Why ‘insulated overall’ ?

It all started in the first months that I was on the farm full time. Daryl wanted to bid on some farm machinery at an auction and couldn’t get off work. Since I was available now – I said that I would do it. With a lot of hesitation and soon trust, we agreed that this is what we should do. I was supposed to bid on a corn planter and a livestock trailer. How hard could this be, right? We went to the auction the day before so he could show me the machinery that I should bid on and I was glad that they had identification numbers on them for the auctioneer and the others like me. I sure would hate to come home with the wrong thing! So I took down the numbers on my trustee free seed corn tablet and we went home. We thought that I should get there by noon and that would give me plenty of time before the corn planter would get sold. So the next morning I hurried and got the morning chores done and then picked out the perfect outfit for the day. It wasn’t really that cold out at the time, so I went with some jeans, long sleeved shirt and for earrings, I had on some small hoops. I also went with a small fur neck scarf that went well with any of the jackets that I would might have to wear. I brought along extra jackets, you know just in case.

So off to the auction I went. It was about an hour drive to get there and I had the music on in the car with a trusty Diet Coke beside me. Daryl called only once to see if I left yet and then up’d the dollar amount to spend if I have to on the corn planter. As I’m driving up to the auction, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see. The auction was a very large one and all I saw was literally hundreds and hundreds of pick up trucks. It was like a bee hive for trucks. So I thought, no big deal and I wasn’t going to get intimidated. I parked the Pacifica in the midst of the ‘swarm’ and got out. My game plan was to get a feel of the crowd to see how this farm auction thing works. Now remember I was styl’n and smile’n as I walking through the crowd. I did notice that everyone had the gold insulated overalls on, but I thought that this was such an overkill. I soon realized that after I put on all 4 of my coats, maybe I should have rethought the whole dress code.

It was so windy at the auction and for part of the day it actually started to sleet and snow! I was trying to buy some time because I did go early, and went inside a shed to get a sandwich. Daryl always said the best part of an auction was the food. So after I figured out how the guys stand in line thing works, I bought a maidrite for dinner. I went outside and bit into it and it tasted so grainy. What in the world? What I found out was that I had so much dirt in my teeth from the crazy wind, that the sandwich tasted like sand when I bit into it. Not cool.

So now it’s getting close to the first planter that I was going to bid on. The auctioneer started and I jumped in after the first round of bids. He looked at me and asked if I was really bidding. WHAT?? OK,  since there was probably 400 + people at the auction and I counted only 3 girls, what did that really mean?  I said Yes.  I bid the planter up to where my budget was and then backed out. After that I could see some of the guys staring at me and at first I thought that maybe they thought that I was looking good. But then I remembered the dirt in my teeth episode earlier and the four layers of coats that I had!  I hung out for awhile and bid on another corn planter and the trailer. I didn’t get either one. During the course of the afternoon only one brave man asked me why I was there. That’s pretty funny.

My brother a couple of days later said that he had an insulated overall if I wanted it. I realized that I should have asked for it for the auction. Because what I learned is that you really need to dress the  part – not only to keep your legs from going numb but also to be able to create my new definition of  styl’n and smile’n.

2 Responses to Why ‘insulated overall’ ?

  1. Rhonda Ohm says:

    Bonnie, you are the description of 100% awesome! Love to read your blog, would love to write all the ideas down that I have but I am too lazy. Would also like to send more letters and never have to give up my landline, but I fear that with the poorest people in town having cell phones, I will have to give up such a luxury and go the way of the modern man. Do you have any thoughts on destroying technology? Just kidding. But if you have thoughts on lowering the fees I’d be on your side. I always wanted Dad for president, but since that won’t happen I’d vote for you.

    • farm2011 says:

      LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pictures that you took when you were in Iowa! You guys really did a great job and William said he had so much fun taking them. You can tell that he did just by how well they all turned out. Anxious to go through them all again and try to pick out our favorite ones. I’m thinking it’s going to be hard though!

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