The First Farm Toy

On Saturday Chris and Terry broke down and decided to buy our first real farm toy.  Chris had originally bought a push mower that can do finish work and borrowed some weed whackers from a friend to get us started, but a week into owning this place and he already knew we were fighting a losing battle.  Knowing that a Kubota is on the 12 month plan and not going to be bought any time soon, we started perusing craigslist for a DR Field Mower.  

We had used one of these before at Shoofly and Chris loved the ease of use, the manliness, and the actual ability to do work.  He found a good deal on a 20" track 10 horsepower mower with very low hours in a nearby town and after waffling for a day decided that the math worked out in our favor to go get it.  

A boy and his new toy.

Something beautiful about a brush hog in the bed of a pickup.

Needless to say, it was a very exciting purchase and we were anxious to get to work with it.  On Sunday, we spent the morning gathering wood and rubbish for burning on the last day before the summer burn ban was enforced, meaning that the pretty new mower had to sit inside, unused.  

And while I say that Chris was excited to use the mower, I might point out that I could barely keep my hands off it and was the first one to have a go at using it.  The mower made short work of the "garden" and once the weeds were knocked down it started looking like a real lawn!

It was amazing how much better things started to look when the grass was a uniform length!  Then I ventured over into the weeds and brush by the drain field and started working on that while the boys tended the bonfire.  This was more challenging, but even more rewarding.

The day ended with a reasonable amount of the knot weed on the drain field pulled, burned, and mowed.  Some more consistent mowing and the yard will start looking respectable again.

The front yard, starting to look presentable.