oct 14 2023
Now this is a serious conversation
Between crazy acres and the Chinese restaurant 3 miles away I have counted 4 of what I call rusting hulks of farm tractors mostly set out to rest or whatever ---in other words sitting around just rusting --- that's in only three miles which makes me want to point out to the world, as my wise old aunt Mildred used to say “blessed be nothing so you don't have to take care of it”.
the ownership of anything. Animal, vegetable or mineral implies some kind of thinking and responsibility of taking care of it .... we're all very familiar with the costs of animals ... and the vegetable is easily resolved with conscious composting... but the mineral --basically iron- deserves the study.
If I just start this story with my Ipswich life with tractors,----- when we moved in here we had an very old big Case backhoe-- a big yellow thing which was donated to us from a patient of Toms who was in the business of pushing dirt around ----whatever--- it is as an extra... and I drove that tractor daily as I picked up the stone wall which went behind the guesthouse down toward the street and brought it up to the house and dumped it so the delightful Italian guys could build our fireplace..
My daily job was to respond to whenever i heard. "missss White, we need more rocks". i'd go get a bucket full and head up that hill by where the deagle house now is. --- it was kinda fun.....but it had its many complications the worst was it had virtually no brakes so I would come up the hill and slam the bucket down to try and keep from dragging backwards which is why there's so many scars in that tree which fortunately stopped me many times---- It was nerve wracking..... I don't remember what we finally did with it except we had trouble getting rid of it even if the cost of metal went up.
From there I went to an orange kapota.. probably several of them---- well the last smaller Toyota I donated to another service dog outfit as part of the deal of using some Annenberg money to buy a new one.---There is no way I could begin to own either of those tractors if it wasn't for Bud.... tractors are finicky and need attention.. like a dog that needs feeding twice a day these tractors need something every week or two...
As life progressed I was forced one day to learn how to change hydraulic hoses because when I turned it on it's sprayed oil in every direction for about 10 feet so I shut it off and called Bud and yes there was a hole in the hose I could tell and he suggested I take a wrench and undo the hose at both ends and take it and have a new hose made..
they don't do that at Home Depot---- but with great difficulty I found a place three houses north of agilla farms.... a guy had the crimping machine necessary... and that's how I solved that many times until he gave it up... and I located my next crimping machine guy behind the liquor store in Georgetown.. not every place has these and I lived like that for years.... with Bud making everything else work--then Bud came to me one day and said the tractor was really getting ahead of him and he was using words like brakes and bushings which required general service since the tractor had stopped in the driveway and was immovable. it's a good tractor.. when working---- probably still worth $20,000 but not worth much sitting there
so I called the tractor place and ask them to come service the tractor... which meant they had to pick it up and take it away... which meant they had to come in with a pretty big trailer with a winch to pull it up onto the trailer.... that transport was $200 but they'd bring it back for another $200 plus the cost of servicing. this is a very responsible tractor place I've dealt with them many times but was really knocked over with the service bill of $3482.68. Bud and I went over the whole thing and he verified that everything they had done was certainly necessary and had become things that he just couldn't keep up with...so I just paid it.---- on the other hand I had the service company saying you really should do this every three years... or you're wearing out parts that shouldn't be worn out..
All it takes to turn a $20,000 tractor into a $500 scrap metal obstacle sitting in your yard... is maybe a pinhole somewhere that you can't find in the miles of hose which keep a tractor running.
OK this probably explains why between. crazy acres in the Chinese restaurant. there are four tractors sitting in the yard rusting because although they were great to begin with somebody could not cope with the constant maintenance unless they had access to a "Bud" type--
-which they do not make anymore ! !
Now how does all that duplicate the thought process regarding baby animals
--- or people?
someday i will tackle the question of ownership[----why do people buy/ own so many shoes-- is it because as kids they had to wear them months after their feet grew???
