This apple orchard has always been contracted to a larger grower nearby for tillage and harvest. Grandpa, Dad, and now I, have the responsibility for planting and maintaining new trees up to harvestable. And maintaining the quarter mile easement out to the highway.
Dad hired day labor for his planting projects, and he dragged hundreds of feet of garden hose all over the place for the 3-5 years that new trees need irrigation. He insisted I carry buckets in wheelbarrows, in his elderly last couple of years when I was coming over weekly to take care of him. I refused, there were other more pressing issues to deal with, and several new trees were lost. After the place was mine I said s**** that and bought the 1980 Yanmar to carry water and do what had been done with wheelbarrows, including family harvest. Soon I realized the contractor waits several years before digging out dead stumps so I got the backhoe for that, to speed up the always-needed replanting in this old orchard.
I can't imagine how the first owner did everything with horses.
After several years I realized a smaller 4x4 Yanmar would fit under the trees and still serve as well as the YM240, so its my principal tractor now. Photo below.