Most posts on the blog are written by Nicole. Bob will be writing about his project truck as he works on it.
Farming is a lot of work. Every single day from early March to the end of November, we are caring for the hundreds of animals that either permanently or temporarily call our farm home. We also have many projects that make their and our lives better, so “free” time is almost unheard of. But as the seasons change and fall turns into winter our schedule slows down and we have time to relax and do things that aren’t directly related to the farm that bring us joy.
Growing up, I was never really all that interested in cars or trucks and when it came time for routine maintenance, I would go to a mechanic. I knew the fundamentals of how an automobile worked but when it came to opening the hood, I couldn’t tell you which part did what or what the names of most of the components were. After we bought our farm and I learned how much I enjoyed working with my hands and repairing things myself, I began doing most of the maintenance on our vehicles. Fortunately not much work is needed on our car and truck but that also means there was only so much I could learn on two vehicles we rely on and are in overall great condition.
I began watching videos online of other people working on and restoring vehicles and I found the variety of work and skills needed to be very interesting. After a while I found myself thinking about buying a project vehicle and began casually browsing Facebook Marketplace looking at cheap old vehicles. Very quickly I knew exactly what I wanted but it seemed that most of the listings had already been worked on and were out of my price range or were in such bad condition that the possibility of getting them to run again seemed outside of my budget and skills.
As luck would have it someone posted what I was looking for and due to a couple minor issues the vehicle did not run so the price was right. I did some research and found out that parts were not only available but also reasonably priced. I have a habit of losing interest in things after a while so I hesitated to buy something that would require a lot of time, energy, and money to complete. After a month spent reading repair manuals, watching videos, and learning as much information about this truck as I possibly could between my day job and working around the farm I realized how disappointed I would be if someone bought the truck I had almost begun to think of as mine. I reached out to the seller and found out that someone had planned on picking it up the night before but had ghosted him so the truck was all mine if I could come and get it. After picking up a flatbed trailer from our neighbors who are nice enough to let us use it when needed we drove the hour and a half there and picked up my winter project truck. (Added by Nicole: The previous owner was ecstatic that someone was purchasing the truck with plans to restore it. He didn’t want to see the truck parted out, because he had some sentimental attachment to it. He was happy to help us load it up on the trailer, sign the title transfer paperwork, and send us on our way.)
I plan on recording all the work that I end up doing on the truck, which will be plenty, and upload the progress to our YouTube channel. I have uploaded the first video for that series which is just an introduction and reveal of the truck that I purchased. I don’t know when I will be able to get started working on this truck with our busy farm schedule but I hope you follow along with my progress.
This post was sponsored by our Patreon supporter Giles. Find her on Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy!
Frontière Farm House 