Into this environment was flown chunks of the Farmall C, using a '30s vintage Travelair 6000 airplane. Canvas and steel tubing, with control lines exposed inside the fuselage, the airplane was a sight to behold. Slow, but very effective for bush pilot work in its day. (By the way, that same airplane is still around, restored and owned by McCall Air Service at the same airport that it was stationed at in the '50s and '60s.) Wheels, engine, transmission case and axles of the tractor fit through the door. Tires do not; they were folded in half to resemble a giant black banana. Works every time (unless they are old.) After several flights, the chunks of Farmall were sitting at the upper end of the "runway", along with a couple barrels of fuel and various supplementary equipment.
Reconstruction started with leveling the rear axle - one 2x4 under the uphill side, a whole stack of lumber under the other end. Using nothing more than levers and blocks, big pieces came together, then all the smaller ones until finally a Super C took shape again. With tires mounted at the far end of the axles and a platform on the fast hitch, the tractor hauled its mower, new trailer parts and all its fuel and equipment down to a waiting bam. Joe names the tractor "Lucille" and she became the first and only motorized vehicle in the area.
Francis wrote articles for the Grangeville Idaho weekly newspaper, and there were always things going on in what would seem to the rest of us like total isolation. Occasionally Lucille would be mentioned, but most of the time she just did her work. She was the taxi to get up to the runway to get people and the mail (along with any groceries you might have ordered.) She logged, making it much easier to get the winters supply of firewood. She plowed a huge garden (almost everything you would want, including something like eight varieties of raspberries!) She also mowed and raked hay for the milk cow and remaining horses and mules. She had a barn when it snowed, and was well cared for by the resident humans. Joe passed away in the 60's, but Francis stayed, with Lucille always there to help.
Francis left her beloved river for the- final time in 1987 after living there for 48 years and passed away a few days later. With no further humans in the bottom of the canyon, Lucille sat in her barn for a couple of years until we rescued her in the summer of 1989. With five-year-old gas in her tank, she started with only a little help, and we moved everything to the runway for one final time. After finding just the right location between the trees, we shut down Lucille and proceeded to dismantle her into lots of little pieces. The biggest piece we had was the almost empty transmission case, which I remember weighed 208 pounds. With the more fragile pieces carefully packaged up, we were ready to go. This time in a Cessna 206, we made eight flights of people, hardware and tractor parts between the vertical airport and another "unique" airport at the end of the road. This landing spot is longer, not as steep, but is cut out of the side of a mountain between trees and rocks, can not be approached straight on, and. . . has a bend in the middle!
Looking like the proverbial junkman, all the pieces were piled onto our Lodestar 1850 truck and driven from the remote wilderness of central Idaho to Northern California. Within a couple of weeks my brother had Lucille back together as good as new. After a new paint job and decals that 40-year-old tractor looked like the day it arrived on the ranch.
Lucille still does yeoman duty on the ranch along with a 560D and a 4x4 806D, but now her human caretakers are my folks. Lucille still is a taxi, moving things on her platform on the Fast hitch. Lucille hauls wood, still tows a trailer occasionally and does many other chores, seemingly in the same condition as she was 40 years ago when she left the ranch for the wilds of Idaho.

Reconstruction started with leveling the rear axle - one 2x4 under the uphill side, a whole stack of lumber under the other end. Using nothing more than levers and blocks, big pieces came together, then all the smaller ones until finally a Super C took shape again.

Within a couple of weeks my brother had "Lucille" back together as good as new. After a new paint job and decals that 40-year-old tractor looked like the day it arrived on the ranch.