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  • From: "Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Tractor question, please
  • Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:52:04 -0500

Thank you everyone, especially Don, for the good information. I am not sold
on JD green, but that said, my Grandpa Van Meter (passed on, a farmer from
IN) always had JD tractors and hats. So it would be neat to have a JD
tractor in that respect, but I'm not paying just for sentimentality. It has
to be in good shape and would prefer to pay less for it. It just happened
that this was the newest offering on Craigslist that had specifics that we
wanted.

We need a roll-bar and 4WD because we have hills, some rolling and some that
are somewhat steep. We need a bush hog attachment and the blade and scoop
sound necessary or certainly valuable after reading what all Lynn does with
her scoop.

My husband is adamant about the roll-bar, and honestly, it seems there is an
annual accident printed in the paper about some unlucky soul who got pinned
under his tractor with often a dire ending.

I am starting to wonder if 20 hp is enough. We'll give it a thorough look
over and 'test drive,' guess you can do that with a tractor. ;)

The tractors that you all have that you paid less for, were any of them 4WD?
We could have bought a decent tractor about a year ago for around $2500, but
it was not 4WD nor did it have a roll-bar so we passed.

I have started thinking about horses, though I'm not a big horse fan or a
natural 'horse person.' They've been showing up on Craigslist as well. We
have a four-stall horse barn, though the stalls would need some work. Two
owners ago, they kept horses and built that barn (this is 23+ years ago) and
you can see the remnants of trails here and there on the property.

A tractor would help us a great deal, make it so much easier to get firewood
logs back to the house, quicker to get all the fields brush hogged,
maintenance on the drive, but a scythe would also be handy on the fields.
$5k is a big chunk of money we don't have just sitting around. I could put
my hands on it, but then, as you've mentioned (the collective you), there
will be maintenance, possible repairs, a possible brake job, etc.

Thanks again.

Lisa




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