I’ve often thought about what happens when your mind dwells on a certain thought too long and how the body will tend to gravitate to that thought. I think that’s what happened to me last week. We rent a piece of property for grazing next to our fields that is a bit wild with lots of wild rose bushes that restrict running the portable fencing for our daily moves. I had just about enough of trying to get to a hot line for the fencing so I decided, enough was enough and wielded to brush hogging that field in order to tame the beast(grazing field). My hesitation was mainly because the last time I brush hogged the field which was 5 or 6 years ago, I got the tractor and brush hog royally stuck and had to ask a neighbor to pull me out. This time it was going to be different. I knew where not to go and avoided that area entirely. I kept telling my self, “don’t get stuck, don’t get stuck”. There is a running brushy creek that runs through the middle of this field which for the most part is visible except for a few spots. “Don’t get stuck”! I was very careful backing into this one area trying to notice when it was getting soft and sure enough I went just a little bit too far and you guessed it, the tractor started to settle into the ground and I got stuck. If I didn’t have the brush hog on the back I probably would have been fine but that actually acted as an anchor and I was not going anywhere.
The neighbor across the street saw my predicament and came over with his tractor and I also called our herdsman Ryan to come over with our other tractor to try to pull me out. Both of these tractors had turf tires on them which are useless when it comes to any type of pulling power. All they were able to do was make lots of ruts and actually rocked my tractor back and forth which just settled it even more into the soft ground. I knew I was in big trouble when the water from the creek started running over the deck of the brush hog. My solution next was to go around the corner to a tractor dealer and convince them to come with a BIG tractor to pull me out. Dan agreed to help and he came over with one of the biggest tractors he had. No luck. He almost got stuck himself. My only solution was to go into town and talk with a contractor who had an excavator to get me out. On my way down the road I went by the farm where we rent 55 acres for our winter feed and he had a large Bobcat track mover. I stopped and asked for his assistance thinking a machine with a track might work better than one with wheels. He agreed to come over along with another neighbor who saw my predicament and his track Bobcat. The end result was we eventually put one in front of the other and in tandem, was able to pop the tractor out and set it free. I sure am glad that living out in the country allows us to have neighbors that watch out for each other and will lend a helping hand.