Our first rainy season helped us realize a basic truth: Grass Grows Quickly! And keeping up with it is impossible without some sort of mechanized grass cutter. So the search began for an appropriate sized mower or tractor that can handle the job. We did actually consider saying “To heck with it, let it grow” but we really didn’t want the tall grass to fill up with rodents, snakes, and alligators. We thought that might be a detriment to our progress, what, spending half the day running from or around the local wildlife.
After much research on models, horsepower, future needs, implements, and a wide variety of other factors, we decided on a small tractor. Bigger than a yard or garden tractor, but way smaller than some machines that run agricultural production. It turned out to be a Massey Ferguson 165. It has 47hp, 4-cylinder diesel engine, the proper power take-off (PTO), good tires, and a few other options that were very desirable. One thing that didn’t hurt at all is that the tractor was offered with a trailer, box blade, and bush-hog included. The primary implements we needed, plus, the tractor, plus the trailer. It was a good deal so we got it. Here you can see when it first pulled onto the property.
On the second day, the tractor was having a problem starting. Go figure. Ran great after starting right up when we were viewing it before purchase and fired right up to get it off the trailer. It even ran great getting all the implements off the trailer. We put it up for the night and the very next morning, not so good. It turns out the battery cable was loose at the starter end and was sparking when we tried to turn the motor over. In the process, the starter must have taken some damage because when we tightened the cable terminal nut the starter still wouldn’t turn the motor even though we had a brand-new battery. First it sparks, then the starter has no spark. Needless to say, the tractor’s name is Sparky.
Although bright red is a popular color for tractors, we want to keep the place as visibly appealing as possible so we have a rule: Anything that stays on the property more than a week gets camouflaged! So if you visit us for more than a week, be sure to put a sign in your windshield telling us not to camouflage it! Really! It’s pretty easy to do camouflage for equipment; we use matte finish camo colors in spray cans and just get creative with some pattern that breaks up the lines of the equipment. It makes it much more pleasant to walk the grounds and enjoy the natural beauty of the place without having all the machinery interrupting your view. You’ll enjoy some of the paint jobs we’ll show you in the near future so come back often just to see them!
