I forgot to mention in my first “Mowing post” that Sexion Tire is becoming our new best friends! We’ve been there three times in two months! Yes, two flats on truck and one tractor …. wondering if they have a loyalty card. You know, 10 punches and your 11th flat is free???
Step 1 – So, back on the tractor and brush-hogging the mess out of our fields. At one point, cross a section of lower land that you believe is dry…but it’s not. Get tractor with mower deck stuck in the mud!
Step 2 – Time for a “date” to Harbor Freight to purchase a winch and straps – don’t be sad, this is ok because we figure it’s something we’ll need eventually. Every farm should have a good winch!
Step 3 – Return home, set up a test of new winch powered by the truck battery. It doesn’t work…lots of wrangling with this step, involving testing for power thru battery cables. Oh, there was a run to home depot, for screws to attach leads to the jumper cables which seemed like a really good idea. This one step actually might have been more like 3 or 4.
Step 4 – Discover that the entire problem is the ground connection – let me pause here and mention, that this should take some time to figure out; anything shorter than an hour will just ruin the fun.
Step 5 – Cart all the equipment out to the stuck tractor location, using your ATV and trailer. Here’s another fun idea, ride in the trailer with your son – it’s pretty bumpy out in the fields and sitting on the bed of a trailer is bone-jarring, but son will find it hilarious.
Step 6 – Try a multitude of winch configurations (sun is going down, but don’t let that stop you, use flashlights and ATV headlights before finally deciding to try again after church on Sunday.
Step 7 – Next day – Finally a configuration that is solid to pull out just the mower deck – the winch is mounted on mower deck and strapped down….two other straps/chains are in a Y config around trees. START PULLING…..and the winch itself starts torqueing. NOT Good.
Step 8 – Give up – enough of this self sufficiency stuff and go ask neighbor who has a tractor for help.
Step 9 – Super nice neighbors perform a free tractor-pull that could have avoided steps 2 – 8 (or steps 16 – 22 if including the 13 steps in part one!
The men went to the tractor pull event, while the ladies visited. Lesson learned, God maybe lets things happen for a reason. I really enjoyed our neighbors and we were really blessed by their kindness.
After this, the brush-hogging resumes in evenings after work with a couple of modifications:
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- Carry 2 or 3 spare connector pins since the things tend to shear and get lost.
- Come inside every so often and announce to the family that you got the tractor stuck in the mud just to see their reaction! It’s a hoot! If you start to losing their interest, you can switch it up with, “Tractor has a flat tire.” That’s almost as good!
….and that’s how we do it!