Stuck in the mud, or how we bought a tractor.
When we woke up this morning, it was 25F, so we thought it would be a good idea to take two rolls of fence out to the back part of our property in the Blazer. The ground felt hard, and carrying two 330′ rolls of field fence the thousand or so feet to the back line was not something we wanted to do by hand. The kids were happy eating breakfast and watching a show, so Mike and I threw the fencing in the back of the Blazer and jumped in for a very quick trip. We dropped the one roll no problem, the second roll was to be put in the part of our land that is wetlands. In March. After a very VERY wet fall and winter. All of you reading this know exactly where our story ends. We back up, drop the fence, hop back in and get stuck in the mud. The car was actually sinking slightly and the small stream in the back of our property was being diverted directly under our truck.
It was pretty clear we weren’t going anywhere. It is about 8am, neither of us has eaten or had any coffee, and we are stuck in the mud. First we try pushing, that was stupid. Then we run back to the barn and get the come-along and some t-posts and try to pull the car out. I wish we had a picture, because it was so obviously useless. I ran back to the house and called our neighbor, he had a nice tractor (which he had offered to sell to us a few months back) and seems like the kind of guy who would be willing to pull his silly nouveau farmers out of the mud on a cold, early March morning. I left a message on the neighbors’ machine, checked on the kids, and went back to help Mike. We tried a few more things and were about to give up, when up pulled our neighbor on his tractor. It was like seeing a knight on a white horse. In no time, he hooked up the Blazer, got on his tractor, and pulled it out of the mud like it was a child’s toy truck. He said that his tractor was still for sale and we said we would think about it. After going back in the house, warming up, and having a cup of coffee, we decided a tractor is just the thing our farm needs. The kids and I drove over to tell him we would take it and drop off a loaf of our favorite pumpkin bread for his help this morning. Tomorrow we will bring him a check and drive home with another new toy for the farm.
Thank goodness for good neighbors, we feel truly lucky to be surrounded by such giving souls.
