Tractor Rescue

Tractor rescue…

I’d love to say, that we used our tractor to rescue someone/something in need, but alas…we needed to rescue the tractor.  Blue and I had been hired to mow a portion of a field covered in thistles and nap weed.  The cows in the field wouldn’t eat those items, so they needed to be mowed down.  I should have known we had a ‘problem’ as we (the gentleman who hired me and I) entered the field.  I asked him,

“Are there any ditches or problems I need to know about in the field?”

“Oh, no” 

Hmmmm, a field without ditches?  He was a very nice guy, but maybe didn’t know this field very well.  He then said to me,

“Oh, those cows are looking at me”…

“Don’t worry”, I said, “I like cows, they will be no bother.”  At this point, I was elevated to the current field ‘cow expert’, which should have alerted me to the fact that this could turn out badly.

I set off mowing thistles and nap weed and noticing that it was everywhere…not just one little corner, mowing away and doing a good job to stay out of the ‘ditches’ that did exist, when I drove through a green patch of grass and into what can only be described as a bog…and we were stuck….big time…Bad British word!

My Loving Spouse came to the rescue.  Using the front end loader he almost had Blue pulled out until the hydraulics on Blue quit working.  The people who had hired me to mow the field came out to see what was the problem and said,

“Wow…it sure is wet here!”.

End of Day one and a long walk over a wet field (with ditches) back to our truck to return home…tractor-less and maybe a few more Bad British words.

Day Two – My Loving Spouse went to work with a plan to pull it out after work, but we had thunder and lighting, choosing to leave it until we could fit in it late in the afternoon on Day Three.

Day Three – the field is now wetter…Bad British word.  The farmer next door has begun irrigating and the tractor that was in a bog is now in a pond.  With the hydraulics repaired, My Loving Spouse tries to use the front end loader to pull Blue out, but only manages to dig a big hole in front of Blue.  The abandoned fence posts we haul over to place in the hole do not help at all and we now have an even bigger problem and I am thinking this is not funny and even though this might end up as a blog-able moment, I am currently not having fun.

We return home to devise a new plan and to have a gin & tonic.

Day Four more devising…very little gin…out to diner and I for one upgrade to enjoying a martini.

Day Five – My Loving Spouse secures a short-term rental for a track hoe, the rental place gave us a great deal so it only cost us three times what I am being paid to mow the field.  I do not think this is what ‘they’ mean about you have to spend money to make money.  One small hitch is that we need to pick it up…with our trailer…to the place where they do not rent trailers to me anymore.  Luckily, our neighbor The Fire Captain is happy to help pick it up and figure out how it works, as well as come out to the field for the ‘rescue’, because after all as he says, “It is a lot of fun, when it is not your problem.”Team Rescue is off, including ‘A’, The English Sister, My Loving Spouse, The Fire Captain and me…Team Offspring declined to participate…sheesh, kids!  The fact that the truck started to over heat and the water pump go out on the way to the field which is across town was just…oh, well it could have been worse…Bad British word.  We do arrive and the setting is beautifully pastoral with The English Sister standing in a field, a herd of cows, lovely sky and a stuck tractor in a bog.…and then…everything goes smoothly…the brush hog (large mowing tractor bit) is easily pulled out… giving me confidence that the current ‘plan’ might actually work.The guys dodge around the frogs that have set up house around Blue and hook up cables and chains……fire up the engines again…and pull…and out she comes….The Fire Captain says those beautiful words to me, “Oh, boy, I can see how easy it was to get that stuck in there, I’ve done that kind of thing myself”.

Believe it or not, but we hook everything back on Blue and I return to the dry weedy part (with ditches) to mow the field.  Most of the rest of Team Rescue deal with the over heating truck and the loading of the rented track hoe.

I mow, mow, mow forgetting that my iPhone is in my back pocket, until it isn’t.  Bad British word.  I’ve nearly lost my phone twice this way, and now I am done for….  I am practically done mowing, pray a little and keep my eyes peeled!  I find it!  It was mowed!  The cover is toast….and the phone still works…and our friends and family say…”Brilliant” (a Good British Word)!

They are having great fun and wouldn’t have missed it for the world.