We’re getting two springs this year. It never really was winter on the coast but by the time we left, they thought it was spring. So we got to see a lot of the trees, including the cherry trees, in full bloom. Now that we’re back home it is slowly turning from winter’s grey to spring’s colours. The trees still haven’t budded out but yesterday I saw crocuses and the robins are back so spring can’t be far off.
I spent most of yesterday and the day before at a couple of local auction sales. That’s what I like to do in the spring. I don’t buy much other than an auction burger but I always see someone I know and have a good visit. The sale on Friday was all the way down at Lemberg which took longer to get to than I expected. There was one of my favourite little Case garden tractors in the sale which I wouldn’t have objected to buying but, when they finally got around to selling it, the bids quickly surpassed my estimation of its value. When they finally quit bidding it was at $4300 which is easily double what it should have sold for.
The tractor in question was a 448 which means it was likely built in the early 1980’s. This one had a Linamar engine in it but I don’t think that Case ever installed any Linamar badged engines so it must have been repowered at some point. It was in decent shape – not showroom by any stretch and it showed signs of having been recently washed. I think it probably slobbers oil as badly as any of the older Cases like to do. There was certainly plenty of grunge left under the hood on top of the hydraulic reservoir where the kid doing the washing didn’t bother to look. I’ve got two similar tractors – the one I repowered last fall is essentially the same machine now that I put the Linamar engine in it. The other is nominally a smaller machine but about the only real difference is the Kohler engine. I haven’t got $3300 in the pair of machines and that includes the replacement engine plus the 2 Onans I have sitting on the shelf plus the carcass of the Roper that I pulled the Linamar out of. If someone walked by and offered $2500 for either of my machines I’d run all the way to the bank in Canora to get his cheque deposited before he changed his mind. Auction fever I guess.
The sale yesterday was a local consignment sale. In other words it was 4 acres of junk with a hotdog stand in the middle. The auctioneer was on par with the equipment he was hired to dispose of. When I arrived in the morning they were playing Ukrainian polka music over the auction speakers. Not that there’s anything wrong with Ukrainian polka music but in this case they were singing in Ukrainian too. You don’t hear that everyday. Or possibly it was Polish. I’m not in tune with the fine points of difference.
Last night we went to the long awaited Buchanan Black Box Theatre presentation of Spamalot. It was every bit as good as we could have hoped for. We didn’t get home until 1:30 which is about 3 hours past our normal bedtime but it was well worth it. Saturday was the last night so the cast was unwinding and nobody was in a hurry to leave.
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