Farm livin' is the life for me..... The tractor has arrived. It is very cool and quite a workhorse, I must say. The salesman made point of telling us "It's not a Cadillac" more than once. Thank goodness for that. Ron had a Cadillac once. What a piece of junk. Once, he was entertaining coworkers from Germany and, while driving them in his Cadillac to dinner, he reached to adjust the rear-view-mirror, only to have it fall off in his hand. Needless to say, they weren't impressed with American engineering and quality. Of course, these days, Mercedes and Volkwagon don't have much to brag about either..... John Deere, however, is different from General Motors. They make stuff that both works and lasts. This tractor isn't fast, but it's steady and strong. In about three hours, we cleared around two large trees and added a few feet to our accessible land. That may not sound like much, but if you'd seen just how overgrown it was, you'd be amazed. We did find a few surprises along the way; some hidden flower pots, a couple of cement cinder blocks and a full bag of potting soil we didn't know we had. Luckily, we saw the cinder blocks before the blades hit them. The hydraulics are especially slick. The loader, the mower deck and the tiller are all powered by hydraulics. There are all sorts of levers to raise and lower stuff. I managed to get the thing stuck twice already. Both times I was able to lock the back hubs into four wheel drive and power out of the mud. We'll be clearing more today.
My dad will arrive in the islands next Tuesday. I know he'll love the tractor. He's a farm boy from way back. We'll spend a few nights on Oahu before coming home. I only hope we can tolerate the stench. Better yet, give that battered island a few days of sunshine before we get there so the stench can be washed away. They are still not allowing people in the water. The bacteria count is still unsafe. The sewage treatment system has been overwhelmed by too much rain, causing untreated sewage to be released into the Ala Wai Canal, which leads immediately to the ocean. No biggie for us. I'm sure the fish aren't too pleased. But Dad can't swim, so we weren't planning to spend much time in the water anyway. They have signs posted everywhere telling people to stay out. They had to post additional signs in Japanese the other day after seeing a few tourists from there frolicking in the brown surf. Yikes! Can you imagine? You saved money for years for your Hawaii vacation. You've sprung for a fancy hotel on Waikiki beach, a room with an ocean view. You envision yourself dining al-fresco every night, taking surf lessons and lying on white sand each day, mai-tai in hand, basking in the tropical sun. Instead, you can't go in the water at all and the smell is so bad you have to lock your hotel room window shut tight to keep from gagging. The water you see from your window is not azure, but takes on the distinct color of poop. Nice. I'm pretty sure this will have a detrimental impact on return visits to the islands.
Well, it's time to take the pups for their morning walk. Then, it's back in the John Deere saddle again.... vroom vroom!
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