Some days you wake up to the sound of a tractor in your garden. The weirdest thing about that is that you don't own a tractor.
Who, then, is driving a tractor in the garden?
Oh, it's the neighbor, Bo. He came to pick up the Muumi Troll playhouse that the previous owners left behind. The playhouse is sitting in two parts in the garden: a roof and a tower. After a lot of finessing, Bo manages to get the roof loaded onto a flatbed truck. The main part of the playhouse, the blue tower, will have to wait until his brother can come and help him with his own tractor.
Bo and Johan show up driving two separate tractors on Saturday afternoon. A 13-year-old grandson is with them. The boy is driving a dirt bike. Bo has his tractor, Johan has his tractor, but it's not enough. They have to go and fetch a third tractor, a backhoe, which they use to lift the playhouse. It takes the better part of two hours to coax and tease that blue tower onto a flatbed truck.
At some point, Johan jokes that he'd prefer to push the entire contraption into the bay.
When they finally leave, pulling the playhouse behind them on a flatbed truck, Bo drives one tractor, Johan another, and the 13-year-old grandson drives the third. We could have offered to help, but they probably figure the grandson is the safest bet.
Bo and Johan have lived at this bay all their lives. Johan lives in the house where they grew up, a handsome red cottage at the beginning of the road. Bo lives next door in a yellow clapboard house. They told us plenty of things about the house we moved into. Like where the old road used to go, practically right in front of our front door. And where the old lady who used to live here had her strawberry patch.
It's good to know the history of the place. It's also good to know neighbors with multiple tractors.