What could be more exciting than a shiny new tractor!
Our old tractor, after some twenty years of service, had problems. Little things -- the mechanism that let the diesel flow to the engine had broken and the expensive replacement part, once procured, didn't fit. That was some years ago and John jury-rigged a workaround involving a piece of string. Not elegant, but it worked.
We have come to rely on a tractor for many things -- bush-hogging, tilling, moving rocks and logs around, digging out our water breaks, scraping the road in winter, sometimes as our only transport up and down the road in winter, and, maybe the most crucial of all, moving those big round bales of hay out of the barn and to the cows.
It's been awfully dry lately and John has been putting out hay as a supplement to the not so lush pasture. And then the old tractor wouldn't go -- froze up.
And the cows needed hay.
After weighing various alternatives -- and, (like the septic tank issue) thinking about what would happen if we got the old tractor fixed and it broke down again in the depths of winter -- John decided to go for a new tractor. A dealer agreed to take the old one in trade and yesterday a roll-back delivered Big Orange and hauled off Old Green.
We'll be paying for it for the next umpteen years -- there goes that world cruise (wink) -- but knowing we have a reliable tractor is right up there with the clean septic tank on the satisfaction scale.
Yeah, my life is a little different.
13 comments:
She's a beauty and you're not likely to lose her, that's for sure! My daughter could sure use one for her new, rural property.
ha. i need to clean the septic tank...want to drive the tractor over and help...smiles...it is very cool...and i hope you get 20 years out of this one as well...
Life is most certainly easier and better with a reliable tractor. We have no livestock, but we have plenty of wood chips and rocks and lawn furniture to move. And plenty of lawn to mow . . . which I was doing last night even as night fell.
Ah the beauties of machinery! She's sure purty! And of course promises to make your lives much easier for years to come.
Love to see the happy man with his new tractor. Our world cruise is gone as well...two thousand last week for a new lift pump and fifteen hundred this week for Lucy's hospital bill. (I'm desperately hoping the "comes in threes" is NOT correct.)
It looks like a wonderful addition to your place. It must seem like Christmas or a great birthday present with as shiny and new that it is. I saw the picture at first smaller and I thought it looked like a neat toy. I am an old farm boy that hasn't been on the farm for a very long time and I am jealous of that great machine.
John must be delighted with it! Looks very new and smart doesn't it.
An easier life for years to come and no worry to find it any time...
Vicki, I send congrats to you and John on your decision to opt for this excellent shiny new red tractor.
I did not gloss over your mentioning that a performing tractor is helpful in getting you all up and down close to home road when ice and snow arrive in winter. You all are so wise to get prepared now for that future moment of time when a certain key string keeping the retired tractor might have frozen and snapped.
xo
That's a beaut of a tractor and long lasting pleasure! My granddaughter would be green with orange tractor envy!
CASE, JOHN DEER, FORD, KUBOTA??
You are so blessed to live in such a beautiful setting. While you will be paying for the tractor for many years to come, it will be a great addition to your life. After all, on that world cruise, you would likely put on weight and after awhile you would not even remember what city you were in.
All true!
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