The Tractor Thread

[Jake Smith]

Let's do some tractor talk here; what kind do you have, how much you love it, or how much you don't. This is mine and I truly Love it. Got it a year or so ago, after all the members on here, "helped
me team up on Marie", for me to get one. "Thanks" to all of you, it's been a great tractor, no complaints here for this one.




I was out grading the road tonight at 5 pm, and one of our neighbors stopped and asked me, if I do side work with it. I told him that I haven't been doing any just grading on the road out front, he is probably in his twenties, he said oh ok. Then he had also said, unless he can get his Kubota going. Well if you don't then drop back by some time and maybe I can help you out. Finished the road, and came back and told Marie; she said you are not leaving me here, and doing side work, I hardly see you at all as it is; you stay so busy. I told her you know they pay big money for tractor work and I could pay for the engine I just put in the truck with it. She said I don't care about it, you're not doing it. Then she said when he comes back ask him what's wrong with his tractor, maybe you could help him get his going.

 

[Don Alaska]

@Jake Smith you know I have a small tractor that I got on advice from my doctor at the time. He said I was putting too much wear on the ends of my collarbones and that I needed a little mechanical help. My wife was resistant a bit at the time, but since the doctor said.... It wasn't long before she started calling it Her Tractor. She has come to love the little machine. It is only 24 horses and I really got it to handle feed, logs, and goat pen cleaning, but we use it all the time in the summer for tilling, building beds, hauling soil and compost, turning the compost pile and just carrying anything heavy. The "heavy" things go down in weight every year. Wife principally uses only the bucket on the front and leaves everything connected to the back to me, such as snowblowing, plowing--both dirt and snow--and tilling. I wanted to get a mower, but she wants the mowing left to her and her lawn tractor. So be it. My little tractor was purchased new in 2008, so I have had it a few years. I added a hand-made bar with 12" spikes of 1" round steel welded onto it and it has proved incredibly useful.. Originally it was for scooping manure and straw from livestock areas, but we now use it for small digging projects and removing small trees and rocks. I also added a small ATV (3000#) winch to the front and it has been helpful pulling wire fence and pulling trees and logs out of places the tractor won't go or won't fit. I also use bolt-on forks for large and bulky stuff and I have a shelf that attaches to the spike bar on the bucket to extend the bottom of the bucket out two feet so that we can carry flats of plants, buckets and pots, and other stuff.

You can tell I think it was one of the wisest purchases of my life.

 

[Jake Smith]

@Jake Smith you know I have a small tractor that I got on advice from my doctor at the time. He said I was putting too much wear on the ends of my collarbones and that I needed a little mechanical help. My wife was resistant a bit at the time, but since the doctor said.... It wasn't long before she started calling it Her Tractor. She has come to love the little machine. It is only 24 horses and I really got it to handle feed, logs, and goat pen cleaning, but we use it all the time in the summer for tilling, building beds, hauling soil and compost, turning the compost pile and just carrying anything heavy. The "heavy" things go down in weight every year. Wife principally uses only the bucket on the front and leaves everything connected to the back to me, such as snowblowing, plowing--both dirt and snow--and tilling. I wanted to get a mower, but she wants the mowing left to her and her lawn tractor. So be it. My little tractor was purchased new in 2008, so I have had it a few years. I added a hand-made bar with 12" spikes of 1" round steel welded onto it and it has proved incredibly useful.. Originally it was for scooping manure and straw from livestock areas, but we now use it for small digging projects and removing small trees and rocks. I also added a small ATV (3000#) winch to the front and it has been helpful pulling wire fence and pulling trees and logs out of places the tractor won't go or won't fit. I also use bolt-on forks for large and bulky stuff and I have a shelf that attaches to the spike bar on the bucket to extend the bottom of the bucket out two feet so that we can carry flats of plants, buckets and pots, and other stuff.

You can tell I think it was one of the wisest purchases of my life.

Hey Don, you're sure right about weight going down on everything, while prices rise. Can't believe the way groceries have kept rising, today I look at a package of two t- bone steaks, not big ones, $60.00 can't afford those. I can tell your tractor is really paying for itself as mine is. No wonder we both feel the same about them being one of our wisest decisions yet. Mine is a little too big, "I think", for Marie to deal with it, but I'm getting our money's worth out of it; for sure, even power company guys, who come here, tell me man, that tractor is really made a difference in this place. More than one of them has told me that. You need to post some photos of your tractor, and some of the attachments, you've made, so I can see them. I'm not sure how I ever made it, without my tractor. If I had a doctor who knew all I have done over the years, I'm sure he would tell me, what your Dr. told you; get a "tractor", you dummy too much wear, on your collar bones.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

Hey Jake. I don't have a tractor; only a little garden wagon that I pull around the yard. I have missed hearing about your tractor adventures and Marie's vine control program so it's good to see y'all again.

