Ouachita
Well-known member
The large pine along the woodline was leaning toward the field. It had been lightning struck a few days earlier. Granddad arrived at our house about daylight sometime over the Christmas vacation. I was 13. I was drinking coffee with my Dad. I could hear the old Farmall coming up the road. Drinking coffee with Dad was a big deal. He told me he had to go work so I would need to help Granddad with the tree.
I somehow felt very privileged to be the chosen one; to work with the old man. He let me ride the fender to the tree. The old tractor had been modified to the point most could not recognize the make. He had put a wide front end on it and built every piece of the front end loader except the cylinders and the pump. 5 foot long chunks of railroad track was mounted to a home fashioned bracket on the back for ballast. It was the only tractor with FEL that he owned.
We arrived at the tree and I was told to “hold on” as he raised the bucket and pushed it up against the tree. He loosed the bungee straps that held his chainsaw to the ballast on back. He notched the tree. Then he got back on the tractor and started to apply more pressure to push the tree into the woods. As the tree fell backward toward the field and flipped the tractor, my mind only recalls what seemed to have been Superman launching from that tractor. My Grandad had made or modified almost everything he had. I never knew he had invented the ejection seat.
With the tractor laying belly up, he said to me “Boy, go git the truck, and don’t worry yer Granny none”
I told Granny that Granddad had forgotten his chainsaw file and oil. She looked at me funny.
The tractor had very little damage. We flipped it over and the family still has it. It is still the same color.
I never told anyone back then. My Dad and I were cutting firewood a year later and he said to me “Son, You be careful on that old tractor. It’s not made to drive upside down”. I just said yes Sir. I had used that tractor weekly hauling rocks, and I often wondered if my Dad had noticed the wrinkled fenders and thought that I had flipped it, gotten lucky and never told anybody.
I somehow felt very privileged to be the chosen one; to work with the old man. He let me ride the fender to the tree. The old tractor had been modified to the point most could not recognize the make. He had put a wide front end on it and built every piece of the front end loader except the cylinders and the pump. 5 foot long chunks of railroad track was mounted to a home fashioned bracket on the back for ballast. It was the only tractor with FEL that he owned.
We arrived at the tree and I was told to “hold on” as he raised the bucket and pushed it up against the tree. He loosed the bungee straps that held his chainsaw to the ballast on back. He notched the tree. Then he got back on the tractor and started to apply more pressure to push the tree into the woods. As the tree fell backward toward the field and flipped the tractor, my mind only recalls what seemed to have been Superman launching from that tractor. My Grandad had made or modified almost everything he had. I never knew he had invented the ejection seat.
With the tractor laying belly up, he said to me “Boy, go git the truck, and don’t worry yer Granny none”
I told Granny that Granddad had forgotten his chainsaw file and oil. She looked at me funny.
The tractor had very little damage. We flipped it over and the family still has it. It is still the same color.
I never told anyone back then. My Dad and I were cutting firewood a year later and he said to me “Son, You be careful on that old tractor. It’s not made to drive upside down”. I just said yes Sir. I had used that tractor weekly hauling rocks, and I often wondered if my Dad had noticed the wrinkled fenders and thought that I had flipped it, gotten lucky and never told anybody.
