women from venus, men mars

[roxynoodle]

I rented a Bobcat to plant the posts for my pole barn and that contractor should have done the same thing. I am reluctant to let anyone use my cheap used tractor. A new one? No way!

BTW, this is a woman's perspective.

 

[citytransplant]

yeah, I understand your frustration. Maybe it would help if you shopped online for a PHD??? After determining what that old PHD is worth, you might feel a little better about feeling violated. I'm sure you looked at the hour meter and know how much they ran the tractor. figure it up by the hour. I'm guessing we are talking hundreds of dollars per hour. I would rent out my tractor for hundreds of dollars per hour, would you???

Yes, you are correct. Future use of the PHD was the sugar that made the medicine go down a bit easier. In addition, I got some cool pictures of the PHD mounted on my machine.

Women like my wife are few and far between. For example, she was up at 5 AM today to tend to the chores (horses, chickens, etc.) and bake fresh blueberry muffins and make coffee for me and for the work crew when they showed up a couple of hours later. She did this all before getting ready to head out for her 9 to 5 job. This is a typical day for her. She will come home tonight and mow the lawn after tending to the horses. I will be working late otherwise she would have dinner ready for me as well.

So, in regards to her offering up *our* tractor ... with the above said, I have learned that only a few transgressions on her part warrant me blowing my fuse. I learned a long time ago to choose my battles wisely. Although on the inside I was not a happy camper about this incident, after some grumbling on my part, I kept my mouth shut. In the entire scheme of things, it really is no big deal. Besides, I knew I could come to this board and vent to folks that can relate.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Thomas]

Hope the contractor took some dollars off the bill,for you indeed supply the grunt power.

I kinda know how you felt about your tractor...its sort of love w/respect and you both will grow thru the years.

 

[Soundguy]

Yikes! 2 things I don't loan out.. are my tractor and my woman. Now.. if it is a close friend.. I'll show up and operate my tractor for him.. but the woman is still out of the question (wink ).

To Overszd: No.. I wouldn't rent my tractor out for hundreds of dollars per hour. My luck, after 4-5 hours some expensive part would be broke.. or it would be stolen. .. And I can't see buying another 20+thousand dollar tractor with the few hundred bucks I made in rent..

Soundguy

Site guy lays down up to 18” of stone for a 40’ x 24’ pole barn being built on my property. The builder shows up next morning with 2 clam-shell type post hole diggers and a couple of helpers that are the nicest guys in the world but need to spend a few more hours lifting weights at the gym. I guess he figured it was cheaper for him to pay these guys $8 an hour to dig the post holes than to rent something that could do the job in a fraction of the time.

I look out my bedroom window as I am getting dressed for work and see these guys going at the stone pad with their diggers and coming up with about as much material as could fit in a teacup. Once through the stone and into the dirt, they were grabbing even less. Just then my gal (who has been designated unofficial “project manager”) comes into the house to tell me that the builder mentioned that he has an old PTO driven PHD that has been sitting in his barn, not used for years (hint, hint). Of course she being much more generous than I, offered to allow him to use my brand new tractor, which sat 20 yards away from the site with the PTO spline having yet to see the light of day under its protective cover. Grrrrr.

The helpers must have jumped for joy as the builder jumped in his truck and headed off to his barn to retrieve his old PHD. I had to leave for work with the knowledge that another man was about to mount my tractor and ride her all day long. By the end of the day, 14 or so holes were dug and all poles were set in cement. The builder knowing that we have yards of fence posts to set, told us that we could keep the PHD for as long as we need it. The helper who ran the tractor for 4 hours said the Farmtrac “sure is nice, did everything we asked of it.”

You would think that I would be a happy guy. Somehow I ain't.

 

[Soundguy]

Women like my wife are few and far between. For example, she was up at 5 AM today to tend to the chores (horses, chickens, etc.) and bake fresh blueberry muffins and make coffee for me and for the work crew when they showed up a couple of hours later. She did this all before getting ready to head out for her 9 to 5 job. This is a typical day for her. She will come home tonight and mow the lawn after tending to the horses. I will be working late otherwise she would have dinner ready for me as well.

.

!? brag ... brag.. brag...

