Dumb bus buyer

Ok so I am a rookie farmer but today I was also a "Dumb bus buyer wannabe".  Two months ago I was commissioned to acquire a 14 passenger bus for our new center in Reston.  I was pressed to buy a spanking new AB but $48,000 is a daunting price tag.  I was introduced to the website of a business near Philadelphia that had numerous used AB's (Activity Bus) with low mileage and significantly less in price.  I put off making that drive for weeks and then things got busy and I started farming and it simply had not happened.  The tractor dilemma gave me new motivation as I reasoned that if I bought a good used AB and saved upwards of $20,000 I could use the savings to purchase a new tractor that has become my most recent obsession.  It is sad isn't it.  10 years ago I was sweating a 57 T-bird and a Mazda RX8 and now I lust for a Kubota 7040.  What has happened to me!!!

I digress.  With resolve I committed to drive to Philly this morning and get the bus I should have purchased already.  I brought my transportation director with me so that we could bring that new/used baby home.  I learned however...that some websites out there can be a little misleading.  Kinda like the dating services where the picture of the prospect fails to accurately represent the real deal.  Instead of hundreds of busses to choose from, as depicted on his website, the guy had three. He struck me as more than a little skeevy and I returned empty handed.  Poor Tommy my trip mate, he was confined in my wife's mini-van with me for over 5 hours.  Half of which I spent apologizing for wasting his time and mine.  Fortunately I was home by 12:30 from Philly and still had time to clean up Mountainside after our wonderful Springfest and help Josh fertilize a few rows of crops.  

The forecast is for 5 inches of rain over the next 2 days so things may get a little bogged down, but the irrigation lines are laid (not that we will be needing irrigation any time soon) and we are getting ready to actually plant.  Thanks to Josh and Jose for helping put down plastic at the end of the day.

Last thing for now...two of our after school programs are coming to work with Josh and me...Josh and I... in May.

This will be our first test to see if we can get kids as excited about growing things as we are.  I truly believe we can make that happen, and the parents of these children are truly lucky their after school program can provided their kids with such unique opportunities.