Wall Street Journal called us HOWAs

[knute_m]

There was an interesting Wall Street Journal front page article yesterday (September 18) about people now referred to as HOWAs -- Home Owners With Acreage.

It was mostly about wealthy people, like Harrison Ford, who are buying skid steers with expensive accessories so they can maintain their properties.

I believe that Bobcat said that 6% of their business is now to home owners.

Somehow, I just can't see mowing the yard with a skid steer and flail mower.

Oh well.

Happy tractorin'
Knute

 

[SkyPup]

Yeah, I read that to. It was a pretty good article but had no mention of anything about CUTs.

The title was, "Extreme Gardeners Discover Joys of Bulldozing."

Actually it was mostly about ASV and Bobcat catering to wealthy homeowners who were getting tired of driving around in their Porsches, Ferarris, BMWs, and such and were thinking about "getting back to the land" with expensive earth moving toys.......

It did have nice mention of one gentleman who was 85 years of age and was using his BobCat to plant over 10,000 trees of various varieties all over his property!

 

[scott_vt]

There was an interesting Wall Street Journal front page article yesterday (September 18) about people now referred to as HOWAs -- Home Owners With Acreage.

It was mostly about wealthy people, like Harrison Ford, who are buying skid steers with expensive accessories so they can maintain their properties.

I believe that Bobcat said that 6% of their business is now to home owners.

Somehow, I just can't see mowing the yard with a skid steer and flail mower.

Oh well.

Happy tractorin'
Knute

Huuhh,
Guess they are not talkin about me, newest tractor is 20 years old

 

[monkeymonk]

unless you have an agro-farm 500-300? or so acres in production you are considered a Hoby Farmer! Now thats rude.

 

[ccsial]

A customer, now deceased, had a large manufacturing business. He had 400 acres in Wisconsin stocked with several buldozers including a D9, an earth mover, skid steer, dump trucks, track excavator, and other assorted stuff. He did nothing productive except play with it. I was invited over several times. What a blast. I guess he was ahead of his time since this was in the 80's.

 

[SkyPup]

One thing is for sure, the man with the most toys has allot of FUN.

The older I get, the more mechanized I get!!!

 

[knute_m]

The older I get, the more mechanized I get!!!

Skypup's statement is really true, at least for me, in more than one way. As I get older, so do my friends and relatives. As they get too old for their toys they give them to people like me.

I just mentally added up how many toys are in my barn and shed that burn petrol of some kind. I can come up with 21! There's probably more that I can't remember. Then there's the electric tools.

Geeze, no wonder we have an energy crisis.

 

[Keith_B]

We've got toys, uh tools, today that you just didn't see in garages and barns 20-30 years ago. Having the means to purchase these items is a reflection on the economy today. People just didn't have the extra money for these goodies a few decades back.

 

[ccsial]

I just mentally added up how many toys are in my barn and shed that burn petrol of some kind.

My BIL lives in Minneapolis and listens to a radio program, I think it is "Bob and Tom" or something like that. They talk about cars and planes and other motorized stuff. Their measure of stature is the "cylinder index". Mine is at 67. That counts everything from chain saws to the houseboat.

 

[slaveToHorses]

My BIL lives in Minneapolis and listens to a radio program, I think it is "Bob and Tom" or something like that. They talk about cars and planes and other motorized stuff. Their measure of stature is the "cylinder index". Mine is at 67. That counts everything from chain saws to the houseboat.

And then there is me, who is trying to reduce my cylinder index!
Why would I want to do that you ask? Simple....
Maintenance. I got to the point where spring tuneups lasted into Winter!!!
Now I try to get more good quality attachments to a smaller number of power sources. Like I got a 3pt hydraulic log splitter instead of getting one with it's own motor... Getting rid of all the motors I don't really need.
But I do love my mechanized helpers. I am getting too old to dig with a pick axe!