Tractors, Trees and Thunderstorms

Boys must be born with an obsession for tractors and other heavy machinery.

My sister and I were raised in this same house with my farmer grandparents as neighbours. We have a huge vegetable garden and two tractors - a riding lawnmower, and a big one for blowing snow in the winter.

My sister and I both grew up watching Opa use the tractors and plant and harvest the garden year after year, but we never showed much interest. I had a small patch of garden that i grew radishes and flowers in when i was smaller, but it only lasted a few years. I think i wanted to mow the lawn once, but after running over a pine sapling i was too afraid to do it again.

But ever since Toby knew what a tractor was he's had this complete fixation with anything large and motorized.
He spent his whole 'one-year-old winter' watching Opa blow snow out of the driveway making BBBRRRRMMMMM sounds with his lips ad infinitum.

When the snow melted and Opa was cleaning out the flower beds infront of our house I thought it would be a laugh to seat Toby up on the tractor seat.

March 2010

Little did I know that this allowance would be a never ending game of  "Opa tacto?? Toby up-y"

May 2010

 June 2010

 Aug 2010 - not our tractor. Visiting a farm and trying to commandeer their farm equipment.

September 2010 - Finally deemed 'big enough' to ride in the trailer

October 2010 - Finally allowed to sit on the big tractor

 October 2010 - chillin with Chaos while Opa pulls potatoes

He can hear a tractor starting a mile away. He lives for harvesting season when we can drive down to road and see at least two combines on the way to town. He has a million tractor themed toys and books.

I can keep  him entertained by finding videos of tractors driving on youtube.

This one he watches over...and over... and over... exclaiming WOOOOOOOOOW Look at THAT! over and over

There are surprisingly more videos than one would have expected. Our 'TV time' consists mostly of either home movies of himself playing outside or tractor videos on the computer.

And to top that off, he loves digging in the garden and my Opa has been letting him help plant and pick things. 

We all think Toby's going to be a farmer or a heavy equipment operator.

Two years ago we started a tree farm. The three fields bordering our house are now filled with red pine, white pine, red oak and black walnut saplings. It's a constant source of entertainment for Toby to watch Opa mowing the grass up and down the rows of trees.
This spring we're replanting ones that have died or been mouse-eaten.
Toby is actually big enough to walk from one end of the field to the other, and so each time Opa disapears over the hill with the tractor, we follow him out with a shovel in tow so Toby can 'help' him.

Today 'help' consisted of baby-sitting the tractor, which he can now climb up all by himself.

                                          


But then he decided that digging would be a good idea, and so Opa put him to work. He actually did a really good job.

Thunderclouds moved in and it started to rain, but Toby  has never minded the rain and will in fact burst into a fit if i suggest that going out in the rain is maybe not a good idea when it's still cold weather. Needless to say, it took a long time and a lot of moping and whining to get him to walk back to the house with me. Even then it took an other half hour of playing in the sandbox, riding on the swing and tormenting the cats to finally get him to admit that it was lunch time and being out in a thunderstorm wasn't the best idea.

I just think that it's funny how different he is compared to my sister and I. He is truly his own person, and I find it fascinating that people growing up in virtually the same environment find interest in completely opposite things. Does it have to do with the fact he's a boy? Is it a genetic fascination from the other side of the family? What made farming such a highlight for him instead of, say, sports?
I realize he's not even three, and here I am analyzing his personality...

Anyways, I'm sure there are more changes to come from this fascinating little kid.... I guess I"ll just have to keep our video camera rolling.