Time for a road trip!

February is a great time to kind of bug out and at least for a little while, get away from the winter doldrums up here in the great white north (southeast Minnesota). Nope, I'm not really taking a vacation next week, more like a working trip to catch some machinery auctions in different parts of the country.

Like southern New Mexico.

I've been invited by an official with the Department of Ag for the state of New Mexico to come down to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to take in a day or two of the week long machinery auction put on by auctioneer Charlie Dickerson. Check out Charlie's Web site at www.cfdauction.com.

I'll be down there next Wednesday, February 10th shooting handheld video for our Youtube channel at www.Machinerypete.com. I'm thinking this video might be one of the most interesting I've posted. Why? Oh, I don't know, perhaps it has something to do with the fact the auctioneers working this sale bark out in three languages. That's right, I said three languages.

English, Spanish and German.

German?

My contact Raoul with the Department of Ag in New Mexico tells me there is a significant Mennonite community south of the border in Mexico that frequents this huge annual week-long auction. I'm very curious to take in this sale and see what types of farm implements are currently in demand in southern New Mexico, very close to the Mexican border.

I'm excited to get a feel for this area of southern New Mexico, as much feel as I can get in a day or two. Raoul mentioned taking me to see the country's largest pecan tree farm. Don't see too many pecan trees here in southeast Minnesota.

I'll post video updates and highlights from the New Mexico auction next Wednesday (February 10th) evening, along with some additional fun video of the area, maybe a shot of that pecan tree farm just for fun.

I won't be able to stick around long though. I'll be zipping back to south-central Kansas the next day, Thursday, February 11th, to cover a super farm auction by my friends Ron and Mark Stock with Stock Auction Company. You can take a look at the sale bill by clicking on this link: www.stockauctionco.com/auction2-11-2010.htm.