Deere, John

Thanks to all of you who like my new "look." I was smiling so broadly because Ken and I had just finished a delicious dinner of pork bar-b-que to celebrate the long-awaited purchase of a tractor, a dream of Ken's since we moved into this house. Friday afternoon we signed the final papers. The tractor was delivered on Saturday. This is one happy man in the driver seat ~

His first goal is to learn how to pick up and move boulders ~

I will practice reaching the pedals in the garage ~

Ken is sure I will learn how to drive the Deere. There is a front-mounted snowblower on order, which Ken says he will teach me how to use so I can clear the driveway when he's working out of town. I don't know about that, but I sure could have used a tractor when I was hauling gravel last week. We have also ordered a chipper/shredder attachment to make our own mulch to fill in all the low places on our property.

When Ken was in the intensive care unit last July with pneumonia, I wanted us to make a wish list. I asked him if there was anywhere he wanted to travel or anything he wanted to do once he got well. The only thing he wanted was a tractor. He had been saving money for two years, some was put away in a special account but some had been used for other expenses that came up. By this summer he would have had enough to pay cash, so I couldn't say no when he had more than enough for a down payment and could finance the rest for 0% interest.

And he's just so darn happy. I couldn't ask for more than that.