Slicker to Hick Blog

MVV Awards

One thousand bucks bought it from a fabulous, feisty woman up the road. She gave me her business card, which read “Ranch Goddess.” She was selling because her husband had died and she just couldn’t keep up with all the chores 50-plus acres demand; not by herself. And the latest boyfriend hadn’t worked out, so she had decided at last to hire out all the land maintenance. She wouldn’t be needing the tractor anymore. Besides, she was going on a cruise in three weeks and needed gambling green.

The ’76 Satoh Beaver tractor came home with us, along with a high-sided plastic trailer that hitches onto the back. This gem of a machine would turn heads if it ever went into town–partly because the Ranch Goddess painted it a light, bright blue. The Satoh is small, as tractors go, but powerful enough to have pulled a carelessly parked sedan from the mud. It also extracted multiple wooden posts set in concrete blobs from the ground where they were buried. Its main job recently has been to drag its trailer partner to the burn pile to dump countless loads of thorny briar vine. The Satoh is always referred to as “LBT.” (That’s Little Blue Tractor, for the acronym-impaired.)

Sharing Most Valuable Vehicle honors is a 1996 Mazda B4000 pickup truck that we call The Mule. It has hauled, hauled, and hauled–mainly furniture and all kinds of construction trash. It has the endearing quality of possessing an air conditioner that blows a refreshingly arctic blast. The fact that it’s street legal is another big plus. The Mule spent much of its early life in the city of the Red Sox and has the rust to prove it.

It allowed itself to be fixed with a $3 bolt from Lowe’s when the stick shift came off in my husband’s hand. This little pickup is the toughest of cookies and you never have to worry about scratching the paint or cracking the windshield–these things have already been accomplished.

Join me in raising a cup of diesel to toast LBT and Mule, MVV’s of the year here at Wise Acres!