Driving Tractors Part III

I recently needed to find something to make Desert Boy happy, so we went and visited some tractors on the ranch. Like the first and second times we made these forays, he was absolutely beaming. 

Our first visit was to a John Deere 4755, a real powerhouse of a tractor. It gets used to pull all sorts of equipment, but on this day it was sitting empty. But not for long...

Desert Boy eagerly got up and started working the controls. Except he's a bit on the short side at 31 inches, so he can't exactly sit on the seat and work all the levers.

In the next vehicle he figured out a better way to drive, by standing on the seat. He may need to get leg extensions to work foot pedals, but it's okay with me if he doesn't drive for a few years. His attention span isn't too long.

The vehicle he's in is a John Deere grader. Our ranch roads get washboardy quickly, so a couple times a year they're graded. The grader is also used to help keep irrigation ditches clean.

Desert Boy got tired of the grader and wandered over to a bright red tractor. Once again he looks quite short in the cab, but he's alarmingly close to key level.

Here's a better view of the red tractor. It's towing the feed wagon.

We move over to another part of the lower yard and find a piece of equipment closer to Desert Boy's size. He can sit and steer. He is so happy.

You can see the glee in his expression. He thinks he's really big stuff. Never mind that his jeans are too big and about to fall off and his shoe is untied. That's just not important when you're driving ranch equipment.

So what's the piece of equipment his size? This fork lift. He is totally comfortable on it.

Despite all the neat machinery on the ranch, Desert Boy seems to be just as happy pretending he's driving this broken down lawn mower in our yard. It doesn't even have a steering wheel, but it has enough metal on it to seem like a real vehicle and warrant the full accompaniment of vroom, vroom noises.