Over the years I've established and developed a significant knowledge base for working on old tractors. That's not to say that I can repair any old tractor, but I know how to do very specific things on the particular old tractors I've worked with. I had an old 1950s massey-ferguson, a 1960s Ford, and I've worked with newer (80s and 90s) John Deeres and Kubotas. As time went by my four letter word vocabulary developed, as tractors only break down when you really need to use them. I've replaced starters that I had rebuilt, changed out solenoids, identified transmission issues, recharged and replaced batteries, assisted with hydraulic repairs. While I'm reasonably capable, I don't enjoy this type of work when I could be doing other things I enjoy much more.
Because of the hassle of finding an older mechanic who is capable, knowledgeable, and willing to work on these older tractors when I run into an issue I can't fix myself, we decided to take the plunge and manifest my midlife crisis by purchasing a new Kubota from the local dealership. Their prices were comparable to others I'd researched online, and we're hoping with a new tractor that we won't have the expensive repairs I was doing so regularly on our tractor in Colorado. With the newer tractors most of the inner workings are controlled by a computer, so I couldn't do much in the way of repairs myself even if I wanted to. Ideally this new one won't need the excessive repairs.
I also got a mower to use with the tractor to take care of the pastures here. Pasture maintenance requires regular mowing to knock down the weeds before they go to seed and proliferate, and to help the good grazing grass to come in thicker. So far things are working reasonably well. I had to do a good bit of prep on the mower to get it ready for use in the way of setting up gearshafts, adjusting height, putting oil and lube in the correct places. However, having a 6' swath mowed with each pass makes pasture maintenance much more palatable.
Rizzo doesn't like the normal zero turn lawnmower at all. If Owen uses it near her and the barn she goes and hides in the barn where it can't get her. Oddly, she doesn't mind the tractor and mower. In Colorado she would run around with me while I was working with it, and even help keep horses in the right pens as I moved big round bales through gates like Miles did in his days. But don't get near her with that regular lawnmower - from a dog's perspective it's clearly not safe.
It's definitely starting to get hot here, we've had several days in the 90s over the last couple weeks. When I ride it's always early in the morning before it's too hot, and the dogs like to come with me. They take dips in the pond whenever we ride by, and they enjoy meandering around on the trails in the woods we ride. Since they seem to like the water for cooling off, I went to the store and picked up a small kiddie swimming pool for them. I filled it with cold hose water and set it in their big kennel. So far I've only seen them drinking from it like it's a giant water dish, but hopefully they'll realize they can climb in and cool off too. I did try to lift each dog and set them into it, but they curled each of their dog legs up to avoid getting their paws wet, and gave me the stink-eye when I set them down in the water. Possibly it was too reminiscent of having a bath?
The goslings have done well, too. All three have made it to adolescence and are getting faster at hopping into the water to swim to safety. The parents are still quite militant about family defense, which is likely how the youngsters have made it this far. Teenage goslings aren't quite as cute as newborns, but it's a phase of life everyone must go through to reach adulthood.
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