THE UPPER KEYA PAHA TRADING CO.
1310 East Old US 18 - P. O. Box 785
Antelope Community - Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation
Mission, South Dakota, U.S.A.  57555-0785
THE UPPER KEYA PAHA
VIRTUAL TRADING POST

- Beaded Jewelry -
- Beaded Caps -
- Quillwork -
- Scrimshaw -
- Earrings -
- Necklaces -
- Other Stuff -
 

My First Real Tractor

   My first real tractor, a 1957 Ford 871 Select-O-Speed, was purchased in August of 1998.  It came equipped with a Dual 100 front end loader.  At the same time I also purchased a new rotary mower, a new rear blade, and a new S-tine vibrashank cultivator.  All were purchased from Rapid Valley Implement of Rapid City, South Dakota.
   The fall of 1996 I moved into a new home on two and a half acres located a couple miles east of Mission, South Dakota. The homesite is a 25-year lease of trust land on the historic Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, home of the Sicangu Lakota.  That fall I rented a small dozer and landscaped the yard.  The spring of 1997 I started to plant grass and developed a plan for planting a shelter belt and shade trees around the house. 
   This was all interrupted when my oldest daughter became ill.  She was diagnoised with a possible brain tumor in late June which was confirmed by a MRI in early July.  She was immediately flown from Rapid City Regional Hospital to the University of Minnesota Fairview Variety Hospital for Children in Minneapolis.  Her first surgery was on my birthday.  I never in my wildest dream thought I would ever consider a benign tumor as one hell of a birthday present.
   After spending a very expensive six weeks in Minneapolis we returned on my daughters birthday in August.  The lawn that I had planted early in the spring was about two and a half feet tall.  The garden was full of weeds.  The jalapeno peppers could nearly give you 1st degree burns.  Canadian thistle over the new septic drain field were well over 4 feet tall and going to seed.  But my daughter survived, nothing much else really concerned us.

The Search for a Tractor

   During the fall of 1996 I attempted to puchase a 530 Case tractor with a factory loader and no power take off from a relative who’s family owns an implement business.  We worked out an agreement for contract for deed for this ‘Puff.’  It ran long enough to get it home.  It just quit.  I took out the carburator needle valve and seat.  I then pulled teflon tape out of it and put it back at least four times.  I then rented the dozer and use it to pull the Case out of the way to do my landscaping.  After taking the tank off the Case and draining the rest of the pieces og teflon tape out, I borrowed a a rear blade and attempted to finish grade my yard.  To make a short story long that old ‘Puff’ used about five quarts of oil on the first tank of gas.  The scum that developed around the inside of the oil filler indicated antifreeze was getting into the oil.  I tried to negotiate some sort of deal to overhaul the tractor without much success.  I was happy when they came and hauled it away.  I have never really considered this nightmare as owning my first tractor.
   I priced a PTO at about $250 and I had to remove it from another tractor and put it in the Case at my expense.  Instead for about the same amount of money I was able to get my 871, loader and the new implements for about the same price.  I learned that you have to watch out for horse traders in the implement business. 
   The 871 has managed to keep up my original two and a half acres plus a business site lease of seven and a half acres.  My daughter also got ten acres next to mine plus we maintain about a half mile of ditch out to the highway past my five neighbors.