That is for sure. Because I've met a lot of good people through that deal. Like I said, I mean, Red Power Stu and I are pretty tight. We talk on the regular like I'd have never met him if it hadn't been. Well, the funny story about that is he actually did call me years ago.

Really? Years ago, he called me about building a Cummins pulling tractor, and I talked him out of it, actually, which is not a very good business acumen. But I'm like, man, I wouldn't do that. You're going to have more in it than it's really probably worth. There's better avenues to go down. I had no idea that years later, when we were reconnected via TikTok, and we got to bullshit one day, he's like, well, I think I called you on this. I'm like, yeah, actually. Actually, I remember that conversation, so on and so forth. But...

Yeah, it's just funny how all that goes, you know. Like I said, you click with some people. Yeah, Cody Mayer and Ryan Peter, two hours from us, would have never known them. Never met them. And now I literally talk to them multiple times a day. Nothing against the guys that we haven't talked to multiple times. Like sometimes that is just circumstance. It is. You know, you might send me a message, and I might be super busy when I get it, and if I happen to see it, I might reply, and I don't engage it maybe the way I could or should. Yeah.

And some of that's just circumstance. It is. I got other things going on. I got to do this, that, and the other like that. Some of it's just completely just blind ass shit ass luck. Yep, it is. You know, it's just the way it is. And I actually, and I will admit, if anybody has messaged me, because I get a lot of messages, and that is one thing, if it's a personal message,

I don't miss too many. I try to reply to at least every one of them. Now, you know, which you get a lot of just dumb shit that's like, well, that I don't. But if it's a question or something, I try to do so much. Right. But I have had to refrain from giving my phone number out just because it's to the point that literally there's so many people that got it that if every person there just sent

a good morning text message it's like it would literally eat my entire fucking morning up yeah for sure and so i i just can't do that anymore and i and i hate to be that way i'm not putting myself on a pedestal above anybody or everybody else but you can't have that many people having your number no that's for sure work that way you can only do so much on that on that deal yeah

But it has been fun. No, it's been a blast. It's been a blast. And I hope I appreciate it as much as I think I appreciate it. That's how I am. Because at some point in time, that's not going to be the case. Like, times change. And this could all end tomorrow. TikTok could go away. Some new big platform is the latest and greatest. And then we wouldn't have it. It would be hard to connect with some of these other people. So I am trying to appreciate it for what it is now. And the flip side of that is I've never had a bad experience either. I've never had...

No. Some weirdo at a farm show or some weirdo show up in the driveway or something that was inappropriate. I mean, I've never had that either. No, it's been pretty good. It's been good. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I've really, truly enjoyed it and never, ever thought it would grow to what it did. It was completely inadvertent. Yeah. I mean.

completely by the end of the day i literally i don't care what anybody says you've known me my whole life i literally hit a couple of algorithms just right yeah and that's literally all it was was the luck of the draw i'm not doing anything any different than anybody else per se and it just it hit right and yeah and there you are i mean yeah it worked out it's been it's been great on all fronts for the most part

Yeah, it's really neat to see the way it's all unfolded. And it's actually one of them deals, you know, time has kind of flown when you start looking back through it. You know, it was about right in the height of COVID, January of about 2020 was about the time I got on TikTok. Yeah. And I don't know when it took off. I mean, it was shortly thereafter, but. Yeah, no doubt. On some levels, it seemed like you've been on there forever. And other levels, it's like, man, it really ain't been that long in the grand scheme of things. And I do feel really bad those messages that get sent.

You have to accept their request or whatever. I am not very good about checking that. I'm not either. And so I apologize to all the people that ever got caught in that fold because that's like spam filter, et cetera, you know, kind of sorta. And I'm not super great about checking that. So if you send me a message and I didn't respond, probably get hung up on that. And I'm sorry. And I promise. Cause you just sent me one this week, a wedding invitation. Like, like I get a lot of that shit. I'm not going to say a lot, but I, you know, I don't know.

8, 10, 12 a year. I'll get just a random waiting room. Somebody's going to be the lucky person. Somebody will be the lucky person. Or unlucky, depending on how you want to work out. Yeah. But we're going to show up to one. Yep. One of these days, we're going to show up to one. And it honestly seems like all, or not all, but most of the ones that I've got, there legitimately has been something going on. It was right in the height of sports season for the kids or a vacation or something. Yeah. Somebody will be the lucky person one of these days. And I'm not RSVP. I'm not doing nothing. I'm just showing up. Showing up.

