“we knew we were in trouble, when we noticed that the
 farmers cattle had licked the serial number clean off the tractor…”

It’s quite amazing how you can become aware of a tractors existence. Word of mouth that you are “on the hunt” seems to give a better pay-back than a $50 ad in a high-volume newspaper…. especially if the right people are listening.

Such is the case of our current episode; “FRANKEN-Tractor”…….

Our travels took our crew out to southern Ontario, Canada, near the town of Dundalk. Mid-March still saw snowdrifts along the roadsides and bone-chilling winds. How on earth do folks live there? At least the roads were paved, that is, until we were within a mile of our destination. What was a decent road quickly turned into a cowpath which then turned into a cow field with nothing short of loose cattle all over the place. The folks with the FRANKEN-Tractor were busy rounding up their bovines and soon had them back in their confines and happily munching on some hay.

The tractor sat there, still somewhat drifted in by snow, and happily displaying more colors than a graffitied wall in East LA. Yellow, red, blue, black…….. all uncovered by a much needed pressure washing by its owner when he first dragged it home with the hopes of working his land with the colorful monster. It had been converted to propane at some point in time and had a tank strategically placed between the fenders and acting much like a backrest as you sat on the machine. God help the farmer who had a nicotine habit if that thing happened to have a slow leak at some point in time. I’m sure that only the space shuttle disaster would eclipse what would happen in the event someone happened to “light up” a stogie while heading out to do some serious cultivating.