I like dirt. With the right tools, its quite fun to dig it up, move it around, and form interesting and productive formations for vegetables. Since I live on a bed of ferociously hard clay, moving dirt here at Rancho Bizarro South requires forethought and a lot of effort.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to make a couple of choices in the coming year or two to really make my time playing in the dirt more enjoyable and much more productive. My first set of options is to either buy some outrageously expensive add-ons for my Kawasaki ATV or to fabricate them myself (which carries the added e-ticket-like bonus of using fire to cut, shape and weld metal).
Or, I can find and buy an old tractor.
So there I was day dreaming on Craigs List this weekend when I saw something that nearly made me reach for my as-yet unused bottle of nitroglycerin tabs. The ad and accompanying picture (see photo above) were of something I’ve heard about, but only seen once: An honest to God, gleaming green tractor with the emblem of a black horse rampant over a yellow shield.
Ay Carumba!. There it was just one town east, an honest to God working Ferrari tractor. I frantically checked the balances in my secret Mad Money bank accounts realized that not only did I have enough to buy it, but that my neighbor would probablylet me use his truck and dual–axle trailer to haul it home.
Just because I’m making my daughters final tuition payment this month and I have money in the bank now, doesn’t mean I’m going to buy a Ferrari tractor with a hand-cranked, , air-cooled, three cylinder diesel. But it is tempting and I think the ghost of two previous generations of dirt digging Forbes’s and Seles would laugh as much at my flight of fancy as I did.
I mean, good Lord, a Ferrari tractor! I think that mere words fall short when it comes to the sheer joy owning a piece of Enzo Ferrari’s agriculture equipment.
After all, there are times when even a venerable Ford Jubilee isn’t a strong enough statement. And at such times, a Ferrari tractor does quite nicely, even if you have to detent the valves and crank it over by hand.—tongue lodged against my cheek, but an otherwise non-economically silly Jim Forbes on 01/04/2009.
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