Auction Sales with Lynn Sanders

Auction Sales with Lynn Sanders

Twenty years ago Lynn Sanders had an old late-40’s model International truck with a low-boy trailer. Lynn and Rick took off for an auction in Roundup and that thing never got over 35 miles per hour. They stopped and cleaned the carburetor and set the points; even so, could not get the darn thing to run well. But they made it to Roundup and Rick bought an old baler and a 3-bottom spinner plow. Could get the baler started but the drive belt was in bad shape so it did not have enough traction to drive it up into the trailer. They had two boomers and a half length of chain and worked until they could wench that thing up there one-quarter inch at a time until we had it on the trailer. Only Lynn and Rick would ever attempt anything like that.

It is the baler Rick uses to this day. Son-Jay was still in high school then and he is in his 30s now. Paid $2900 for it and then brought it home and put in another thousand dollars worth of belts. Six months later they went to another auction and Lynn bought the very same model baler. He paid $3000 for his in better shape and only twenty miles from home. Just got in it and drove it to his house. He is lucky that way.

For two decades Lynn and Rick have been going to auction sales and having a grand time buying stuff and then trying to decide how to use it. They’d drive down the road together and pretty soon they’d have everything figured out in the whole world. How to raise their kids and everybody else’s, make politics work and the economy go. They had it all under control. I don’t know how to explain it…they just really connected. Somehow ranching gave them a common bond; their philosophical bents were similar. They found it fascinating and fun to buy old equipment and then keep it running.

But those who know Lynn are drawn to more than simply his ingenuity …there is something about Lynn and his wife Julie that I call inherent goodness. That goodness is found in every one of their family members. It is hard to think of anyone with more fond thoughts than I have when thinking of Lynn and Julie Sanders.

It is a privilege to call the Sanders friends.