And today's hero is....

Mrs ERJ.

There I was in the middle of Salamander's Swamp with his tractor.

Difficult to see, but I circled some of the trees that are visible.

I had planted about fifteen persimmon trees in the clearing I discussed earlier.  I ended up with three rows that were about twenty feet apart and the trees twelve feet apart in the row.  I tagged them with surveyor's tape and you can see some of them in this picture.

One of the challenges of this site is the planting of Norway Spruce on the south side.  It throws a heavy shade.  My hope is that the south row will be in the sun during the growing season.

Other than that, it looks like a great site for persimmon.  The soil is rich and the water table is normally three feet from the surface.  Like I said, it is Salamander's Swamp.

Every thing was just peachy until it was time to go.  I could not get the tractor to turn over.

I considered calling Salamander but pride and the fact that he is really busy kept me from doing so.

So I called Mrs ERJ on my cell phone.  She stopped what she was doing.  She logged onto the internet.  Found the Owner's Manual for the Ford 1720 tractor.  Bought the manual (pdf).  Looked up the info and walked me through it.

This was the culprit.  The range selector is supposed to be in "neutral" to start.  Salamander had left it between M and H in the barn and I did not notice (it was just a little forward of M).  The tractor fired right up when I positioned the lever between M and H.  There is no labeling or detent that shouts "Neutral" to the rookie operator.

So I did not need to bother Salamander.  Nor did I have to walk back the 3/8 mile and carry all of my tools.  Nor did I have to leave his tractor unattended.  It turned out to be a very good day because Mrs ERJ was a hero.