Farmers in Training

When we bought this place, we also bought all of the farm equipment that the Clausens had accumulated. We figured that if they had a use for it that eventually we would, too. The biggest items are two tractors: a small Mitsubishi tractor (which helped us to repair the fence) and a large Massey Ferguson tractor which didn't start. So last November we sent the tractor in for servicing. Apparently a family (perhaps an extended family) of mice had moved in to the starter in the tractor and just had a big pee party. The repairman said he took pictures of it because he'd never seen anything so bad. And this is a guy who fixes tractors for a living! (I didn't think to ask him for the photos.) Anyway, long story short, we now have a big honkin' farm tractor that works.

Of course, we didn't have the slightest idea how to use it. So that's where Reidar comes in.

Corinne's Dad was a farmer and rancher back in Montana, so he's got oodles of experience with farm equipment. He also runs Superlon, a pipe manufacturing company in Tacoma, so he is around heavy equipment much bigger than our tractor every day! He came down for a weekend visit to give us our first (of many) lessons.

After a quick driving lesson, our first task was to bring in the extra equipment from the "boneyard". While a boneyard is usually a final resting place (aka graveyard), this boneyard was a place that Vic and Phyllis had stored some tractor attachments that they hadn't used in a while and didn't have room for in the shop. We recently cleared out some space in the shop, so we were ready to bring the equipment back under shelter. The items in the boneyard included a blade, a plow, and a snow blower.

We don't have plans for the plow, but other two implements already have tasks. The blade is a generally useful thing that we hope to use to flatten out the irrigation dirt piles. But the biggest potential win is the snow plow. For the last two years we have hired someone to plow our driveway in winter, but now we can (theoretically) do it ourselves. Time will tell how that goes.

One last funny story from this weekend. While I was driving the tractor back and forth between the boneyard and the shop, Corinne and Reidar were riding bikes following me. But on the last return trip to the shop, they didn't arrive back at the shop for a long time. It turns out that on this trip, there was a bit of an "incident". One of Reidar's shoes fell off while he was riding back, and in his attempt to recover, he drove the bike into a tree and tumbled off the bike into its waiting branches! No one was hurt, and the two of them had a good, long laugh. I wish I could have been there!

- Mike (& Corinne)