I spent some time on the weekend traveling around the countryside of northern Alberta with a friend taking photos. As we are traveling from place to place I notice the monster tractors and combines that are being used today. It prompted me to find the photo above of my Grandfather, Tom Hewines south of Esther, Alberta with his first tractor. As I was very young at the time I do not remember the exact year he purchased the tractor. I remember it being a Cockshutt 80 and it had a fibreboard cab, he always commented, the cab was a great place for the mosquitoes to hide out in. Note the drum of fuel with a hand pump in it, that would have been purple gas and he would fill up the tank twice a day when he was working the tractor hard. I have operated both the tractors of old like this one and also the new monsters and yes you get over a lot of ground today but that old tractor was a pretty peaceful place to spend the day.