The Little Tractor

Man, it’s hard to write about this last 18 months.  Too much stuff, I guess.  But as I said we got a real estate dealer by the name of Suzi.  I didn’t meet her till the day we brothers got together at Delridge to try to clean up the outside of the place, and some of the inside for if and when the house sold.  Because at that time, early summer, late spring, the house had been on the market for a while and wasn’t moving at 620K.  But in any case, we knew we would have to clean up, even with it being sold as is, especially the stuff outside.

tractor 

WB had a least 2 sheds full of junk and junk all around the sheds full of junk.  You would walk around and stub your toe on junk, pieces of metal, scraps of iron, and a whole bunch of 50 gallon barrels, and a trailer for taking stuff to the dump that had four flat tires and, oh yea, the little tractor.  When one of WB’s neighbors had died, he had inherited this little tractor that he used for diverse grading purposes, including and mostly keeping the dirt drive into the place in drivable shape. 

So we had to get rid of that tractor since we doubted anybody moving into the place would want it and we didn’t want to just give it away since it was a good little tractor.  We thought about trying to fire it up.  But we had a problem doing that, what with no key.  So we told Suzi we wanted to sell it and she said she knew a guy that might want it, and I gave Suzi brother Dave’s number since he was the designated tractor guy.  And almost immediately this guy called Dave and said he wanted it, but Dave thought the guy was really trying to lowball us and he didn’t like the guy because he kept pestering.

So to continue with the tractor line of thought, the tractor was still sitting there right up till and after the time the house was sold.  By that time, we saw the tractor wasn’t something we were going to be able to move even with a key because the rats (those are another story) had eaten through all the wiring and plastic type tubing.  So I got the number of the guy who made the first offer to brother Dave, and called him, and he did seem like a peculiar fellow over the phone.  And I said we were selling the tractor and what did he think it was worth, and he said 500 dollars, and I said OK, but getting it off the property would be entirely his job. 

 I told him we didn’t have a key, but sure enough he called back and asked had we found a key, and I said no.  And then he called from the property and said the tractor was all stuck down in the dirt and the shovel part up front was down and  was stuck in the dirt and he didn’t know how he was going to move it at all.  Well, I said, I didn’t know what I could do being up in Santa Barbara and all; and if he couldn’t get the tractor off the property well that was the end of the deal.

Next thing I know he has called and he has gotten the tractor off the property and he sends a cashier’s check for 500 dollars and I send him a letter acknowledging payment and change of ownership.  I didn’t have a pink slip or even know if a tractor has a pink slip, so I didn’t send him one of those.  That tractor turned out to be a real hassle.  But we had it gone a few days before the deal officially closed

That’s the little tractor above up on a mound of dirt.  As you can see, it was not exactly a small mechanical contrivance.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*