Tractor Dreams

I want a tractor. Or a skid steer. Or pretty much anything that has a bucket (or blade) on the front and will scoop manure. The horses live in a corral and their life consists of eating and pooping and occasionally chasing a goat around. That's it. The manure builds up at an alarming rate. So hubby gets out our little Cub Cadet garden tractor that has a blade on the front and runs it around the pen shoving the poo into a compost pile. Thus far the system has been somewhat successful and keeps the manure down. Problem is that I have to plead with Sean to do this chore. The little tractor has "issues" and Sean doesn't think I can run it with the blade as it destroys his hands by the time he's finished scooping. He doesn't want me to destroy my hands since that is what I make a living with (because you know he doesn't need his hands to do computer work, he claims he can type with his nose. Uh huh.).

So I told him I want a tractor. Something I can start, something with no funky knobs to kill my hands and something that I can go scoop out the pen whenever my little heart desires. My only criteria is that: 1. It needs to not be a ton of money. I just can't see spending $7,000 on a Kubota (drool) that will be used solely for poop removal. 2. It needs to start right up. None of this going out with the jump starter every time I want to use it and no asking Hubby to get it started each time. That's it. Shouldn't be that hard to find something right?

That was about a month ago. He's been combing Craigslist looking for that perfect John Deere and finally finding one...or rather two.

Yep, he hauls home two John Deere tractors. First one is the tractor we'll be fixing up and the other is the donor tractor. Can you guess which one is which? You see, I (in all of my ignorance) thought the one on the right was the desired tractor and the one on the left was the parts donor. Nope. The tractor on the left is the much more desirable one being a John Deere 332 diesel. The one on the right is a 317 with a blown motor. We already bought the blade to go on the front so all that's left is to make it look like a tractor again. Doh. Hubby sure listened to my criteria didn't he?

*palm to forehead*

I guess it was cheap. I'll give him that. He says I have no vision. I just hope his "vision" gets it completed while we still own horses. Kidding!

I must give them credit though, Sean and his Dad got the 332 running last weekend. So now I have to eat my words. Perhaps it will be finished in a somewhat timely manner. I do look forward to it and appreciate his hard work. Go hubby go!

The finished product will eventually have a home built front bucket on it. He's been wanting to do that for some time. I'm guessing it will look something like this:

But for now, it will start as this.

The "before" picture. Looking forward to the "after" picture.