JOHN DEERE'S GATOR ROCKS, OK?

I will leave it to your imagination as to what all exactly is going on HERE!  Yes, it DOES involve ducks but that can wait until another blog post! 

When we moved here from England to West Virginia in 2009, hubby mentioned something called a Gator to me, and that he wanted to buy one. Well, I had no idea that those large, scaly critturs thrived in West Virginia, and although we have a big pond, I said definitely not!  He then showed me a picture. It looked very expensive. Hubby has always liked his "Big Boy's Toys". However, he reassured me that a John Deere Gator would be the best thing ever since sliced bread, but somehow I didn't believe him.

Roll forward a few months and we bought one on Ebay. Yes, it WAS a shed-load of dosh but it came with all sorts of extras such as a hydraulic dump bed and it only had 27 hours on the clock.

Inside of just a few days this thing was making itself useful. John had loaded it with metal posts ready for the espaliered cherry trees, and was driving them in using back of the Gator as a convenient platform.

It was spring 2010 and hubby had never looked so fit and healthy, walloping those posts into the ground!

OK, so this is my hubby John Snyder.  He is a Vietnam vet 1966-1970, and retired from the State of California back in 1998  but he is NOT the retiring type as you can see!   He hunts, he gardens, he works hard, and he is my invaluable left hand, particularly on my bad days and I love him dearly! 

The road-up rebuild of this rather run-down property had started and the Gator worked tirelessly for us and for our Virginia contractors, hauling scrap from dismantled kitchens, decks and bathrooms. It moved compost, sacks of concrete, lumber and stone. It was a handy way to take several loads of trash up to the end of the driveway, about 1200 feet uphill. We used it to cart chainsaws, splitting mauls and gasoline around the property to cut fallen lumber then transport it back to the house. We had bought 32 acres, of which about 23 acres was mixed woodland, mainly hardwoods, so it was great to cut our own firewood for winter burning or to head out into the woods to find mushrooms and wild fruit. We became part of West Virginia's Timberland Management Program in 2011.

Always ready and waiting, this little beastie very quickly found favour with me and I soon realised it had been worth every penny.. and of course it was also a load of fun into the bargain and I certainly enjoyed our sorties into the woods and over to neighbours' houses.

You can see the Gator at the back in Spring 2010, with the Sunburst Yellow 1992 Mazda Miata, owned from new by hubby. This limited edition, now with a supercharger, Koni shocks, slotted discs (and yes it goes like s*** off a shovel!), is being sold this year to make room for a  food sales area in the garage.  The red truck belonged to the Virginia contractors and became an almost permanent fixture as they lived in the basement Monday to Friday while working on the house - for 15 months in fact!  The Nissan Rogue is a 2008 model and a very reliable, cheap-to-run workhorse.  

The Gator lived in one half of the integral garage until we built the detached garage in 2011

So back to the winter of 2010, and the only way we can get out with heavy snow on the ground is with the chained-up Gator. It is also also the only way we can transport our trash to the top of the hill, get the mail, and get to visit with the neighbours at this time of year, after bundling up with 48 layers of thermal underwear, ski goggles, and neck gaiters.  Man, West Virginia can get SERIOUSLY cold in winter. I almost changed our chosen property name from Shady Grove to Windy Corner!

The Gator handles a Berco Snowblower with ease as you can see..

Chained-up Gator plus Berco snowblower with hydraulic controls chuffs its way through heavy, wet snow with John at the controls. 

Driveway clearing over, hubby heads back to the garage where this combo is kept once we start to get the big snows and need to get out of our driveway.

Hubby has around 24 bird feeders. Filling them in summer is a breeze with the Gator!

With 24 bird feeders around the property, and feeding birds year round, we get through prodigious quantities of Black Oil Sunflowe Seed, Premium Bird Seed, Niger Seed and Suet Cakes. 

Keeping our feathered friends fed is rather trickier in the winter once the snow starts to settle. With the chains, we can load the Gator up with the totes of seed 'n' stuff, and keep the birdies fed even when there is a foot or so of snow on the ground. It DOES get to the stage when even the Gator has to be abandoned, so that is when we tow a kiddy's plastic sled along the mainly level ground behind us, with the totes of Black Oil Sunflower Seed and Bird Seed on top. This works very well with our snowshoes!

Feeding the birds in winter requires two or three rounds a week with the Gator! 

Continuing the winter theme, the tipper bed comes in really handy at times!

Wood, compost, gravel, sand.. and for moving tons of garden debris down to the lower pond after a major tidying session, the hydraulic tipper bed on the Gator is VERY useful! 

Yours truly heading down to the root cellar with the latest canning results and a bunch of onions that found 45F was a good temperature to start sprouting! The root cellar is at 36F right now - the soft ones were chucked but plenty more organically grown onions where those came from! 

But honestly, the real delight in this multi-use tool is heading down into the woods on a fabulous West Virginia summer's day and get working on "stuff"!

John riding shotgun.  Armed? Yes. The last thing we want is a confrontation deep in the woods with mom and her three cubs!  And yes, I assure you that bears DO react to loud noises such as a rifle shot!

Jeff Dempsey at the wheel, our invaluable helper/builder/carpenter/electrical/lanndscaper and plumbing repair guy. He also carried out the installation of the entire Solar Array under the supervision of Mountain View Solar, who are a wonderful outfit based in Berkeley Springs, WV

Yours truly posing for a selfie, on the way back from a hard day's work in the woods.

Heading back from our labours along the dam towards the house on a gorgeous summer evening for refreshments. 

Finally, after clearing out the herbaceous borders this fall and hauling stuff down to the lower pond area with the Gator a few times, Henny Penny decides that she DEFINITELY likes this new nest!

Henny Penny in her giant "nest"!

Finally, we have even used the Gator for litter/trash pick-up along the entire 7 miles of Nile Road in the middle of winter so this wonderful vehicle also gets to serve the community!

Januray 2014, at the start point! The road was adopted by Little Union Baptist Church in Calvin, but John and I still head out together to pick up trash  between times :) 

And this is where we finished - back at our own property!