I need to finish this article as quickly as possible so I can go pick out my new Lamborghini. Should I go red or white? Have you seen the Clint Eastwood movie called The Mule?
My first 13 years out of high school I spent most of my waking hours as a carpenter and my “free” time as a farmer. The last 26 years have been mostly farming and construction work only as needed. Farming has been successful; I think I missed out on some good money in construction. My son, Tyler, moved into his house in what many would consider the ritzy northern suburbs several years ago. He spent such an outrageous amount of money to have his master bath/bedroom suite redone I am embarrassed to even repeat it. He did mention to me that his contractor showed up to check on the workers one day driving a Lamborghini.
In May he started getting quotes to replace his aged deck on the back of the house. Quotes started at $16,000 to replace only the deck boards and upwards of $40,000 to replace the whole thing with high-end materials. A facelift was ruled out; demolition and new construction was the plan. The cost to demolish and haul away was over $5,000. I knew that most of the framing would be reusable, especially for a farmer like me who had built his last 20 hayracks out of used materials. It took 3 trips with my truck loaded full, and my son saved lots of money by doing most of the demo himself. At this point, I thought I had done my part.
In a dramatic scene from the movie The Mule, Clint Eastwood’s character states to Bradley Cooper’s character that “Family is the most important thing; don’t put work in front of family.” Only days after I watched the movie, my son had $10,000 worth of lumber delivered to his house and then the construction crew absconded to Poland for 30 days. I could not say no when he called for an emergency deck installation. Family is important; however, family and work were the same in this case. Could I harvest 50 acres of wheat, bale 5,000 bales of straw and bail my son out of his predicament at the same time?
On June 27and 28 Tyler from my hay crew, my brother Paul, and I took the torturous trip 65 miles, a little north of the future home of the Chicago Bears. The morning commutes were insane. I cannot believe that some people drive that every day. We avoided the road rages, insane speeders, lane weavers and zipper mergers that cross 5 lanes at the last second for the ramp by working late and traveling home after the rush hour. After driving through two morning commutes with bumper-to-bumper congestion I made sure that my next 4 trips were all on Sundays and July 3 and 5 when many commuters were off work. I saved an hour of travel time each day I was able to avoid the rush hour congestion.
Mother Nature cooperated, too. I was able to harvest wheat on July 4th, bale it and plant soybeans on the 7th in between my 14-hour days as a carpenter every time rain washed out field work. Now I want to be a little silly and try to be humorous.
I enjoyed building my son Tyler’s deck. With my hay helper having the same name, it was very confusing whenever I called for Tyler to carry, cut, nail, screw or hold something. The deck was monstrous. We could have gone smaller, but the landscaping and foundations were all in place for a 1400 square foot deck, and of course, it is an affluent neighborhood. If everyone had a deck this big, there wouldn’t be enough forest left in Canada to have a fire. I have solved all future forest fires, eliminate the forests.
It is ironic that my work became taking care of family. I know my son saved a lot of money. Is it time that he puts family first and helps another contractor out with a Lamborghini? How outstanding will I look in the field with a Lamborghini? If I install a hitch and tow package, can I convince the tax preparer it is a legitimate section 179 expense.
My wife wants red. How silly, we live on a gravel road. Hey Tyler, make it white. Not the hay Tyler, the other Tyler, my son.
0 Comments