Is your tractor a tool or toy?

[Rimmer]

I think HenroBill got it about right. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

A fun tool, but a tool, no doubt. If I didn't have it, I would be doing the same jobs, but with a shovel, rake, wheelbarrow, manual PHD, 5 HP tiller, lawn cart, etc., and I'm talking about spreading gravel, digging trenches, putting in vegetable and flower gardens, fixing fences, etc. I'd still have the old 8N for rough mowing jobs, but running that thing is like spraying for mosquitoes... /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

When I lived in Idaho, I maintained all my irrigation ditches by hand, with a shovel and grub hoe. I'm not doin' that kind of stuff again, hurts too much the next day! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I'm glad that I have my Orange Tool now. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

"Sometimes you'll find a heap of thread on a mighty small spool."

 

[JDgreen227]

"No, I don't have to have it. No, I don't need it. Yes, I could have hired all the work it's done for me...." /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

If a tractor works for you, even only an hour a week, I would consider it a tool. If it does no work at all, and the only thing you have it for is because you WANTED it, and it spends 99% of it's life parked, and the other 1% being washed and waxed, well, to me it's a toy.

Sure, you could have hired out the chores, but you would end up having them done when someone else wanted to get them done for you. When you have your own tool, you get things done when YOU want to do them.

And, if you didn't have your tractor, would you still enjoy the fun of surfing TBN and reading the new posts, and learning all the great information here? No, you don't have to have TBN, No, you don't need it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As for me, I have spent most of today mudding drywall joints and sanding, but the sun is finally coming out, so I am going to put away all the drywall TOYS for today and go out and play with my beloved TOOL. The only thing that kept me working on the drywall for most of today was the anticipation of getting outdoors and playing, OOPS, that's WORKING, on my JD when the sun came out. BYE for now.

 

[Larry_T]

I am not sure but I been waiting 40 years to get it. and it dose a lot of work. also is a lot of fun to work that is. Larry

 

[Boone]

Didn't Tom Sawyer discover it's work if you have to do it and playing if it was something you decided you wanted to do?

 

[yellowsocks93]

My Deere is a tool. I need it to do work mostly finish mowing. If I did not have it the orchard grass would get too tall and the mice would eat away at the apple trees.

 

[Mark_in_NH]

Mine is honestly a little of both. I do use mine for work whenever necessary, always in the same place, doing road work, pot holes, brush etc.
It has made the work I used to do by hand Alot easier and in a Very Fun way. It has also made several of it's own payments.
Still, It is indeed a toy.
I am very fortunate to be able to have my cake and eat it to.

 

[MadDog]

Everyone agrees that

......it's undeniably super useful; makes lots of jobs that you COULDN'T do possible and makes other jobs that you could do with a sh*tload of work, much easier

.....it's also great fun using it to do them; enough so that we all climb into the seat w/this stupid grin on our pusses that stays on as long as the engine's on... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

that's the substance; the rest is semantics; and I could care less what anyone CALLS it. ....since it obviously partakes of both, why not say that your tractor is the supreme YOTOOTL!
/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[keeney]

Mine was a toy when I bought it and occasionally used it to plw the driveway.

It became a tool when I put the FEL on and used it during construction of our new house.

The transition is very clear in my mind because it also coincides with when I stopped worrying about how clean it was or babying it during use and instead started pushing it as hard as it would go and would leave it parked outside covered in mud.

- Rick

 

[John_Mc]

It depends on who you ask. IMO... it's a tool, even though I do enjoy most of the tasks I do on it.

Unfortunately, I made a major error! Somehow, my spouse figured out that I do enjoy using it. Now nothing I do with it counts as "work" when we're dividing up the chores. ("You've been out on the tractor all day, when are you going to come in and help clean the basement?")

John Mc

 

[Soundguy]

Mine does the same thing. I can come in after working hours in the yard.. pushing up the compost pile.. spreading acers of fertalizer.. hauling muck from the chix pens out to the pile.. etc.. come in tired and beat.. and she is ready to 'split up' the work with me...

Soundguy