Tag Archives: tractor

Big shiny blue tractor!

by . Posted on
22 Dec

We have a new toy!  A big, blue, shiny, new tractor!

We have been looking at second hand ones for a while on the internet, and finally went up to Grafton to look at one there – it was a heap of rust, twenty years old and still $18,000 which is cheap even for a 20 year old tractor.  And we had been thinking that even if we bought a $12,000 – $18,000 tractor and it lasted for 2 – 3 years, it still wouldn’t owe us anything (we paid George $22,000 last year!)  But after looking at this one at Grafton I put my foot down and said we had to have a new one.   With a new one, I can drive it happily and easily, it is safe for both of us, we know where it has been and what it has done and how it has been treated and we can have it regularly serviced and hopefully not be prey to all those expensive breakdowns that happen with old tractors.  So Ged went to look at the brand I like to see what he thought (I thought he would think it was too small and girly) but he came back really excited and so we did the sums and decided we could pay a third cash up front and finance the rest quite easily now we only have one mortgage.
So we bit the bullet and waited excitedly for delivery.  And then I elbowed Ged out of the way and climbed on . . . I haven’t looked back since!
We’ve had a few teething problems like the rock that sliced through the cables when I slashed it and the dirty diesel which destroyed the fuel injection system (all covered by warranty) which has severely slowed up our pre naming ceremony farm clean-up (aaagh!!) BUT the tractor is so easy to drive and after I had spent 7 hours on it, I got in my car and wondered whether the power steering had failed . . . it hadn’t, it just felt like it after the lightness of the tractor!  So we are very happy with our new toy (for the record, it is an ISEKI (Manufactured by Massey Fergusson and branded as such in the US) , 60 horsepower, 4WD tractor)
Ged says he would just like to get a go on it . . . !

Ring on my finger at last!

by . Posted on
17 Dec
I have a ring!  It’s very hard to take a photo of but you get the general gist – platinum rails with pink diamonds in between (channel set for the initiated) so it is pretty and practical for my life on the farm.  It has taken a bit of getting used to as I have never had a ring on that finger before, plus it is a very big step so all my commitment phobia has been playing havoc with my brain.  That and my hormones which are on a roller coaster, and creating a hair raising ride for all aboard.  Poor Ged!  He really is a saint . . .
George has gone AWOL.  Partly the fact that the slasher is still broken and sitting on the flat (I think I didn’t tell you that the blade sheared apart one day and speared one of the tyres.  George said it was ‘over use’ and I said it was ‘antiquity’!) and all this rain has kept him from us for weeks.  He couldn’t get the tractor in, he couldn’t slash, he couldn’t fence, he couldn’t clear with the root raker . . .  So we have been George-less which is always quieter, duller and less to report . . . .
I finally saw the platypus the other day.  It was midday and the first sunny day after what seems like months of rain, the river was a mud slick and I was taking advantage of the sunshine getting the washing done.  I saw movement in the river out of the corner of my eye and went to investigate.  I couldn’t believe it was him at first.  It was so out of character to be fishing in the middle of the day but there he was – ducking and diving, rolling and revelling in the day.  Presumably he, like us, had been housebound during the downpours and was catching up on his chores!  He was bigger than the only other one I’ve ever seen – about 18 inches to 2 foot long.  Amazing to have a creature that we studied in school as a rare miracle of nature living just below the house . . .
Which reminds me, we found a yabbie (crayfish to the poms!) in Angle Creek the other day so that should keep the kids occupied in March  . . .
Ged has replaced the platform for the Flying Fox so it is much safer and he and George were chopping down trees on the other side so it is now easier to get on and off at the other side.  We still need to put a new ‘floor’ in the fox itself and build a platform on the other side and then really it will be perfect!  We had the most torrential downpour on Sunday afternoon.  Incredible lightening directly overhead and we had a race against nature to get both the cars out and on the other side of the river, by the flying fox, pump some water before another mud slick came down the river (SOMEONE keeps leaving the hose on and using all the water – I can’t imagine who could be SO stupid!!) and finish the mowing which I was in the midst of.  It was a terrifying and amazing experience to be in the eye of the storm, soothing the horses under the giraffe shed.  Ged had got soaked playing with the pump and when I handed him his raincoat he just stripped off and got naked under it (we do embrace our nudity on the farm!!)
We were cooking supper when the phone rang.  One of the Comboyne dairies had sparks and smoke coming out of their sockets, so the sparky had to go out into the wilds and winch himself across the river and go to the rescue.  At 11pm I got a phone call from a woeful fiance ‘I won’t be coming home tonight’ (quite early days for THAT sort of behaviour!!) but he couldn’t get across Tom’s Creek which apparently was a raging torrent, at least a couple of feet  over the bridge and with big logs bobbing in the white water so the poor love had to go back to his old home (which I have denuded of any semblance of comfort – I made him burn it all, remember?) and sleep on the floor.  So one of the jobs over the holidays is to kit out that abode so if we get stuck again, we have somewhere to get warm, dry and rested!
We may be landlocked but we are river and creek bound!