Shoveling, mucking, lifting, hauling, post-hole digging, et cetera: If you move to the countryside and have land to maintain, you'll never need a gym membership. I love it out here, and the outdoor exercise that comes with it. But as I go deeper into my 50s and my body starts to break down, I often wonder what machine could be doing this instead.

With great envy I've been looking at photos and videos of those with Kanga Compact Loaders.

These seemingly tiny Australian-made machines come in wheeled or tracked variants and can be fitted with all sorts of fun attachments: Self-leveling buckets, trenchers, post-hole augurs, stump grinders, forks, tillers, cement mixers, rotary brooms and more.

The stand-on, gas- or diesel-powered machines come in four different sizes, allowing you to choose one appropriate for squeezing through the narrowest gates or pinch points on your property.

Here's an example of the attachments you can use with their smallest unit, the diminutive-but-mighty 2-Series Kanga Kid:

Out of curiosity I tried to find out how much these cost, but prices are not listed. And in their Frequently Asked Questions area on the Finance section of their website is this worrying line: "I need to run it by my spouse."

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.

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