Randy was the parts guy that got beat by a milk crate. \u00a0To give you a bit of a backstory, when he was in high school, he worked for a Deere dealership. \u00a0In the shop, changing oil, filters and basic hydraulics on 20,30, 40 & 50 series tractors. \u00a0He knew what he was doing. \u00a0Then he moved to the parts counter after high school. \u00a0He had a photographic mind and knew all of the part #s for those bad-ass series Deere tractors. \u00a0Then he went to work for a custom cutter. \u00a0He ran Deere combines. \u00a0He also knew how to work on those machines.<\/p>\n
In Woodward, OK, it is more important to know about 20,30, 40 & 50 series tractors than it is new ones. \u00a0Why? \u00a0This is the part of the world where tractors go to die. \u00a0Clientele is mostly cowmen that need a good baler tractor, something to pull some wheat drills and it better have a loader on it for moving round bales.<\/p>\n
The owner of the custom crew that Randy worked for was a Western customer. \u00a0I got wind that Randy had gotten pissed and quit. \u00a0I needed a parts guy, so I went on the hunt for him.<\/p>\n
From an equipment dealer perspective, a person that knows how these machines work, knows the parts, knows the mechanics and can talk the lingo\u2026.well, that is what you call a unicorn. \u00a0Hard to find.<\/p>\n
One day, Randy showed up to the dealership. \u00a0“Heard you are looking for me?”<\/p>\n
I replied, “Yes. \u00a0In 2010, it is hard to track somebody that doesn’t own a cell phone.”<\/p>\n
He then said, “I’m in the process of moving to Fargo. \u00a0Here’s a number to reach me on. \u00a0I’ll be ready for some work in about 2 weeks.”<\/p>\n
So, a week later, I went on a unicorn hunt. \u00a0No answer. \u00a0Next day, no answer. \u00a0Next day, no answer. \u00a0Now, I went to Fargo and started driving the streets. \u00a0Somebody told me that a couple of new families moved into trailer houses by the school. \u00a0I stopped at the first one and knocked on the door. \u00a0A young lady with a passle of diapered kids answered the door.<\/p>\n
“Nope, no Randy here. \u00a0Might check next door. \u00a0They just moved in and they are loud.”<\/p>\n
Check I did. \u00a0No answer. But as I was getting back in my pickup, Randy crawled out from under the trailer house.<\/p>\n
I asked, “Working on some plumbing.”<\/p>\n
“Nope, just hooking up a shitter line.” \u00a0 \u00a0 Oh, ok.<\/p>\n
Me–“What about that # you gave me?”<\/p>\n
Him–“That’s my wife’s # and she left me. \u00a0I ain’t got no phone.”<\/p>\n
We talked shop and agreed to terms. \u00a0He would start on Monday. \u00a0I was pumped to have this dude coming to work for us.<\/p>\n
Well, that is enough back story for now. \u00a0Check the next post for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Randy was the parts guy that got beat by a milk crate. \u00a0To give you a bit of a backstory, when he was in high school, he worked for a Deere dealership. \u00a0In the shop, changing oil, filters and basic hydraulics on 20,30, 40 & 50 series tractors. \u00a0He knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4034,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033\/revisions\/4034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}