Talk to any high school-aged male while standing beside your diesel pickup, and sooner or later the question will arise, “Is that thing chipped?” Diesel performance chips are electronic devices that intercept and modify engine management signals to increase the power output of the engine.

Changes come hard to most of us … no surprise there. Mention changes involving “engine emissions,” and the growls get even louder – and with some good reasons, I might add. Of course, changes are nothing new under the sun when it comes to engines and emissions standards.

Everyone loves a bargain. No surprise there, but there can be many unpleasant surprises when purchasing equipment at auction. Being “surprised” by your recent barn find is never the object of the buyer’s affection, so let’s take a few minutes to talk about some common ways to reduce the stress or increase the success rate of bidding on that “new to you” piece of equipment.

If you go tractor shopping, you soon find out there are a bunch of choices to make. Even among tractors of the same manufacturer, you need to know what your present needs are and what your future needs might be to select the best tractor for your operation.

When you hear the word “matchmaker,” your first thought probably is not about farm equipment; however, over the years I have seen firsthand the issues that can arise when one does not pay heed to the fact farm equipment has to match up.

Where did I put that thing? The old saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place,” is important to me. It grows more important each day. The reason it grows in importance is: As I get older, it gets harder and harder for me to recall exactly where I left whatever it is I currently need. Nowhere is this more evident than in the farm shop.

Hydraulic power is something easy to use but not always easy to understand. At its root, hydraulics is the science of how fluids are harnessed to perform mechanical tasks. That can be anything from folding a disc at the end of a field to running a generator at the bottom of a huge dam.

As I get older, it is just part of life to get a bit set in my ways. Change is inevitable, and sometimes changes come with more than a little heartburn. A good example comes from a form of new technology – social media.

You know the old saying, “If your only tool is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.” While that might be the case, the next question has to be, “What kind of hammer do you have?”