A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about treasured daily moments. Today, the focus drifts towards other treasures. We have a barn full of mechanical treasures. A family of tractors and their kin. 1948 Ford 8N. 1957 John Deere 420C Crawler. 1989 John Deere 1070 4WD with a quick release bucket loader. 2000 New Holland LS160 skidsteer. 2002 Hitachi Zaxis 80 excavator.All this equipment gets used regularly, and we often wonder aloud what we did without our mechanical friends. Imagine pruning apple trees without the bucket loader. Putting in asparagus without the excavator.
Still our tractor family was incompl
ete. For about ten years now, my husband has searched for a Massey Ferguson 135. Live hydraulics. Wet brakes. Hard to find. Early this summer, the search was over. He found one through an estate sale in Vermont. Bought new in about 1970 by an orchardist who recently passed away. It had a German-made Perkins diesel engine. Rare. Good price. A dream tractor.He could barely wait for the day to go pick it up. With the trailer hitched to his truck, off he charged to get it. When he got there, he found that the tractor had been stolen. Broken lock on the barn. Tell-tale tire tracks across the grass where the tractor had been dragged away. Shock. Lost treasure. He left dejected as
the police arrived to meet with the estate executors. Apparently, the estate would still like to sell him the tractor, however the police have yet to figure out where it is.....Evenings have resumed endless web searches for other tractor treasures. Still, honing tractor knowledge is a respectable pursuit. Of course, there is this postscript perspective on the situation.
A man and his tractors. Inveterate.
A man who knows tractors. Erudite.
A man whose wife knows tractors. Truly sublime.
