She looks a little tough
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She looks a little tough. Her original paint color is still there in a few places, but for the most part she looks pretty rusty. She is sometimes a bit hard to get started, but after a few tries she purrs like a kitten. There are times when I have to give her a little more choke to get her going, but those times are few and far between. She has been faithful.
“She” is my 1949 Ford hay raking tractor. This year marks 44 years of our hay raking relationship. As dry land hayers, our fields are anything but smooth. They are the type of fields that shake your insides, and backsides until you feel like you are moving even when you’re not. Her life has been a bit tough, but oh how faithful she has been.
She doesn’t have a cab or an air conditioner. There are times when the metal on the wheel well is so hot that I really don’t want to touch it! I keep an eye on the windrow ahead of me, as well as the rake on the side of me. If I were to turn and try to look behind me at how pretty or not pretty the windrow is I would guarantee you that I would make things really hard for Greg to bale. Eyes forward, glance to the side, it’s the way her and I work together.
I have learned from her, and she has taught me well. I am hard to start some mornings, but given some encouragement I kick it in gear and go. Some days it may take longer than others. I have learned that life is rarely smooth. Some life adventures shake your insides and backsides until you think you can’t go another inch. But we can, and we do. I have learned to look forward. If I try to look back my focus is off and I make a big mess of things. I now sport “platinum” hair, the original color is long gone. It doesn’t affect my performance, it just means I’ve been on this adventure called life for a while, just like her.
The thing I admire the most about her is that she is and has been faithful. No matter how the outside looks, no matter how rough the field, whatever the conditions she has been asked to work in, she has been faithful. May it be true of us.
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
