The First Diesel John Deere

Okay, tractor fans here's a gem for you to drool over .(talk about mixed metaphors!)
I stopped in at the Oxford maple products to see how the syrup season is going.
Fantastic, apparently. It is nearly over because the days are finally warming up-- it was 63º (17ºC) today. That's okay as long as we have frost at night. But this will be "the lads" last week. I will take more photos. I was not happy with those I took today. A fellow blipper (Bowbell, I think it was) recently asked after them since she met them last year on my Journal.
This little big green beauty is one of the new purchases Peter (Pictured here) and his partner made this year. They have also doubled their syrup boiling pan. I think it is over 18 feet long now. I was so interested in all that I was being shown that I forgot to take photos!
If you go back year in my Journal you will see "the lads" and see how they were beginning their maple syrup and candy business. They were in high school together . Then combined their mechanical abilities, business sense, and high energy gifts to get this business started.
They simply went around and asked property owners in the village and out in the countryside if they could, please, tap their maple trees and run plastic tubes into a 55 gallon plastic barrels. People were glad to help out in exchange for samples of the products.
Well, this year the "maple producers" have over 1,000 55 gallon drums out there taping trees all over the Oxford area. And there are farmland owners who tap their own trees and bring the sap in to sell to the lads.
In comes the big John Deere. Last year they collected the sap in a big clear plastic container set in the back of Peter's pick up truck. They still use it, but now there is a trailer on the back of the J.D. that holds a huge collecting container. They drive around the village pumping the pails and barrels out and into this container.
They bought their green pride and joy from someone in the state of montana. (Sorry the big letter "m" is not working tonight.) Then a local trucker was returning from the west and hauled it back here for the lads.

Now, down to the important details This is the FIRST diesel tractor: the year is 1951. It has two pistons "the size of coffee cans." It has a small gasoline tank or engine for starting up, especially in cold weather. I feel sure I was told more about this wonderful "boy toy." It is a real prize for the maple products producers.
Next time I go out for further blips I'll listen better in case Peter is still crowing about it. If anyone reading this blip would like further information about this collector's item, just place questions in the comments. I will also try to get a closer blip of this drop dead handsome lad. (In my mind somewhere I am matchmaking with him and the dancing librarian.

btw: She has a Friday night dance partner who appears besotted with her. He is a French baker.