Monday, March 4

Oh, My!  That is about all I can say about last week.  It all started after church a week ago.  I came home with our usual Sunday dinner, Flyer's Pizza.  A small pepperoni with bacon is the most often ordered, though we sometimes change it up and add mushrooms!  As we watched the Ohio State Men's basketball team Andy handed me an ad from the Sunday Dispatch.  It was an auction at Green and Sons near Mt. Sterling.  His interest centered around several small Kubota tractors with front end loaders.  I questioned him as to why we really needed a tractor and his reply was that he couldn't get our Ford started without jump starting it each time.  I understood that but I still didn't know why we really needed another tractor when we seldom used the one we had.  He was clearly wanting to go look at tractors so I relented.  After all, we sold his truck when he learned that he would never be able to drive again, so who was I to tell him he couldn't have a tractor if he really wanted one.  So on Monday we drove down SR 56 and scoped out all of the tractors that would be in Tuesday's auction.  We also priced new tractors so we would have some comparison prices.  After talking with the salesman we decided that it might be worth our time to go to the auction and see what kind of prices  these tractors might sell for.  We were really only interested in two tractors that were going to be in the auction and we were told those would begin to sell around noon.  Tuesday morning I drove to the zoo, chopped the aviary diet as quickly as I could and hurried home to get Andy and head down to Mt. Sterling.  Of course, as is the case on most Tuesdays, it was cold and raining really, really hard!  We arrived a little early and Andy decided to check out what was selling out on the lot.  Rain was coming down in torrents and it was muddy everywhere you stepped so, against my better judgement, I told him to go ahead but I would be waiting inside where it was warm and dry.  After about 20 minutes I began to get worried that he couldn't find the building I was in so I went looking for him.  I wandered around out in the rain for about 15 minutes before I gave up and went back to the building, by now I was pretty much soaked to the bone.  I checked my phone and saw that he had tried to call me.  I called back and he was standing in another building the whole time.  Long story short, the tractors began selling around 12:30 and by 3:30 we were owners of a 3 yr old 3200 Kubota.  I was pretty proud of Andy during the auction even though he did hesitate a little too long at the end and I had to make the final bid. He was very happy with his purchase and I was happy that I would not have to repeat this tractor buying experience again. 
Oh, but silly me!  The tractor had a front end loader but it did not come with a mower.  Andy was certain that he wanted a finish mower that would fit on the 3 point hitch behind the tractor and I was inclined to agree as I felt it might be easier to put on and take off.  Oh, but then Daniel, who graciously agreed to help us get the tractor home, told Andy that a belly mower would do a much better job cutting grass.  So, low and behold, Andy was having me get him on the internet and he was soon surfing the web looking for a mower.  Before I knew it he had contacted someone from Craig's List about looking at a mower.  All I knew was that we were going to Cambridge and then south on
I-77 to exit 25 then we were to call this guy on his phone and he would meet us and lead us to where the mower was stored.  I must admit I did not have a very good feeling about this whole arrangement and expressed my concerns to Andy.  He could not understand why I would be apprehensive about following a stranger into unknown lands.  I made all my final arrangements, called a friend to let her know where we were going and if I didn't show up for church on Sunday to call the police.  The story actually had a pretty good ending.  The young man met us at a BP station, we were about 25 miles from Marietta, and we drove about 2 miles to a barn where his fathers tractor and mower was stored.  Andy negotiated a pretty good deal, $75 dollars off of the already low price, the young man and a friend loaded it onto our truck and we headed back home.  Six hours later, after a meal at Cracker Barrel, we made it back home, safe and sound, with a mower for our new tractor.  I will say that I am thrilled that Andy is so excited about this new tractor thing, but it is about to wear me out.  My "to do" list keeps growing when he needs WD 40, a grease cartridge for the grease gun, a new grease fitting for one that appears to be missing and on and on.  We are also going to have to have someone help us get the brackets on the tractor and get it mounted.  Maybe then I will be able to rest.  Hopefully this snow storm will give me a little reprieve!