The cabin comes home

Yesterday I went out to Cliff's shop looking for him; he was nowhere around, and the little John Deere was missing.  I figured he was probably mowing pasture, so I came back in the house.  Looking out the window toward the back of the place, I saw something moving and realized he was moving the cabin.  I couldn't let something like that go undocumented, so in spite of the heat I headed back there.

He was re-hooking the chain when I got there; he soon started backing the tractor up the hill toward home.

I was surprised he would try doing this with such a small tractor, but it seemed to be up to the task.

Bonnie did not approve; she loved lying beside the cabin in the shade, and she didn't like being rousted out of her spot.




It reminded me of "the little engine that could".

But as Cliff neared the gate out of the pasture, the cabin got stuck.  He tried and tried, but the John Deere had gone as far as it was going to go with such a load.





It was time to call in the big guns:  The 1655 Oliver, which hardly batted an eye at the task.

The Ollie hauled the cabin the rest of the way to its new location...

 and set it almost in its place.  It took awhile to get it exactly where it ought to be, and it wasn't yet level.  But it was home.

pulling posts

Here's how Cliff gets metal posts out of dry, hard ground.  Normally I'm the one wielding the chain and Cliff is on the tractor; however, Cliff's sister's boy was here visiting her, so I got to take a video.

Birds, spinach, and lousy tractor salesmen

I looked out the window in my computer room a few minutes ago and saw a huge flock of black birds (probably starlings) in the pasture. Click on the picture to see them better. I wish Cliff had planted that plowed field in the distance; dirt isn't very photogenic. He's disking it over and over, trying to get rid of some broad-leaf weeds. He'll seed it in pasture-grass this fall.

A few weeks ago I mentioned finding a stick in my Popeye Spinach. I went to the Allen website, made my complaint, and waited. A couple of days ago I received three crisp one-dollar bills and a recipe book from them, along with an apology. Always remember, if there's the slightest thing wrong with any foodstuffs you buy, be sure and complain. It will be worthwhile. I'll still buy Popeye Spinach, by the way.

Now on to the main story: In July of 2003, Cliff thought he might want to buy a Kubota tractor. He's never had a new tractor, but I was working at the time, and I figured the budget might allow for payments on a newish tractor. Cliff decided to rent a Kubota tractor to make sure that was what he wanted.
I took this picture that day. He decided it was exactly the tractor he wanted. So on my birthday, July 7, we headed for the nearest Kubota dealer with full intention of buying one, that very day.

We walked around the lot for at least fifteen minutes, and nobody came out to help us. Finally we went inside and found a salesman, an older fellow who didn't seem to be too worried about making a sale. There was a one-year-old Kubota Cliff was interested in: it was the right size, and we figured the price would be considerably less than what we'd pay for a brand new tractor.

The price the man gave us was only $1,000 less than a new one, and he obviously wasn't interested in dickering. Cliff was a little despondent as we headed home, so I hit him with a suggestion: "Maybe we should go look at John Deeres and see if their prices are similar."

Cliff picked out a tractor and we signed on the dotted line. It was his. See, when I'm ready for my husband to buy, I'm ready NOW.

Not two hours after we got back home, the Kubota salesman called, wondering if we had thought about that Kubota.

"Oh, too late," I told him. "We just bought a John Deere."

I loved telling him that!

This is the first glamor shot ever taken of the tractor. These pictures are taken with my first digital camera, so they leave something to be desired.

Back then, the next-door twins were here constantly. They were almost as thrilled about the new tractor as Cliff was. Can you believe that little fellow is eighteen years old now?

Cliff has never been sorry he bought the tractor. It's still as good as new, and he uses it several times a week. I've always thought he should have bought just one size bigger, but he's happy with it. It runs forever on a tank of diesel.

We joked around for a long time about Cliff buying me a tractor for my birthday.

The moral of the story is this: If you are a salesman, you had better strike while the iron is hot; that customer you're treating so casually might be ready to buy right this minute!