 

[Kate Ellery]

That’s one nice looking tractor @Jake Smith
Prior to meeting hubs in 1986 , I worked on a huge 20.000 acre sheep and wheat growing farm , my job was mainly cooking / looking after the garden / cooking for shearer’s looking after the chooks ….ect ect ..but I got to drive tractors a little , i always asked for a small one much like yours to hoe the 1/4 acre fruit a d veg garden ,but never got it

 

[Jake Smith]

That’s one nice looking tractor @Jake Smith
Prior to meeting hubs in 1986 , I worked on a huge 20.000 acre sheep and wheat growing farm , my job was mainly cooking / looking after the garden / cooking for shearer’s looking after the chooks ….ect ect ..but I got to drive tractors a little , i always asked for a small one much like yours to hoe the 1/4 acre fruit a d veg garden ,but never got it

Thank you Kate, I don't think I could have gotten a better one, than this one, has been. The 20.000 acre farm, is huge. Shame that you didn't get one like this tractor, to hoe with, would've been nice, for "you". Guess like it was over the years for me; we don't always get what we want, "another song".

 

[Kate Ellery]

My boss was as mean as a snake , so tight with his cash, he paid me $25 a week ….and free rent ,which I was grateful for at the time as it enabled me to save allot of my single mothers pension to eventually get my own home

A little tractor with a rotary hoe workday have made life much easier ..never mind, that’s life …

 

[Jake Smith]

My boss was as mean as a snake , so tight with his cash, he paid me $25 a week ….and free rent ,which I was grateful for at the time as it enabled me to save allot of my single mothers pension to eventually get my own home

A little tractor with a rotary hoe workday have made life much easier ..never mind, that’s life …

I had many bosses like him, they "squeaked", when they walked.

 

[Kate Ellery]

He was so mean he kept working ,doing farm work / driving tractors / headers / harvesting / mustering sheep despite doctors telling him to retire due to open heart / bypass surgery , he was ( from what I heard ) found dead in a tractor in a paddock one night while sowing wheat at 3 am when his son went to take over from him …I never knew his real age ,but I think he was around early 70’s
( I was almost 40 when I met hubs and left the farm )

The farmer actually taught me to dance ( ballroom )

He was widowed at about 50 ish ….2 school age kids …..thats why I had the job there for 12 years

 

[Jake Smith]

He was so mean he kept working ,doing farm work / driving tractors / headers / harvesting / mustering sheep despite doctors telling him to retire due to open heart / bypass surgery , he was ( from what I heard ) found dead in a tractor in a paddock one night while sowing wheat at 3 am when his son went to take over from him …I never knew his real age ,but I think he was around early 70’s
( I was almost 40 when I met hubs and left the farm )

The farmer actually taught me to dance ( ballroom )

He was widowed at about 50 ish ….2 school age kids …..thats why I had the job there for 12 years

Guess he went the way he wanted, "huh"? So you learned ballroom dancing? Marie took it, to be an instructor once, at Author Murrays. Marie and I won quite a few dance contests, when we were younger. I've let my tractor rest all day today. And as I been sitting on the porch watching the folks go by; the road is really smooth where I graded last night.

 

[Kate Ellery]

Guess he went the way he wanted, "huh"? So you learned ballroom dancing? Marie took it, to be an instructor once, at Author Murrays. Marie and I won quite a few dance contests, when we were younger. I've let my tractor rest all day today. And as I been sitting on the porch watching the folks go by; the road is really smooth where I graded last night.

yep we dance at least once a week , we are off to Queensland next week and we’ve made sure we packed the dancing shoes
they never take a break for anything up there ….no such thing as long weekends or Christmas holidays in QLD
They even danced right through covid lockdowns ….how they got away with it ..I don’t know

I’ll likely be missing for a few days late next week ….while we pack / catch flight 2.5 hours flight from Adelaide to Brisbane …catch the airport bus to. accommodation …. Settle in ..do shopping for food …all that ..I’ll post photo when we get up there ….we will be quite close to the huge Brisbane river

 

[Jake Smith]

yep we dance at least once a week , we are off to Queensland next week and we’ve made sure we packed the dancing shoes
they never take a break for anything up there ….no such thing as long weekends or Christmas holidays in QLD
They even danced right through covid lockdowns ….how they got away with it ..I don’t know

I’ll likely be missing for a few days late next week ….while we pack / catch flight 2.5 hours flight from Adelaide to Brisbane …catch the airport bus to. accommodation …. Settle in ..do shopping for food …all that ..I’ll post photo when we get up there ….we will be quite close to the huge Brisbane river

Sounds great, Kate; looking forward to photos, be safe, while traveling and cut a rug.

