It Takes A Country Boy

Last month one of the adjuster arms for my Kubota tractor’s three-point hitch bent and got cross-threaded and I had to order a replacement. I’m not sure what I did, but I managed to somehow do the same thing to the new one in the last few days. So it was back to calling Tuscaloosa Tractor to order a second replacement.  That’s frustrating and expensive.

I had planned to take the tractor over to Travis and Geli’s house today to see if we could pull a stump out of his garden area and do some other chores over there, but part of that involves going down a short but kind of steep hill, and without being able to attach the heavy box blade to the three-point hitch I was getting a little nervous, because the added weight on the back of the tractor really helps hold things down in situations like that.

Fortunately, during the afternoon our friend Justin Abrams stopped by while Terry and I were in the barn trying to figure out if we could make things work somehow. Justin is a country boy, born and bred, and he grew up around farm equipment. It took him about two minutes to figure out what the problem was. then he went out to his truck and got a couple of big pipe wrenches and managed to get the adjusting arm threaded back into place and reattached. Thanks Justin, you rerally saved the day for us.

He also helped us figure out what the problem was that was causing this to happen. Part of it was the turnbuckles on the three-point hitch that control sway (top photo). I suspected that was the issue after we discovered the adjusting arm bent again, and a couple of days ago, Terry and I replaced them with a different design that is much sturdier and easier to use (bottom photo).

As usually happens, Terry was the one actually doing the hard work while I just stood around trying to keep from getting underfoot.

Not long after Justin left, Travis and Geli showed up to help us load the tractor onto my flatbed trailer. This was our first time doing that, but it went fine. At least it did until we tried to strap it down with the heavy-duty ratchet straps I had bought for that purpose. I’ve always had difficulty with ratchet straps, but between the four of us we managed to get it done and the tractor secured.

Today I will take it over to the kids’ house and we’ll have fun playing in the dirt. This will be my first time towing the tractor on the flatbed; it’s about a 13-mile trip and I will just take my time to make sure I get there safely without any unpleasant surprises along the way.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. No thanks. I’m not a vegan, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

Thought For The Day – If there is a wrong way to do something, I will figure out how do it.