Brad Nelson

Different is OK. For instance, I like to see how many years and miles I can get out of a pickup (my current 12-year-old rig has almost 326,000 miles and 99 percent of everything still works), but I know a fellow who must have a new pickup every year.

One of my best friends shared with me that his wife cannot understand his need to explore junkyards. His idea of a nice afternoon, and mine too, is having a couple of hours to explore a new junkyard. His own, he calls his “boneyard.”

Hard lessons learned are worth more if they are remembered. When my livelihood came from hauling hay to dairies and ranches in remote places in the Northwest, I was never stranded in the truck without food or drink. I recalled that knack when the solar eclipse came close enough to witness with minimal travel.

Ralph Feller of Caldwell, Idaho, once stated he had never seen a truck with too big an engine or too much brakes. He had his own fleet of potato and cattle-hauling trucks. He started out with F-600 and F-800 series Fords, with tag axles and fifth-wheel hitch, pulling 38- and 40-foot-long semi trailers.

Early January. Most of the country is concerned with things like, “Did the water to the house or cattle freeze up last night? Will it freeze tonight?”

“Put it on your Christmas list” may be one of the directives least liked by kids, followed closely by “Put it on your birthday list.” Too often, both birthdays and Christmas degrade into comparisons of who got the most loot. This is never good.