Helping a Neighbor

My neighbor was in a car accident a few weeks ago, Him and his sister run a small farm, Maybe A little bi bigger then a hobby farm as I can spend weeks there doing something and never Run out of work between the green house, Taking care of his goats and chickens and doing field work. But anywho, He is in his early 80's and was in a very bad accident and is the hospital in critical condition. The last 3 days I have been plowing for him, But I never did one field that he always did himself. Well this field has a pretty serious downhill grade and a slope to the left If you are driving down it, I was plowing with his 2120 and a 2-14 plow, 1st gear medium range and The plow hit a pretty big rock and tripped, My first reaction was to Push in the clutch to reset the plow. Well this was a mistake. The tractor lifted the right rear tire off the ground and seemed to pivot on the left front tire. I was quick to react and released the the clutch and hit the throttle and down it came but I have never had my heart skip a beat that bad.

Be safe out there!!

All the plowing is done now, All thats left is to disk it all down. Supposed to rain the next couple of days so it'll have to wait until things dry out but thats how it goes as im sure most of you know.

Bad idea to jump on a plow on someone else's land without them there as a 'harbor pilot'. And plowing a hillside is an iffy thing until you learn the 'feel' of it, at best a runny mess in bad weather, at worst, well, you felt that come too close huh? I had a dodgey hill years ago, I just drove around slowy and at different angles and directions with a wagon, or towing nothing, whenever I was there. I had a better feel for it when it came time to pull the haybine or seriously topheavy baler, if the poor fella is in serious shape, I wouldn't plow anymore until things 'normalize'. You don't want to create a big lumpy mess. Where in conn are you? Good luck to all of you.

Ive been doing 90% of the plowing for him sense I was 11. His sister who owns the farm with him said it needed to get done so I did it haha. There are troublesome neighbors to one field that have been giving him a hard time. The law is that he has to plant something in the field every year for it to still be zoned as farmland. He is in serious enough condition where it is unknown if he will ever return to the farm. Hoping that he will, but at this point it is unknown. Hes in the hospital with brain damage and some broken bones. Right now he cant open his eyes or speak and is in the ICU.

Located south of hartford.

Why not run electric fence arould it and turn the goats in there? = It's still farm or ga. land.

It is always nice to be able to help the nabiors but becareul sometimes it can come back and bite you in the butt

Not close enough to the house that he could keep an eye on them. These people are hell bent on getting him to stop farming there. The fear would be them feeding the goats something that would kill them. One day he parked the tractor outside of his sister's house that is vacant during the week to go inside and get a glass of water. Came out and their kids we out driving it around in the field in circles and then crashed it into a tree and ran. One of them is 20 and the other is 25. While is was out plowing the other day they came out and confronted me about making to much noise and how I was on their land. The fact is that we had a surveyor come out from the town and they have built onto HIS land. They failed to move their fence and now they park their vehicles in his right of way blocking access. They crossed a fence that has signs on it saying no trespassing to come confront me. I simply said I don't have the time of day and I cant guarantee their safety if they keep trespassing.

Im very cautious when using equipment. It was just one of those
things that I wasn't expecting

That is sad story, also sounds like those idiots who took a joy ride need a lesson in respect.

In 2009, I did the same thing for a long time friend and farmer, we started out working together, as he needed some help, I was available, then a very serious health issue came up, so myself, 2 of his sons and a few others when needed helped him. All the crops were planted, harvested oats, and we did all the hay, straw etc., by the time corn was ready, I was too busy to work nights, still did quite a bit of his trucking to keep some cash flow going, at the end of the day, it all got done, and he really appreciated what we did, which was worth more than any pay that was earned, it is nice to know people appreciate things you do, thankfully he has recovered and is much better, he can do some of these things again. I hate seeing the demise of farms and traditions, the work we did was enjoyable, even with breakdowns/repairs etc.

PS; we have lots of rolling hills in this area, the one you described sounds an awful lot like one of his fields, the spray rig operator calls these areas goat country, was so intimidated by one slope, he went the opposite way, I was riding along. I did quite a bit of cultipacking and rock picking behind the grain drill, I took note of how he ran on some of the sidehills, and did exactly as he did, some of that terrain does get scary when you're on these big tractors, would rather be on something closer to the ground !