Doings up north...

We bought a tractor!!! Whooo hooo!!! Got a Kubota and I would point you to their website but it is very heavy on animation and even on our internet connection takes a looong long time to load. Bad user design Kubota!!! Fie!!! It's about 40 Horsepower, Diesel and will be coming with a group of implements that will do about everything we need from disking the land (modern kind of plow), grading it afterwords, a bucket-loader, forklift, post-hole auger and bits, mower, cold weather package, 4-wheel drive, weights, canopy for the driver and hydraulic pump takeoffs so we can use it for the apple cider press as well as ancillary equipment like log splitters etc... The key deciding factors were: we looked at John Deere and Kubota. The Deere dealership was brand-spanking-new and the Salesman treated us the same way that I had been treated whenever I bought a car from a dealer. The Kubota dealership was in an older building, we had to find Roger in his office and we went in and sat down (Jen had to drag a second chair into the office so she could sit down). Roger outlined a couple of options and quoted a price about $10K lower than Deere. (the butchers bill was around $30K) The other factor is that Jen's family owns a large farm in California and her dad buys a lot of tractors. For him, Kubota has the lowest hourly cost to operate considering maintenance, repair and initial price. As for the plumbing in the guest cabin/studio... Arrrghhh... The entire wall froze and this is the wall that contains the plumbing to the sink, toilet, water heater, shower and kitchen sink. It will be easier to rip out the sheetrock and redo everything than to try to sneak in a patch where needed. I'm deferring this until it's a bit warmer and things are a little less hectic. Blogging should resume full-force Monday (tomorrow). Dave