Daughter’s First Tractor Ride
May 24th, 2013 · 4 Comments · Posted in farming
Is there anything more fun than riding a tractor?
Could this be the tractor for us?
What you’re looking at is a 30-horsepower diesel Kubota with front-end loader, four-wheel drive and agricultural tires. After a relentless search on the internet for used “compact” tractors around this size, we found this one at a local dealer. Small tractors are in high demand because of all the people like us starting small family farms. The dealer agreed to drop the tractor on our farm so we can test it out. I’m particularly interested to see how it handles our hillside pastures.
Notice the roll bar. There’s also a seat belt. “If it tips over, you won’t get killed,” said one dealer. “You will be injured, however.”
Good to know.
In the front loader is the tank I purchased to deliver water to the sheeps’ watering trough. I wanted to make sure it would ride securely up and down the hill. It does.
There’s nothing fancy about this tractor. No hydrostatic transmission, no air conditioning, no FM radio. This model. the L3000, was made in the years 2000 to 2003. This particular Kubota has 680 hours on it (tractor use is measured in hours, not miles.) The driver who dropped it off declared, “This tractor has been very well taken care of.” He knows the previous owner, who apparently only used it for 10 hours before trading up to a larger model.
We are happy to be able to test drive it over Memorial Day weekend. But the weather could not be less cooperative. For weeks the sun was blaring, almost to intensely to work outside. Now the scene here is absolutely dreary, with constant rain or drizzle, low-scudding clouds and temps that won’t even get out of the 40s tomorrow.
Daughter didn’t mind. Her question was, “Why didn’t you get a tractor with two seats?” But she had a great time riding shotgun without the second seat. She’s getting to that age when she might actually learn to drive on the tractor. But she won’t be trying anything fancy hanging onto the wheel well like this. She needs to be strapped in.
Now, about the price….
Very cool, Ed. I’m out for the weekend in Rapp, and need to get on the Deere to mow the lawn. Here’s hoping your weather clears, so you can put that tractor to work!
It’s pretty miserable here at the moment, Claire. Most likely, it will clear up as soon as the Memorial Day festivities clear.
Hi Ed …. my husband put an extension on the pedals of our tractor so that our young could reach and drive it when they were small. they all survived into adulthood, found it easy to learn to drive a car, and still, when they’re home, help out with tractoring as required …. it was all against “health and safety” regulations, shocked a lot of people (including me at first), but encouraged the sort of self-reliance that is so useful (AND turned out to be what a lot of other people with small parcels of land were doing too). Our younger son now works on a proper farm, drives a gi-normous tractor
Loving reading about your new way of life
Great idea, Joanna. We think it’s high time self-reliance made a comeback, especially for kids who’ve become addicted to their iPhones.
I recently watched the film “O Brother Where Art Thou” for the hundredth time (I love anything by the Coen brothers) and there’s a scene on this very point. A young kid comes to the rescue of our three heroes driving an old Model T, reaching the pedals with wooden blocks strapped to his feet. This must not have been too unusual in bygone days, making the younguns helpful around the farm.