Saturday, June 30, 2007

Don't Do This At Home

My dear husband, let's call him "John" for the sake of this blog, loves his new tractor that he got for his birthday. It is oh-so-helpful for numerous tasks around the house. Here he is with our young son using the Kubota to move a cement planter for me-- dirt, plants and all -- to a better suited location. He bought forks that bolt on the front so the bucket can be used as a fork lift, which is quite handy for picking things up.


The Kubota is useful for all sorts of jobs around the yard, from moving wood chips to pulling stumps, moving dirt, getting haybales (more on that soon). Here he is using it to help paint our new barn:


Wait, why is he using a tractor to help paint a barn, you ask? Well, let's go in for a closer look, shall we?
When we got the tractor, we got a real kick out of reading the warning stickers, which are designed to have impact. Here is my favorite:
Effective, eh? Makes you think twice when you're thinking about lifting a heavy load up high.
I can just imagine the people in the Sticker Design Department (surely directly reporting to the Legal Department) trying to come up with these graphics. Think of the conversation:
"Hey George, what do you think of this large cannonball falling on the guy in the tractor?"
"Yeah, that's great, Gus, but you need to put his hands in the air trying to stop the cannonball to show the futility of it."
Gus: "Oooh, ooh, yeah and the cannonball needs little motion marks around it!"
George: "Ooh yes! And make the cannonball LARGER and BLACK!!"
Gus: "Oooh, yeah, and MORE MOTION MARKS!!! Legal will love this one!!"
And here's another warning sticker:
Hey, looky here. What does #3 say? "DO NOT use loader as a work platform." Does anybody read these things, or do they just look at the pretty pictures?

1 comment:

TP said...

So "John" will be fine lifting stuff just as long as it isn't cannonballs, right?

If there is a prohibition against roosters in Wallingford, surely there must already be one against cannons, so I'm sure that won't be a problem.

As the sticker indicates, please remind him not to sleep underneath the tractor. You can get a stiff neck that way, although the sticker doesn't show that specifically.