Funny how the more you look at something the more it can grow on you. We’ve looked at this piece of property so many times, and talked out the issues so many times, that suddenly it’s turned into the perfect place for our new log home. It’s at the end of an approximately 1/2 mile dead-end road, with only two other houses on the road. 20-30 minutes to work, depending on traffic. Woods all around, a creek about 1/4 mile through the woods.
So we made an offer, it was accepted with only one counter-offer, and we closed on May 29. We were so excited and didn’t know what to do first. We decided that the first order of business should probably be to bush-hog the property and see what we really bought :-). So, being very frugal now that we are land poor, and not wanting to spend the money to hire that task out, we decided that of course we can do this ourselves! There just happens to be a tractor and bush hog up at Paulette’s dad’s house that has just been sitting in the shed since he passed away. No we haven’t exactly done this before, but how hard can it be?
Meet the newest addition to our family…we think we’ll call her Bessie…
We aren’t exactly sure how old Bessie is, but we did find a label on her today identifying her as a Henry Ferguson…best we can tell from limited research is that the last one was made in 1938, then Henry Ferguson joined forces with Ford then later with Massey.
Yes, she’s been around the block.
She’s a bit tempermental. We had to stop and burp her occasionally, talk to her, jiggle wires, etc. and on we’d go. But not without a few rests (ok, smoke breaks…her, not us).
Did I mention NO brakes? NO brakes.Only those that knew my dad could appreciate the lengths he went to in order to keep this machine running…yes, that is a piece of screen door screening for a filter, and yes that is a real bungie cord. And you may have noticed her fake front right leg (it’s a CAR tire :-)) Gotta love my dad.
It was quite a day…taking turns on the tractor, running right into the unknown.
Mike made a discovery. They just don’t make cell phones like they used to . Can’t even hold up to a little bush-hog.
We only had one scary episode (no, we didn’t consider it scary when the two front tractor wheels would raise off the ground). Mike discovered a hole about the size of a small grave (maybe dug for perc test?), when I say discover, I mean he realized the tractor was on it’s way into the hole before he realized it was there. (did I mention the 4-5 foot sage grass). He was getting ready to abondon tractor, and it suddenly pulled up and out.
A lot to do on the next trip.
All in all it was a really fun day and we’re really looking forward to going back out and attacking the back 40.
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