Suzy and Joel and Owen and Evie

The Farmall arrived earlier than expected – just after 11pm Friday night!

Every so often, I check the hauling schedule at yesterdaystractors.com to see if someone has space on a trailer headed from Wisconsin to Connecticut. I hit paydirt on the last week of June – a guy from Madison was driving out to Branford and had a 20-foot enclosed trailer.

He didn’t know when he was driving, exactly, but then his end of things fell into place for the Fourth of July weekend. My dad scrambled a bit to get one of his tractors out here, but came up empty.

Sue & I expected him Saturday morning, but Friday night, as I was headed upstairs, I saw a trailer parked on the road outside our kitchen window. Figuring it must be my guy, I headed outside. Joe was looking for a place to park his trailer, but I told him that if he wanted to roll off the tractor now, it was OK by me.

Sue & I both tried to wake Owen, but he was 100 percent zonked. He sure had a surprise when he woke up, though!

Joe said he had the tractor running for half an hour as he loaded the trailer in Wisconsin, and that it ran really well. It took a bit of doing, but he got it started and drove it onto the driveway. I tell you, I was pretty excited. After a quick refresher, I took it for a little spin and parked it next to the garage.

In the light of day, I saw that one front tire was flat – the valve disappeared into the wheel. Still, it had one good tire, so I set to cranking the engine. After only a few hundred tries, the Farmall started and the kids got their first driving lessons.

(click on photos for larger version)

Filed by joel at 11:44 pm under
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