Tractor!

I'm getting closer and closer to having a honest farm, as I now have mechanization. Last weekend I picked up a small tractor. We have many things to do around here that would be so much easier with a tractor: digging post holes, trenching for water lines, digging a pond, grading and leveling, garden prep work, moving dirt and gravel around, cutting/raking/baling the pasture, pulling a trailer around...the list goes on. I know , I know, people have been doing all these things by hand for hundreds of years...but why? It's impractical to think a person can find one tractor to do ALL these things, it would cost you $20,000 and could never accomplish everything on the list equally well. So I have to start somewhere, and since I don't have an extra 20k sitting around, an older, small garden tractor seemed like just the ticket.

During the last few years my Dad restored a '49 Farmall Cub, which got me interested in "old iron".

Dad's Cub.

I watch Craigslist pretty closely, and an ad popped up for a Gibson tractor. I did a bunch of research on them and went and checked it out. I bought it that night and brought it home later in the week, a few days ago. It's a 1947 Gibson model D.

Towed it behind our Subaru. It came with a disc harrow, 12" moldboard plow, a spike harrow, and the built-in front dozer blade.

It's not very big (a "garden tractor") but has a torque-y 6 horse Wisconsin AEH engine, split rear brakes, and implements I can use to expand our garden and start cultivating some of our pasture. No PTO (though it does support powered implements if I can track down the PTO pulley that was originally an option) or 3 point hitch, but these things could be added in the future if I find I really need to.

The tractor is in excellent shape: recently painted body, new wheels and tires, and a replaced engine. Gibson will get plenty of work from me...