Thursday, January 15, 2015

Christmas in January


Nearly two years ago, we planted 2,100 tiny trees which are protected by plastic tree shelters held in place with wooden stakes. Even though some of the trees are now more than six feet tall, we need to keep the shelters in place until they're quite a bit bigger. Unfortunately, the deer and damp weather combine forces to make sure the shelters fall over regularly, which means we have to reinstall them. We've been doing this on foot while carrying all of the equipment we need to get the job done. Juggling the shelters and the stakes while carrying a shovel and a small sledge hammer wasn't a lot of fun. Neither was walking back and forth to the barn when we discovered we needed a cable tie and walking back and forth again when we discovered we needed a length of twine and walking back and forth again . . . . . You get the idea. This is what they looked like in April 2013:


We started looking for a reasonably priced John Deere Gator (or something similar) to carry our “stuff” and to spare us the endless walks to and from the barn, when we found this little guy on craigslist.


The engine, drive train, wheels, and body belonged to a 4x4 John Deer Gator, and the clever guy who sold it to us turned it into what you see in the photos. It runs like a champ. It has headlights and a blindingly bright spot light. There's a windshield wiper and a fan. The prior owner did some nice wood work under the removable dump bed. 



The snow plow is stainless steel. 


The wooden cabin comes off with a few screws. 


It cost less than 20% of what we would have paid for a Gator without a cabin or a snow plow and we are 100% happy.  

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