G!

We are not usually “impulse buyers.” But sometimes you have to be impulsive in order to get what you want. We try to keep an eye on the local papers for auction announcements just in case there might be something there that we could put to use on the farm. We are not seasoned auction-buyers, though. The only things we’ve bought in the past at auction are our refrigerated truck, our large hoophouse and some raingear. But when I looked through the auction section of the paper last week I spotted a listing for an Allis Chalmers G at an auction this past weekend. This is not a tractor we were planning to buy. But, then again, I’m not sure you can really plan to buy one of these. They are pretty rare and you’ve just got act on it when one comes up for sale.
Being a small organic vegetable farm, we don’t mind hand weeding. It’s somewhat inevitable. But by this time of year, things are always getting completely out of control. So many different beds are in desperate need of weeding, its tempting to just give up on all of them. So, we know that this is one part of our operation that needs some rethinking and improvement.
The Allis Chalmers G is pretty funky-looking. It is strictly a cultivating tractor and only has a 10-12 horsepower engine. They were manufactured in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, just before herbicides began to make them “obsolete.” But they have still been useful to many over the years because about half of the 30,000 made are still in use.
We ended up “winning” the G at the auction for the price of $1700 (only $200 above our the $1500 we said was our limit!). It needs some work (it came with no cultivators, nor the levers to operate them), but we hope it will help us keep out the weeds on most of our unmulched crops.
We are always leery about taking on new equipment since neither of us are mechanically inclined. But we think the pros will greatly outweigh the cons of owning this machine.

Vegetables available this week:
Pretty much the same as the last few weeks except that we have a few cantaloupes (if you're early you might get one).
Leeks next week and probably more cantaloupes.