That Old IT40

Every year without fail I say that I will never touch this old beast again.  It's had a long life and the hard work and metal fatigue have worn it down past its bones.  Yet, here I am, hooking a battery up to it and checking to see if it works so we can use it to help move raisin bins around next week.  The motor sounds old and cranky and when it moves it groans, but it doesn't have to do a lot of work and it doesn't even have to do it well.  We have other forklifts that are in near perfect shape, but they are busy doing things more important than shuffling around bins.  I can't justify the cost of a newer used forklift for this job and I definitely couldn't touch a new lift, but I can justify a small repair bill and an oil change.  It just needs to get by.

It's these old pieces of half working equipment that keep a family farm moving and profitable.  If you were to explore our ranch you'd find several old dinosaurs like this sitting in out of the way corners just waiting for a day when necessity will bring them back into use.  It's how we stay fluid, able to react to the changes that every year brings us here on the farm.  There's no better feeling then solving a problem on the ranch with a long forgotten rusted piece of equipment that your great grand father purchased and left under a tree.