Tractor Tales

My tractor Blue and I were hired to mow a field.  There were no bogs, ponds or irrigation ditches.  I carefully mowed around the 5 water spouts in the field, leaving them all intact.  I did not run into anything or run over anything.  I did not need to rent special equipment to drag me out.  I was doing a stellar job, mowing the field for fire abatement, mowing down the dry brush.  Even the Ellensburg Fire Department said it wasn’t my fault that I set the field on fire…it was just an ‘accident’.There I was doing a great job mowing, when I smelled something burning.  Being a careful and cautious tractor driver, I was concerned that something was wrong with my tractor, so I turned Blue off.  I still smelled fire and found that the metal plate near the exhaust was covered in burning brush.  I jumped off of the tractor and tried to stomp it out, then grabbed my water bottle to pour water on it.  The grass fell to the ground and quickly caught the dried brush in the field on fire.  I jumped back on Blue in an effort to remove my tractor from danger, but the fire was spreading quickly so I leaped (not regular ‘Grandmother leaping’, but more like ‘Oh, holy Hannah My Tractor is on fire leaping’) off the tractor again to get myself out of the fire….and called 911.

The owner of the field was there at the time, which made me feel a lot better, because I was sort of stunned and feeling very badly and waiting for my tractor to explode like in the movies.

“I’m sorry I set your field on fire…”

‘Oh, you did me a favor, historically farmers burned their fields’.   Yes, this is a good guy, who understands that ‘accidents happen’.

Luckily, I had been mowing the field from the outside in, so the fire did not spread to the adjoining fields as easily, which was excellent as the neighbor had a huge stack of hay and a pile of firewood logs at the fence’s edge.  I was fairly shook up, as I’ve lived most of my life NOT having to call the fire department and say things like, “There’s a fire, I started it…”My Loving Spouse showed up, managed to move Blue, who had a few parts melted, but all the important parts still worked just fine.  He spent most of the afternoon laughing and saying, “It’s never boring being married to you!”

So we went out to diner…because I needed a good burger…and a small drink or two.The next day I went back to finish mowing the field, because it is good to finish what you start….unless what you start is a fire…