Well, that was the beginning of the end. I was sick. I was sick and tired. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired... and my grass needed cut! So I got an idea. Well, my father-in-law kinda seeded the idea. He said, "You need a tractor." OK, so it really was his idea, and at the time I thought it was stupid. What in the world do I need a tractor for?! And then I started to think. (A very dangerous thing at times.)  1.) A tractor could pull a bush hog.  2.) A bush hog will go through just about any height of grass. 3.) Tractors are big and powerful and don't get bogged down in high grass. 4.) But... tractors are darn expensive.

Have you priced tractors lately? They start at about the cost of a new Ford Ranger. I looked at Deere (Not even in the ball park) and FarmTrac (getting closer) and while searching, learned about "grey market" tractors from a friend who bought a Yanmar. For those of you not familiar with the grey market tractors, they are Asian made, small farm tractors, remanufactured in Asia somewhere and sold in America to people who tear up riding lawn mowers. Sounded right to me. So I started looking. I found a retailer not to far from my house which had oddles of them. How had I not seem this place before. Although to my credit, it was just a small tin building surrounded by about 20 tractors.

So I took the aforementioned father-in-law and we went to look. They had several small tractors which when sold with a bush hog would run me around $3000. Most were in the 15 HP range and could pull a 4' bush hog. Not bad I thought. So off to home I go, because I didn't have $3000.