The planting season has all but passed us by for the year, and as we wrap up our over-winter planting and plot cleanup, one of the gratifying tasks left before the year ends is to spend the season’s profits on needed equipment and supplies for the coming year.

I have a guilty pleasure in shopping when it comes to farm supplies, so this is one of my favorite tasks. Plus vegetable farming allows us to start dreaming of the bigger and better crops we can grow, and get excited about things to come. 

One of the big-ticket items we’ve become aware of in the past couple of years was a crop-farming tractor called the Tilmor. It’s basically a rear-driven tractor that is specifically used for vegetable farming, and it utilizes implements on the front belly, so you can better monitor what you are doing.  

Unfortunately, the retail cost of these tractors is more than a few times what we made all year. We’re not that big of an operation yet, and while it would help us make more product, it’s not a purchase we can swing just yet. 

However! When you’re under the tutelage of a farmer who thrives on fixing old stuff, you look to the rusty gems of bygone years for a substitute for the shiny new things you can’t afford. 

Upon investigation and a small degree of searching, I discovered my newest and most exciting dream tool yet. The Allis Chalmers Model G.

I may have talked about the Model G in past articles as a prospective tool I’d been looking for, but until recently, there weren’t many local options to acquire one in decent shape. And, as fate would have it, the capital wasn’t there either. 

Well, guess what? Opportunity came a knockin’ after extensive Facebook marketplace perusal, and as it was the end of the season, the coffers agreed that the time was nigh. I found a Model G in great shape, with a number of the accompanying attachments to boot, for a very reasonable price. 

What’s more, the previous owner insisted we take a second G in lesser condition as part of the deal. 

Excited by the rare opportunity, I phoned the wife and got the boss’s approval, as they say, before making plans to go pick up the tractor. 

Fortunately, these tractors only weigh in at about 1,300 pounds and fit neatly on the deck of our veggie-hauling trailer. So without needing to rent a bigger truck or trailer, I made the trek to northern New York in the black muck farming region below Lake Ontario. 

After just two short seven-hour round-trips north, I had retrieved our latest haul and safely delivered it to our farm plot for use next summer. 

Now of course because I’m a giant child at heart, we had to play with the new toys as soon as possible. With respect to this desire to play on the tractor, my wife happily accompanied me to the store to pick up a new battery, since both tractors were in need of one, and we hooked it up perfectly the first time with no issues…

Ahem. Well, had I done a quick Google, we would have anyway. But because I like to occasionally rely on my own logic, we had a brief learning experience instead. I knew it was a six-volt system, so I correctly purchased a six-volt battery, but when we went to set it in the clamps, I assumed that the positive post would connect to the positive clamp and the negative post to the ground clamp.

Let the record show my wife now has written historical evidence that I was wrong. Not that she’ll ever need it, but if she’s reading this, hey, merry early Christmas darlin’. 

After she assisted me with a brief Google—which would have been helpful in advance—we determined that the system was designed to be a positive ground, which just means the battery was in backward. We switched it around and pulled the starter, to the immediate sound of success. 

In a few short bursts of the starter, the engine caught with a satisfying chugging putt-putt-putt as it awoke for the first of many times on our farm, and with it, the dreams and wonder of all the potential it held for building upon our success.

The way out here, our sense of wonder makes a dream, and the sweat of our backs brings the dream to life. While it may seem like a little thing to simply purchase a new tool, it’s the work that tool will do for us that allows us to dream bigger than ever before.