My oldest son Marc asked me a while back, Why don't you sell that 1955 and get something more modern? Since are not as active in farming as we used to be, we don't need that big a tractor. 

Okay, kid, number one- the thing was paid for 40 years ago. number two- anything that needs to be repaired can be fixed a lot easier and CHEAPER than a newer tractor.  number three- anything I could afford to replace it with is going to be a lot smaller and a lot lighter and there are times when 17,ooo lbs of cast iron comes in handy.  Case in point. Pop had a 20-foot something long motor home that hasn't been moved in over twenty years.  With twenty years of season changes the thing has settled into our hard packed gravel driveway up past the frame. Having decided the thing was no longer structurally sound, the decision was made to haul it back to the bone yard. All four wheels were rusted solid and wouldn't turn. The 1955 simply skidded the thing forward for about sixty feet until the frozen wheels  bulldozed their way to the surface. I then skiided the thing back to the bone yard. Made the 1955 snort to pull the thing out, but the bottom line is, it got pulled out. That's the third time in the last 8 months or so that I needed the 1955 to do something a lighter tractor wouldn't have had a chance of doing. Any more questions kid?  <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->  

Oh yeah, took us the better part of an hour to shovel the ruts back in.