[AT] funny..

[Francis Robinson]

-----Original Message-----

I found a new "need" for a butt buggy today.  I'm tramping through
some pretty rough terrain in cemeteries in the upper Ohio valley,
and it sure would be nice to have my Jim Dandy (Economy) tractor
with me equipped with the dual transmissions and 12.25:1
differential to cruise around looking for tombstone inscriptions
(genealogy work).  With the sunken graves (no vaults), a super-slow
tractor would be a tremendous help.

Larry


	Hi Larry:

	As it happens I also was out of state tramping cemeteries for the last
couple of days. I didn't really have the time but the planets lined up or
something and an opportunity presented its self.  It would have taken a
good-sized dozer to have gotten through one that I was in this morning...
Really over-grown...   ;-)    Really sad how little respect people have for
those former living breathing souls that came before us and gave us the best
of what we have today. I found out yesterday that I need to return to one
cemetery soon to replace 5 vandalized stones of family members. They were
damaged since I was there last maybe 4 years ago. They are small stones but
it is going to be a bit expensive and it is a 5-hour drive one way.  On a
brighter note, three small cemeteries that I had not been in before were in
nice shape and very well kept.
	We did once use a tractor in a cemetery. When I was a teen my local 4-H
club took on the care of a small abandoned cemetery only a quarter mile from
the farm. It had so many deeply sunken graves that the club had a big load
of fill dirt brought in and then I took the John Deere 40C crawler in and
carefully leveled the whole thing. The club then reseeded it and held the
mowing contract with the TWP for many years. That was in the 1950s and the
club got $50 a year for maintaining it. The club is now gone but the TWP
still pays someone to mow it. It still looks quite nice. I'll bet the TWP
has to pay a lot more than $50 a year now.   ;-)

--
"farmer"

The brave may not live forever but the easily frightened may never live at
all.

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net