If I had a nice fancy tractor, I’d use it to do everything too; including, moving my grill.
While it is funny to see, it is a lesson that I am learning at Farm School. My default tendency is to do things by hand or with hand tools, but that is not the answer when you have a tractor. The correct mindset needs to be do as much as possible with the tractor.
Now that might seem (at the least) strange and (at the most) counter intuitive, but the reality is that the tractor is a tool. It is there to make things more efficient over larger spaces, and if I don’t use it then I’m expending energy that could have been used for other tasks too and I’m probably taking more time than I have to get tasks done.
This decision becomes much more clear when I’m looking at 12 600-foot beds that need tending to. But like with any tool, it takes time and practice to master it, so sometimes I still just want to do things, like cultivating, by hand to get super close to the plants without risk of damaging them or the plastic. This will just ultimately prolong the amount of time it will take to develop a mastery that allows me to be fast and effective at tasks with the tractor.
Anyone who has ever worked with tools has heard “always use the right tool for the right job” because it makes a huge difference in time and effectiveness. I think working a larger market garden scale farm or small tractor scale farm, and using a tractor, can often feel like a bit of overkill, but I have to remember that doesn’t mean it isn’t the right tool for the job.
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