 

[Lois E. Winters]

I can't even imagine me ever attempting to negotiate a tractor. Driving a car was my speed. But, then again, while we had only one acre of land, most of it was turned into a playground and garden for the kids and me.

 

[Jake Smith]

I can't even imagine me ever attempting to negotiate a tractor. Driving a car was my speed. But, then again, while we had only one acre of land, most of it was turned into a playground and garden for the kids and me.

I heard that, "Lois"; same for "Marie", she mostly drives the golf cart now. I kept it going for her, and she drives around on the cart where I am working with the tractor, and makes sure she "approves", what I'm doing with it. We've had this golf cart going since 2003, it's really been a good one.

 

[Marie Mallory]

He was so mean he kept working ,doing farm work / driving tractors / headers / harvesting / mustering sheep despite doctors telling him to retire due to open heart / bypass surgery , he was ( from what I heard ) found dead in a tractor in a paddock one night while sowing wheat at 3 am when his son went to take over from him …I never knew his real age ,but I think he was around early 70’s
( I was almost 40 when I met hubs and left the farm )

The farmer actually taught me to dance ( ballroom )

He was widowed at about 50 ish ….2 school age kids …..thats why I had the job there for 12 years

I like ballroom dance as I said before I was training to be a ballroom dance instructor, didn't finish it. I wanted to because I really liked the ballroom dances.
Although, it's out of my class, or rather, I'm out of their class since I don't frequent the kind of places where that would be popular. The kind of clubs we go to don't know what dance we're doing, they just know they like it when we do it.
Although Jake and I used to win every slow dance contest in local bars, lol, I did teach Jake some ballroom steps.

 

[Jake Smith]

Hey Jake. I don't have a tractor; only a little garden wagon that I pull around the yard. I have missed hearing about your tractor adventures and Marie's vine control program so it's good to see y'all again.

Hey there Beth, I was looking back over this thread, and had thought I replied to everyone, then saw your post, sorry wasn't on purpose, just must of got busy, then didn't get back to you until now. I have a gorilla wagon that works great, it dumps and pulls behind the mower will turn on a dime too. Marie does have an addiction to her vine pulling, for sure, it's been a little harder on her lately, since she pulled some thigh muscles though. We've missed you and everyone on SOC.

 

[Jake Smith]

@Don Alaska, still not seen a photo of your "tractor", yet. Some time I will go upstairs and get a photo of my 1950 Massey Ferguson Tractor, and put it on this thread.

 

[Don Alaska]

@Don Alaska, still not seen a photo of your "tractor", yet. Some time I will go upstairs and get a photo of my 1950 Massey Ferguson Tractor, and put it on this thread.

I don't have a good way to take photos. Here is one of the bucket as we brought in a days harvest of Cauliflower and cabbage. You can see my compost turner a bit on the bottom of the bucket

 

[Don Alaska]

I can't even imagine me ever attempting to negotiate a tractor. Driving a car was my speed. But, then again, while we had only one acre of land, most of it was turned into a playground and garden for the kids and me.

Maybe not now @Lois E. Winters but "back in the day" I am sure you could have done it if the tractor was hydrostatic drive, the tractor equivalent of an automatic transmission. My wife never could navigate a "standard" tractor, but with hydrostatic it is a breeze and my wife loves it.

 

[Lois E. Winters]

Maybe not now @Lois E. Winters but "back in the day" I am sure you could have done it if the tractor was hydrostatic drive, the tractor equivalent of an automatic transmission. My wife never could navigate a "standard" tractor, but with hydrostatic it is a breeze and my wife loves it.

Don, I can remember asking my brother to loan me his tiller to turn the soil over for my garden. Well, that thing was a monster and nearly killed me. He finally had to do the job. I could have done it with a pitch fork, but it would have taken longer. Big farm tools just were not my thing.