Traveller's Haven Farms

A couple of months ago I purchased a horse trailer. Been a long while since I have had one in my possession. What a different kind of feeling it has made. Kind of hard to explain if you are not a farm/rancher type, but I am going to try to just a bit… but first a bit of background is order.

To make a long story short, if you have not been aware of late, I had a farm, truck, trailer, a little horse breeding operation, a pretty decent heritage breed (Tamworth) pig operation, along with assorted other operations, some of which were not always successful. That all came to a pretty quick stop back roughly three years ago as my partner and I parted ways. As things were divided up I was short a trailer, the farm itself was sold, as were the hogs and most of the horses.

Since then I have been longing to get back to that point in a big way. Actually had some big plans for a land purchase late this spring/early summer. Getting married in two weeks (she is a wonderful girl!) has kind of put that on hold a bit longer then planned though. First is the cost of the wedding itself, which I am chipping in a good part – but there is also the idea of a house and such. While I would be fine with some land a bunk in a trailer while the barn was built, most women and especially the ones you want to marry, seem to not approve.

All of that is a long big of back ground information to get to the horse trailer that I did get about eight weeks ago. It is by no means a beauty of any sort. In fact, it is rusted out a bit more than I really would like for it be. Of course the rust did not show in the pictures of it that were posted online. I had driven around two hundred miles and it was starting to snow again at the time. I had already missed out on three other trailers at good prices so I decided, especially after a bit of successful haggling, to proceed with the purchase.

To say the least, driving back through Cincinnati in snow and sleet was not my idea of fun. Getting stuck in traffic after a wreck up ahead near the Ohio River was even less fun. By the time I was back in Kentucky the trailer was forcing me to drive slower and slower with the slicked up roads.

That all be said though, I was feeling pretty good somewhere down in my soul (or something akin to it). After all, having a trailer behind my truck that belonged to me again made me feel like I was getting back to a part of the farm that I have missed over the last couple of years. It of course also meant that I am going to be able to get the horses out a lot more this coming year, without having the extra worry of borrowing one or worse, paying to lease one for a week or some such. I was, once I got it home (being relative of course, as I still without land), both exhausted from the drive and excited from just having that piece of things back.

Since then, the trailer has proved invaluable multiple times over already. A long weekend trip to Kansas City with it bobbing along behind provided just the amount of inches needed to get all the future wife’s belonging in and fetch her back to Kentucky. Another plus thousand mile trip to Mississippi with my horses and I got in a long week of my medieval and jousting hobby. Currently I have some stuff stored in and have moved a set of mattresses in and out of as well.

Now the true farmer in me wants to redo the wiring. The lights work, but one turn signal is erratic and all the wiring from light junctions to coupler junction are suspect. There is also rust, which would require some extensive metal work – that one is a kind of plan and kind of on hold. One part says, giving only one escape door and the rust, use it until a second trailer in better shape can be acquired and sell it instead of repairing which will be costly (in time if nothing else). Regardless, it will be in my possession until another is acquired to be sure.

* – image from web of similar trailer, will try to replace with my actual purchase shortly