in the buick yeah that's right roll yeah here's a meter we'll be there yep yep it is pretty deep though to see yeah i mean look around this room here just the amount of people that took times to no doubt you'll never wear all these hats out no and all the letters i mean people have took time other day to write you a letter and actually you know i done that for the first time in my life i i was never one to yeah i'm no letter guy send a random person something and i mean that's

maybe that's shitty i mean i don't know but that that kid on tiktok just that goes by just a jackson thing now that little shit that's always you know doing shit or whatever i pulled some books out of my personal collection a couple toy tractors or whatever and sent to him you know just because i thought it was cool you know he's yeah no doubt he's a little kid that he can he can walk the walk and talk the talk yeah for sure so i thought that was pretty neat absolutely

Yeah, someday it'll all end and be on something else. No doubt. Our kids will say like, yeah, years ago my dad was famous on TikTok, and now he's a nobody. I just saw a deal today. It was a local gal here who has a little niche business, and she was on a podcast or something, and she was claiming how frightening it was, the most frightening thing she'd ever done. And I'm like, I think back, and I'm like, you know, the first couple ones,

We were kind of worried about this or worried about that. After that, we're like, ah, it seemed to go fine. Let's just keep throwing the dice down, just keep rolling with it. We'll just go with it. It seems to work. People seem to like it, and we're just going with it. That's what's funny, too, because if you were to take me tomorrow to one of the kids' ball games, and I'm going to say you're in front of

250 people, 300, I don't know what, coming to some of them games. Ain't a ton of people. But said, you need to announce the starting lineups. I'd be nervous. That's not you. It was all get out. But you could take me to Ag PhD in South Dakota in front of 1,000 people on stage with Rob Sharkey, and it's no big deal. It's fine. No big deal at all. Don't even phase me. It's weird. No, that's for sure. It is interesting how all that goes.

I always have to laugh, though, that like a lot of these, you know, because we're not some...

hipster cool kids that are up on the latest app you know and i've always wondered what a lot of these kids around here think that are like high school kids you know because that's all they're big on you hey i got i got 20 likes on this video right here you know it's like a bunch of us dipshits that don't even try yeah five six hundred thousand followers and they're doing shit 300 followers i mean yeah it is interesting to see all that goes yeah it's it's the luck of the draw it truly is it's

It's crazy how it all works. Our advice for the day is go wide open, go as hard as you can, have as much fun as you can. Don't let anybody keep you from fun. I totally agree. Go as hard as you can on stuff, have as much fun as you can. Don't do anything stupid or excessively stupid, I guess. But have as much fun as you can, live every day for the fullest, and enjoy the people around you. Everybody's got their quirks. Everybody's not going to be your favorite person ever.

For an hour here or there, whatever. But don't let that hold you back from enjoying them in general. And just go for it. Yeah. Like, take a risk here or there. Enjoy yourself. Life's too freaking short, man. It is, man. Just go. Because you don't know when the getting off point is. It could be tomorrow. And even if you knew, I don't know if that'd make it better.

Like at some point in time, I don't want to know. I'm the same way. I don't want to know. If you did know, think of the changes you would make maybe for the worse. Like just go wide open. Yeah. Hammer down.

And we've actually always been fairly good about that. I mean, truthfully. And I'm not saying, you know, it's not like, well, these immature asshole, you know, they just need to grow up. It's nothing like that. We still are with our wives and kids. It ain't nothing like that. Yeah. I try to be as good a husband and father as I can be, but by the same token, I'm

Growing old is no excuse for growing up. No, it's not. I'm not looking to make myself any older than I already am. Yeah. Go for it. Look at last summer. Our kids wanted fast four-wheelers. Well, that's fine. So we got them. Yeah. So you get them? So am I. Yeah. So are we. Yeah. How's that working out for you? Yeah. Lapped your ass. Exactly. Yeah. Nine four-wheelers later. Yeah. Henry's just out riding tonight. Exactly. Just trying to train himself. We've had a great time.

Yeah, we have. I don't have any regrets in life. I truly don't. It's been a blast. I'll never forget the one comedian that's like, when I die, I want to look dead. That's right, yeah. When I want people to walk past the casket and be like, hey, it looks terrible. You should have died three months ago. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. I don't want to look good. Yep. I want to go sliding into home. Yep. Yeah, and I mean, I got a cousin the same way that, I mean, he's done it all. Yeah. I mean, just... Yeah.

If he goes down tomorrow, he didn't leave any stone unturned. No, I mean, had fun every step of the way. Absolutely. That's all that matters. That's for sure. It truly is. I just, I just, and truthfully, it scares me worse to, to look back and to where all my kids remembered that my dad was an asshole because all he did was work and worried about money and

And this and that, which I guess maybe, yeah, I could still be an asshole. But, you know, I'm just not going to do that. Where did it get you? Our hole at the end of the day is the same size. Yeah. Casket's the same size. It's all the same size. You ain't taking any of that shit with you. My goal is to be as godly person as I can be and have as much fun along the way as I can in the meantime. Like, fit the two together because I can have a lot more fun kind of sort of.

