A Bone To Pick

Last Saturday morning, I decided to go out and do a little "brush hogging" with the 8N. I had been finishing up cleaning up the weeds in the pasture, so I mowed a few other places while I had it on the back of the tractor.

My old 1949 Ford 8N is like the "Energizer Bunny" - at least so far - it just keeps going, and going, and going.....It's "tired" for sure, but we just don't have the money to do a rebuild right now - one of these days.

Ever since I got it, I have been shutting the fuel off every time I use it (a good idea on ANY old tractor....), and have also been disconnecting the battery cable. It's more of a "just in case" thing, but I like to do it.

At any rate, very time I use the tractor, the first thing I do is open the access door on the top of the hood, and hook up the battery. It takes about 30 seconds.

Then, after I'm done with whatever I'm using the tractor for, I open the door, and unhook the cable. It just one of those things that are part of the "routine".

Another part of "routine" is giving the LGD a nice, big beef leg or knuckle bone. This doesn't happen on a daily basis, mind you, even though Yani (the LGD) WANTS it to. She gets a couple a week. They are frozen, so she lets them thaw most times, during the day, and chews them while she's "on duty" at night. It keeps her awake, I guess, since she doesn't drink coffee.

The main problem with this bone dealing is two fold -

(1) She likes to bury her "stash" for use later. I'm ok with that, until I go traipsing through the pasture and find a big pile of bones in a shallow grave. I'm sure the CSI people would have fun in my paddocks.

And -

(2) When she DOES pull them out of her fermenting stash pile, she gnaws on them a few more hours, then deposits them all over the pasture in various stages of "chew-ed-ness". This is fine - until I decide to come by with the brush hog and start crunching them up.....or worse...

I've hit small trees, bigger trees, stumps, holes, mounds of dirt, rocks, and all manner of things while using the hog. Bones can be nerve wracking. While rocks fly out from under the mower, it doesn't happen very often - unless you're mowing the driveway.

Bones, on the other hand, are unexpected because they can MOVE. You can mow in May, and have smooth sailing. You come back in July, and some fuzzball creature has deposited a 3" round knuckle bone where you least expect it. You're zipping along, lost in your thoughts, when all of a sudden - THUD, BANG, CRASH!

You look back in time to see small bone pieces running through the grass on either side of the mower.

On this particular day, I had several of these "Batman" happenings (idle reference to the old Batman TV series - you know - KaPOW, ZOT, Ka-Bluie......never mind....)

I listened to the clamor, and continued on. It wasn't until later, when I had finished, and was putting the tractor away, when I found it sitting behind the battery.


<--------------Front of tractor. Me, and the mower are this way --------->

I opened the access door and this bone was lodged behind the battery. I have NO idea how it got there - the mower was behind the tractor, with me, the steering wheel, and part of the frame in between.

It's a fairly large chunk, too - about small fist sized:



I'd sure like to know what the flight path was on THAT rocket! It HAD to be a pretty interesting route.

Where are those CSI guys when you need them?