Driving the tractor

Even though we're haying the horses now, they insist on tromping through the best piece of pasture we have, cropping the grass down to such an extent that they'd soon have a three-acre dry lot there instead of pasture, if left to their own devices. Cliff's been wanting to put electric fence around it, but he needs a tractor driver to transport the posts, wire, and so forth. Otherwise he walks himself silly, back and forth.

I don't drive, but I can usually do OK on a tractor. So I got a meat loaf ready for the oven, put it safely in the refrigerator, and told Cliff he had me for two hours. He put in some big steel posts for the corners; then he pointed to the John Deere, already running, and said, "Go get the tractor now, and bring it to me."

"Ummm... you'll have to show me what to do."

"Oh; OK, come on."

"See those two little pedals? You step on the left one to go forward, and the right one to back up."

"I'm going to have to back up?" Panic in my voice.

"No, that's for future reference."

Whew!

I'm only on a tractor every six months or so; I doubt I'll remember this. Although those instructions seemed pretty darned simple, even for me.

And sure enough, it worked just like he said. Yes friends, that's my big foot down there, making the tractor go forward.


Cliff simply walked the stretch of electric fence putting in those little posts, with me following on the tractor.

If you think those dark areas on the picture are bad, you should have seen it before I cropped it. I have another camera ordered. Funny thing is, it happens randomly. One day I'm taking dandy pictures, next day there are smudges. I will admit I'm terribly rough on cameras.


Anyhow, we got that area of pasture fenced. And with my wonderful driving skills, we were done in plenty of time for me to cook that meat loaf before Cliff had to get ready for work.

Cliff's latest project, finished

Most of my lady readers and city slickers won't be interested in this.


This entry is mainly for my son; Cliff wanted him to see his latest "work of art". Cliff took an ordinary blade that came with the John Deere... (edited: It did NOT come with the John Deere; a relative gave it to Cliff in two pieces.)


... put wings on it...


hydraulics and a wheel...

Are you impressed yet, Jim?


Cliff said this works great at leveling out bumps and hills.

It ought to, he's spent most of his spare time this week creating this masterpiece.

I may add Cliff's words of explanation later on when he comes inside.

granddaughter finds her fun wherever she can

What does Cliff have in the bucket of his John Deere?

It's a person!
It's my granddaughter, Natalie!

OK, he's dragging the gravel driveway to level it out. But wait, there's something on those old box springs....


It's my granddaughter, Natalie!

Cliff's latest toy

We were at the point, this summer, of needing a new riding lawn mower. Most of the ones you buy at places like Sears or Walmart are only good for a few years and the cost is far too high. Because Cliff loves older tractors so much, he opted to buy a twenty-year-old John Deere Lawn tractor; something he can paint and tinker with, and that, hopefully, will outlast any of the new junk lawn mowers out there.

By the way, both Lowes and Home Depot sell a lawn mower carrying the John Deere name; John Deere caved to the demand for a cheap model to compete with other brands, and the quality is poor in that particular model. They should have refused, like the guy with Snapper who said no to Walmart.

So anyway, here's Cliff's new prize. Our son has been a storehouse of information; he's made a hobby of learning all about John Deere lawn tractors, and Cliff is on the phone with him almost daily.

The previous owner had mowed five acres with it, and he'd had trouble with flat tires due to thorns. So he had the tires filled with foam. This made for a very bumpy, uncomfortable ride, and Cliff is wasting no time getting pneumatic tires on this baby.

This front tire was so heavy, he decided to weigh it before he started destroying it.

Wow, that's one heavy tire! After he put the new tire on and inflated it, the weight was 13.5 pounds.

The only way to get this tire off the wheel is to cut it off.

Ewwww, they call that foam? That's down-right nasty.

Nasty, nasty, nasty.

Cliff got a couple of extras with his "Little Johnny": A blade...


And wheel weights.


That ought to give him plenty to play with for awhile.