That's what we're getting at is we're not out cheating on our wives. I don't want to violate the other rules. I want to be as godly a person as I can be. But I also want to have as much fun as I can have in the meantime that coincides with it. And I honestly feel like you and I have a good balance. We're not out cheating on our wives. We're not doing a bunch of stupid, inappropriate stuff. We're not on drugs. We're not doing dumb shit. We're just...

We're having fun. We're just having fun. And like I said, sometimes that's as simple as talking to somebody. It is. You know? Think of the times that we spent with our kids this summer riding four-wheelers. Yeah. Through trails that you and I's were on. I mean, it's something, but it ain't nothing great. It's not like we're glamorous. Yeah. But still, we rode them a thousand times when we were kids. Yeah. But they hadn't. Exactly. And had a blast. Had a blast doing it. And we're going to do it again this summer. Yep.

It's just not worth it. There's more to life than working. My advice is go for it. You think of something fun that you and your kids kind of quasi enjoy, skip work that day and go do it. Agreed. Hammer down. You'd give anything, do anything with your dad tomorrow, I'll bet. Absolutely. And it might be the shittiest, it might be cleaning out a green bin. It might be the shittiest job on the planet, but I bet you'd go do it. I don't like coffee, but I'd drink a cup of coffee with him if I could. Exactly. I literally, I said, I could clean a latrine.

And have a great time doing it with him if I could do it. You know? And he and I were fortunate to have more good times together than almost any father and son get to do. But I'd chop a tree down with a hatchet for another one. You know? Yeah. I just would. So...

But at the end of the day, you've got to look back and realize that that was good parenting on his part. Oh, absolutely. Because you're not sitting here saying, well, I never seen my dad because all he worried about was the next acre down the road and all he wanted to do was work. My dad did work like a fiend. He always drug me with him. But I enjoyed that. That's just what we did. We talked about it on a previous podcast.

To what seemed like work, it was a Sunday afternoon that, oh, you got a 306-cylinder Ford truck? Hell, we can put a turbo on it. Yeah. We ain't got nothing going on. We got a couple hours here. Yeah. So it was technically work, but it was like... Oh, yeah. You got bugs on your bumper? I got some bug and tire remover over here. Yeah. I got some elbow grease. We can rub that right off, you know? But looking back, like, that's the things you remember. It is. It was all good. It was all fine. Wouldn't trade any of it. No. Nope. And I guess that's where I want to be as a parent. Yeah. Yeah.

And I mean, I've jumped up and down and through some shit fits with my kids over the years and probably need to lay off of some of that. I don't really regret. I mean, I had a legit bitch on all of them. I really did. Yeah, for sure. Me too. But some of that, like at the end of the day, your kids are involved and I won't call it in a negative way, but if they're involved, if you know, it's one thing, if you're going to a bar five towns over and just hanging out by yourself or with some other people and your kids are never around, but if you're around with them and you're doing some stuff,

They're learning something from all that. They're learning something whether you're gone or whether you're there. So try to be there and teach them something in the meantime. You can still be having fun with your friends. I mean, they're having fun too. Like I said, you know, when this four-wheeler deal, there was, you know, we'll just call it 10 of us. All with our sons and daughters, having a great time. They learned something from all of it. We could have just packed five of us up and went to a tavern three towns away. They wouldn't learn shit other than their dads weren't there instead. Yeah.

We gathered up these four withers, had more fun than we had at that bar, tore some shit up, did some shit, had a great time. And I'll give it that. My son has learned more about mechanics in the last year. Oh, absolutely. Than he has in his whole life combined. Yeah. But I'm all for it. Yeah. He's taking stuff apart, putting it together, doing a great job. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. Work ain't everything. No, absolutely not. Go for it. That's our advice today. Go for it. You'll regret it, I promise you. Yes. Working your dick in the dirt. All I got to see my kids is an hour before bed and an hour in the morning. I promise you, you will regret it. Yeah. Mark my words. It's a pretty short window. Yep.

Anyway, now that we've solved all your problems, we'll be sure to send all you guys a bill for this counseling session. A little therapy here for you. Exactly. Make those checkouts to Nick and Tony. Yeah. Yep. Let's see. So we've been over a month on this podcast. So yeah, we should see you guys maybe sometime in March if we get around to it. What do you think? We can do another one with somebody who's going on vacation. Yeah. Exactly. There's always something there to screw it up. Yep. Always something. All right. Thanks for tuning in, guys. We'll see you next time.