Farm team takes on beach duty, crime-scene search

David Livingston can make his heavy-duty John Deere loader dance, walk and, of course, dig.

Livingston, along with Dale Hancock and Mark Stanton, were reassigned last week from their work at the Manatee County jail farm to the Anna Maria shore.

There, on the beach, the men drove two farm tractors and a massive loader borrowed from Manatee County, for four days. The work was part of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office search of the Willow Avenue beach for clues in the disappearance and likely death of Sabine Musil-Buehler.

Musil-Buehler’s last known whereabouts were provided by her boyfriend, William Cumber, who is serving 13.5 years in prison for violating his probation on a 2005 arson conviction. Cumber, a person of interest in Musil-Buehler’s disappearance, told authorities that he and Musil-Buehler were watching the results of the 2008 presidential election on Nov. 4, 2008, when they argued over his smoking cigarettes. Musil-Buehler left their Magnolia Avenue apartment, he said, and was not seen again.

On July 9, while clearing out an overgrown area of City Park in front of his family home, Ed Moss found items belonging to Musil-Buehler. His discovery prompted an MCSO search of the Willow Avenue beach that is continuing this week.

Key to the search is the support staff from the farm, working with detectives and crime-scene technicians with the MCSO and also technicians with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.

Livingston, Hancock and Stanton spent about 40 hours last week operating the tractors on the beach, with temperatures in the 90s and feeling even hotter.

As they emptied each bucket, they watched the sand fall, searching for clues but only occasionally finding shells, animal remains, trash and one miniature toy soldier.

MCSO Capt. Doug Baird said Livingston, Stanton and Hancock got the beach assignment because they are the farm’s best tractor operators.

“It would be nice if they were successful in the search,” Baird said mid-morning July 22, as he watched the drivers dig into a line of sea oats west of City Park, where Musil-Buehler’s possessions were found.

Others in the farm division will assist later on the case by trying to generate new plants from sea oats collected from the Willow Avenue beach.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which permitted the excavation of the beach and dunes, asked the MCSO to groom the beach and replant the dunes.

Best price Peg Perego John Deere Loader | Ride Ons For 1 Year Olds

We bought this tractor for our 3 year old daughter for Christmas. She has been obsessed with tractors since she was a baby, and this one looks just like Great-Grandpa’s tractor that she rides on when we visit. Our daughter (and our 19 month old son) love it! Our daughter is easily able to work the pedals and dumper. Our son is happy just to climb on and sit in the seat. The tractor seems very sturdy and high quality, so I’m sure we will get many years of use out of it.

On the negative side, as others have said, the assembly instructions are poorly written and portions of the assembly are difficult. I would advise putting on most of the decals BEFORE assembling the tractor. The steering wheel is difficult to attach to the steering column because the column falls into the body of the tractor when you push the wheel on. After 20 minutes, when we finally got the steering wheel attached, we discovered that the dashboard decal must be put on BEFORE the steering wheel. Another hint for getting the steering wheel on (since we had to do it twice), is to grease the column with a little bit of vegetable oil to make the wheel easier to slide on. Our other struggle in getting the tractor together was attaching the bucket to the tractor. It takes two people to compact the tractor enough to be able to put the retainer on the end of the rod. Also, the instructions don’t mention it until a later step, but there is a special tool included with the tractor that is designed for putting the retainers on. We didn’t realize this for the first retainer, but it made putting the second one on much easier.

All in all, even with the difficult assembly, this toy is really worth the money. Be sure to leave time for assembly – it took us over two hours – and be sure to bring your patience. When you are done, you will have a great looking, high quality toy that will keep the kids entertained for years.

I bought this tractor for my grandson’s 4th birthday and he just loves it! I was so pleased to see that he really can pedal on grass and dirt as they said. Those large tires in the back make it possible. He loves to collect leaves and dump them at another part of the yard. I would not recommend this for a child who is small for his age. My grandson is tall and can just reach the handle to work the bucket.

This was a gift for my son’s 2nd birthday. He’s an avid John Deere fan and was extremely ecstatic. I had a pedal tractor when I was a kid so I thought he’d love it as much as I loved mine. First, let me say that my tractor was MEDAL – so if you are looking for the quality of the good ole’ days, look elsewhere. Granted this is made of the same plastic as a “Power Wheels” but it just isn’t the same as the old medal ones. That said my son LOVES this tractor – LOVES IT! He plays for hours on end, loves the front loader – he’d play with it all day long. So, taking that into consideration, I must rate this toy a 4 or 5 – it is worth every penny. Who cares if it’s not medal? He certainly doesn’t. *Warning, the assembly instructions are PATHETIC – seriously pathetic. The instructions are very POORLY written – there is no parts list and the picture diagrams just make it harder. Make sure to have the box in front of you for a picture reference. Otherwise, if you have the choice of letting the toy store put it together for you – pay the extra money because your time is worth it! Don’t worry, even though it’s cumbersome to put together the end result is worth it.

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