Two feeders - zilch

Lately I have been trying to buy another used cattle feeder.  This would be my third feeder.  I got used to having two feeders for the cattle over Winter.  But when I have to segregate a cow temporarily, or like now when Buddy the bull needs to be kept away from the cows for a few months, I use one of the two feeders to feed him.

Last Monday the weekly auction had a few ranch related items.  Mainly I was interested in the one feeder that was identical to my two feeders.  The feeder at the auction was faded but no rust or serious dents.   The feeder new costs $795.

I quit at $471.50, which was more than I wanted to pay for a used feeder.  The winning bid was $483 and I would have had to bid $493 to top that bid.

Then today I tried to buy a used feeder advertised on Craigslist.  This feeder was a lightweight feeder.  I could easily lift the feeder to tip it on its side, something I cannot do with my current feeders.  But this feeder was being sold for only $150.  For this price the feeder would last long enough before the cattle bent it to make it worthwhile to own.

The problem was the owner wasn't going to be home until 5 pm and there was at least one other interested buyer.

I got there at 4:50 pm and arrived just a few minutes after the other buyer.  He had originally called before I did.  He looked at the feeder and decided to buy it.

So two feeders and no success.   I somewhat expected to come up short on the second feeder.  Earlier today, as I was riding home on my bicycle from a bank visit to get cash to buy the feeder, my rear bicycle tire went flat about five miles from home.  The bicycle tire was new as I had put it on two to three weeks ago.  The cause of the flat was a very old inner tube patch that suddenly decided to now leak.

I rode four miles on a flat tire where the roads were good and walked one mile where the road was poor and where I didn't want to risk damaging my tire or bicycle rim.