NorthernBaby: Charlotte Tractor Parade

Gather 'round folks - it's time for the long-awaited update, the news of the century, .....the triumphant posting of the Charlotte Tractor Parade!

Some readers (I just found out that we do not have a mere two readers; we now have three!) might ask why it has taken so long to post the update, or just how much time do I need to learn how to post pictures from the new camera....well, the real reason for the late update is that our household has been totally preoccupied and obsessed with the "Balloon Boy" story. We've read every newspaper article available and not strayed away from the television lest we miss a second of talk show coverage on this story......

YEAH, RIGHT! We've been busy with life: raking leaves, preparing dinners, teaching our dear NorthernToddler to not apply crayon to our furniture - all the normal stuff. I was going to post yesterday, but it was so nice (almost 50 degrees) that I started cutting down the stand of Japanese Knotweed that is obscuring our shed/chicken coop. (Okay - for just a second here, we're going to ask you to be quiet and keep a secret from Northern Mommy: it has to do with chickens. I don't particularly care for chickens, other than they are tasty when properly cooked, but Northern Mommy is fascinated by the idea of raising some laying hens here on our semi-homestead. I've sworn up one side of the barn and down the other that I AIN'T RAISING NO CHICKENS! Damn noisy, dirty birds that require feeding and upkeep...well, after reading about some other peoples' experiences with chickens and visiting some friends who raise them, I'm slowly contemplating the idea of housing some on our property (we've got a nice coop with a large fenced run that was already in place when we bought the house). So far, the positives for having chickens are: I'll have eggs to throw at NorthernMommy, and we can always chop some heads off if things don't work out (can you say "chicken and dumplins"?!) So, maybe next spring we'll be teaching NB/T how to scatter chicken feed...but DON'T tell Northern Mommy! My excuse for clearing the entrance to the coop was that I needed a place to park the snowmobile trailer....let's let her keep thinking that!)

Wasn't I supposed to be writing about a tractor parade?! Well, here we go - below is a picture of NBT showing us just how bored he is with waiting for the parade to start. The parade started thirty minutes later than the advertised time, so we sat around for an hour waiting for tractors to start rolling. (But when they did.....we saw a whole lot of tractors!) (So many tractors that we got tired of watching them - and we love tractors!)

There was a short lecture from Northern Mommy on how I had too many tractor photos ready to share with y'all, and that seeing how the title of the blog has something to do with 'NorthernBaby', maybe I ought to cut out the tractors and insert a photo or two of NBT.

(I hate it when she's right.)

Below is the coolest tractor in the parade. If you have to ask why, too bad.

Northern Mommy's favorite parade entrant. (Why would anyone paint their tractor pink?!)

My favorite tractor of the parade - and it's kinda funny how the curve/roundness of the tractor's bodywork is reflected in the curve/roundness of the operator's bodywork!