Thank you so much! I think you’re right about the FEL. In fact every single person I have spoken to has said exactly that. I guess I really don’t need the loader so much now either since I had the guy with the excavator do all the major soil work. I think the rear scoop should get me by with just dumping small amounts of mulch and gravel.
Its crazy how excited I am to have a real tractor finally

. I know that sounds weird but I became absolutely obsessed with them when I was studying how to remedy the bamboo situation. The three point hitch invention is sheer brilliance and lends to endless possibilities for a DIY person. But I’m pretty bizarre when it comes to DIY. I’m pretty shy and am always skeptical of being ripped off by repairmen. And inevitably I receive an outrageous bill after service and am too shy and scared to argue with the guy so I always pay it without question. So, for that reason, I’ve become obsessed with learning how to fix everything by watching YouTube. I turned my garage into a wood/tool/welding shop. I taught myself how to weld and actually welded a nice trailer for picking up stuff from Lowes. And I love buying any kind of tools - the more exotic the better.
I divorced my husband about ten years ago and now live single in a very yuppy neighborhood. All the husbands are either doctors or lawyers. And during the day their driveways are filled with service vehicles (lawn services, gutter people, electricians, any service you can imagine). But I feel like an outcast because instead of a Tesla sitting in my newly paved and stamped driveway, is an old van and a Prius AND ME COVERED IN GREASE FIXING OR BUILDING SOMETHING

. In fact, there’s this doctor across the street from me who was installing a prefab gate in his fenced in backyard and was perplexed that there was a root right where he needed to place his fence post. I watched him fiddle around for a few minutes and then thought, oh hell, so I grabbed my sawzall and headed over to his house to help. The look on his face was part amazement and part embarrassment that a woman was coming to his aid. I nicely asked him to move out of the way and cut the root right out as if it were butter. The doctor was in awe of this “miraculous tool” in my hand. Was I the only person who owned this marvel of modern technology, he was thinking? So I explained to him that it’s a common all purpose saw that anyone can purchase on Amazon.
But the story doesn’t end there. After taking care of the root I returned to my driveway. Then about 30 minutes later I noticed the doctor and his neighbor trying to manually pull the chainlink fence taught against the post. Both men appear very physically fit but with all their might they couldn’t get the chainlink close enough to the post to secure it. So, AGAIN, I grabbed my come along and walked over and told them to step aside. Then I cranked the chainlink right up to the post with just a few pumps on the winch. Of course they wanted a come along now too and asked where one purchased a device such as this.
As a result, none of the wives in the neighborhood will look at me and think I’m possessed

. But I could care less because while they’re home cooking dinner or washing dishes, I’m in my garage plasma cutting killer stainless backlit led numbers to put on my driveway column to illuminate my address.
And now I can’t wait to see the expression on the faces of the neighbors when I am digging my own irrigation lines with a subsoiler on a “machine” they didn’t know existed.
