Farm time

Four in the afternoon on a late November day and the day is done.

Today included a large chunk of what I like to refer to as, "farm time."

Around lunch time I headed off in the new Gator to see what the neighbour was doing to drain rain water off his newly developed fields. This would be about a fifteen minute round trip.

A Gator is a handy little six wheeled vehicle built by John Deere that we use for running around the farm. It has a pair of seats and a tilting box for carrying and dumping stuff. Also a very effective four wheel drive system.

Well, about a half mile up the back dike into the neighbour's I high centered the little beauty and that was that. A brisk walk found me back at the barn where I assembled the necessary chains and fired up the old Gator. A quick run back and careful positioning had me close enough to chain up the first vehicle with a view to hauling it out of the muck. A light touch on the gas was all that it took to cause the old Gator to slew around and, as had it predecessor, get truly stuck. An hour had now passed.

A somewhat slower walk back to the barn and then on to the far end of the farm got me to the EX60, our baby excavator. An hour later and I had it out on the dike with the two Gator's. I chained up the second one and dragged it about two hundred yards to firm ground then headed back and chained up the first and similarly dragged it. Those two operations took another hour.

I now drove the first Gator back to the barn then hiked back to the second and the excavator. Chained the second to the EX60 and used the 60 to haul it home.

All in the fifteen minute look-see took three and a half hours. Mind you, the weather was good. Farm time...