John Deere, Part 1

When I was growing up on the Boyle Farm in Saskatchewan the first tractor that I remember was a John Deere Model B that we called Johnny. This tractor had a flywheel start and a hand clutch. I learned to drive it by the time I was 10 years old.

This was very much a utility tractor on the farm. It was used for:

1. hauling drinking water on the stone boat from a well ¼ mile away
2. hauling stones on the stone boat
3. pulling the hay wagon, with the hay loader connected behind
4. to load loose hay in the sling to the hayloft
5. hauling the grain wagon with airplane balloon tires — by the time I was 12, I could actually backup a 4-wheel wagon with a 4-wheel tractor to the grain auger

We all loved this tractor.

I had been an adult for many years before I realized how bloody dangerous these were, mostly from watching the life story of Johnny Cash and watching an episode of the Simpsons! Note: this post connects to Boyle Park as background to why we had a strong interest, decades later, in acquiring a similar tractor for Boyle Park (see part 2).

(First Posted on Facebook in 2016)

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