( darn... wow... uh... good job man.. for landing that sort of woman.. )

Soundguy

 

[schmism]

i would have reluctanly agreed to it, if in exchange i got the PHD, and had signed wavers and agreement that if they broke it they pay to fix it.

if you dont like the deal, rent something. (id still cost you more)

 

[rox]

citytransplant,
I guess you correctly titled this topic. I honestly could not figure out from your first post what your problem was. It seemed to me that your wife made a very good deal. Actually I probably would have made the same exact deal. You have a tractor they have a post hole digger, marriage made in heaven. Why make guys work by hand when it could be done so much easier.

Then after reading what the other people posted I saw what makes you guys tick, oh... you don't want anybody to drive your tractor. Okay I'll have to remember that for next time.

In the meantime though she did get you a pretty good deal, you will really appreciate having that PHD when you go to install your fence. I'm sure they were very carefull with your tractor seeing how it was borrowed and all. But it all turned out well in the end. Yup I would have done the same thing as your wife, so she is definately from Venus, jsut like me

 

[PineRidge]

citytransplant,
I guess you correctly titled this topic. I honestly could not figure out from your first post what your problem was. It seemed to me that your wife made a very good deal. Actually I probably would have made the same exact deal. You have a tractor they have a post hole digger, marriage made in heaven. Why make guys work by hand when it could be done so much easier.

Then after reading what the other people posted I saw what makes you guys tick, oh... you don't want anybody to drive your tractor. Okay I'll have to remember that for next time.

In the meantime though she did get you a pretty good deal, you will really appreciate having that PHD when you go to install your fence. I'm sure they were very carefull with your tractor seeing how it was borrowed and all. But it all turned out well in the end. Yup I would have done the same thing as your wife, so she is definately from Venus, jsut like me

Don't think this boils down to being stingy, let me explain further.

Guys for the most part treat their tractors like their cars and trucks. They baby them a bit, take care of them, and they feel the pain when their ride is broke-down.

I loaned my last tractor & rotary cutter to my neighbor that needed to brush hog his property. I can't see his lot from my house but I can hear the tractor running. About an hour after he started, the tractor couldn't be heard any longer. No sweat he's probably getting some lunch, but an hour later I stopped by his place since everything was still quiet.

Turns out the valve train started to come loose from the head. Seems the studs that hold it in place started coming out and as a result the tractor started making a racket and he shut it down.

That certainly wasn't his fault and I didn't blame him for it but what he did next just made my day. He grabbed some tools and started pulling my tractor apart without even so much as a phone call to me. This guy's got two left thumbs and he's got my valve train laying out on the dirty ground and playing with the push-rods when I drove up.

I don't think there's any more point going further but to say, I don't loan my tractor any more.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Hmmmmmm, I wouldn't think of using a client's tractor for doing my work without them not only offering, but insisting upon it.

But, it seems most of ya'll have a different attitude towards your tractors than I do. I let others operate and use my stuff all the time.

First thing is my stuff is designed for work. It's not designed for polishing. Part of the work design is about operators that will have different skill levels and is built to survive the abuse that sometimes comes with those skill levels.

I can understand the wife thing, makes perfect sense. Which also works into this discussion. Evidently the poster and his wife have been together long enough and understand each other well enough that she knew she wasn't transgressing when she offered the tractor to the contractor.

So I don't see this as a difference between men and women. I see it more about a perspective on equipment that varies with the individual. And most professionals have a lot more money in their equipment than occasionals do. And that equipment has to be used by others to pay for itself in most situations.

I'm just not sure I would hire the kind of contractor that shows up with no equipment in the first place.

 

[shane]

As I sit here reading this stuff I am getting mad at my wife just at the thought of her offering the use of my tractor to someone else. However, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the most she would tell some person working at my house is "my husband will let you use his tractor when **** freezes over".
I will let my "trusted" friends use my tractor, tools, etc. But not no stranger. I don't care what's in the deal. It can't be worth taking the chance of some idiot trashing my machine. Example: A friend loaned out his tractor to some neighbors cleaning up this springs tornado/storm damage in Hendersonville, TN. This idiot thought my friends tractor was like cat dozer. The idiot was ramming a big oak half attached to the ground. Shattered a spindle and my friend was stuck with the bill.