Top Of The World Farm

I once heard someone say that you don’t know how bad you had it until it gets good. Well, it’s got good.
Years ago a dear friend had pity on us and gave us an old 16 foot, bumper-pull stock trailer. Great trailer, fantastic trailer, especially when you ain’t got none.
Over the years, through continual use of an implement, you always see its shortcomings. And, while beggars, of course, can’t be choosers, they can be swappers. So we decided to see if we could swap the stock trailer for something a little bigger, a little more suited to our current needs.
About a year ago, I had seen a sort of trailer swap lot about 35 minutes from home. I had even stopped and called the number on the untended lot, but I got no answer. Last Friday, however, I was determined. We had to drive an hour South to Florence to take some animals to the processor. Then we headed East for 45 minutes and North for 45 minutes (When we arrived at the lot, we didn’t forget to congratulate ourselves for turning a 35 minute drive into a 2 ½ hour drive).
But nothing is as simple as it seems at first. Here on this sprawling corner lot was not one, but two trailer swap yards. We pulled into the first, thinking it the home of all trailers within sight, but shortly found out that the ones at the left end belonged to another fella who was absent and unafilliated with the folks we met first.
These folks had something tempting. An open stock trailer in good condition, but it was real open and I knew it would provide no protection for animals in the winter. Nor did it have an escape door on the side.
I love that escape door on the side. But I don’t think it’s properly named. It really should be called the jump-out-of-it-at-the-last-second-to-save-your-life door. Then again, I guess escape is more concise.
So, we hemmed and hawed and I sent my brother, Zach, to spy out the other fella’s trailer while I made small talk with the caretaker of the first lot. Zach shortly called me over to look at a much newer version of the trailer we’d just seen. It was cleaner and had less rust, but still no escape door, no sides. Then I saw her.
The term ‘beached whale’ has been so overused that it really no longer carries any shock for the reader. But it’s best I’ve got. Zach properly dubbed it “the grey goose.” He had initially passed over it (probably because it was just too ugly), but it was exactly what we needed – a gooseneck, mostly enclosed, with storage up front, wider than our old trailer, higher, and, you guessed it, it had an escape door. We drooled as we slid the rear loading door and it actually slid. We had heard trailers could do that, but ours had been frozen for years and only moved with the help of three smashed fingers and a sledgehammer. What’s more, there was a center gate to separate animals. With a flick of the wrist, you could swing the gate and an automatic catch on the other side of the trailer would grab it closed just like that.
Zach’s fingers shook with anticipation as he dialed the number on the lot. The owner (Mr. Chandler) shortly arrived and offered us $100 more on our trailer than had the first lot. The day was looking up.
We couldn’t swap our trailer in its current condition, however. It was mired with the leavings of the last animals it had carried (two cows, two mean pigs—R.I.P.). So we made plans to take it home, clean it, and return after lunch. When we did, Mr. Chandler met us quickly and helped us hook up to The Grey Goose so that we could test the lights and brakes.
Zach drove off down the road, I was sold, but I waited patiently for him to return with the verdict. I stood next to Mr. Chandler in the lot and Zach came back into view and Mr. Chandler commented, “It looks real nice riding behind your truck.” I don’t think I laughed out loud when he said that, but when I glanced over, I could tell that he knew his salesmanship had carried him a little too far. Here was a wonderful goose, but no swan.
All in all, it is so wonderful. The brakes and lights work great. That gate still swings like a dream and sometimes, at night, when no one’s around, I’ll go out there and just slide the rear gate back and forth for fun.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 4:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.