Looking at Tractors

We wanted a tractor, we needed a tractor, my husband did a lot of research on tractors...all kinds of tractors.  We have a pond, we new we wanted to be able to expand it or make it deeper, so we looked at attachments for that.  We wanted to fence the property so we looked at a post hole digging attachment too.  The ground is soft in a lot of areas and when it rains it causes it to wash out in spots and makes the ground very uneven, we wanted a way to be able to smooth it out or level it.  When they constructed the pond, they pushed dirt into piles and covered the bases of a lot of the trees around the perimeter of the pond and shooting range, we wanted a way to move the dirt away from the trees.  A lot of the trees they removed were piled up and we wanted a tractor large enough to drag them out or put them on a trailor.  When we went shopping for a tractor, we kept all these things in mind...oh, and I wanted to be able to till a garden plot too!  You might be surprised how expensive a tractor big enough to do all that is, how much the attachments are.  My husband went by a couple of places to look at tractors and priced them out, but he wanted me to be able to use the tractor and change out the attachments by myself if needed.  He though that a John Deer tractor would be the easiest for me to use.

We drove up to Texarkana to a John Deer dealership?  I don't know if that is what it is really called, but they sell tractors like a car dealership does.  We talked with a salesmen and went out and looked at a few models that he thought would do the job. I must say, I talk with a Texas drawl and I know that I don't talk real fast and some people may think I talk really slow.  I met someone who has an even slower speech and more of a drawl than I do!  It seemed like it took him forever to get his words out and there were a few times that even I wanted to grab him by the tongue and pull the words out for him!  After everything was said and done we got a quote on what we thought we would need.  After our heart attacks were over, we decided to leave and discuss if we should even bother trying to qualify for a lone to get a tractor.  We decided that we would have to make do without a $30,000+ tractor, and on the way home went and bought a John Deer lawn tractor instead...at least that way we could mow the yard without killing ourselves.

We have been keeping our eyes open for a good deal on a used tractor though, so far any of the ones we could afford are so old that it has not happened yet.  We do have several neighbors with tractors and one neighbor who is willing to dig a garden for me.

Our little John Deer lawn tractor