NCL4701
Well-known member
Equipment
L4701, T2290, WC68, grapple, BB1572, Farmi W50R, Howes 500, 16kW IMD gen, WG24
Sometime in the 10 years between my leaving home and building a house about 100 yards from my parents and brother, my father bought a used 5’ rotary cutter (bush hog) that looked like it had a pretty rough life before he got it. That would put his ownership originating somewhere between 1985 and 1996.
From 1996 to 2019 I never touched this cutter. I put no telling how many hundreds (more like thousands) of hours on his tractors between ages of 8 and 18, but it was made clear as an adult, I wasn’t allowed to use his tractors or equipment of any description with rare exceptions when it was for his benefit and he couldn’t figure out any other options. It was his equipment so I respected that and he didn’t owe me any explanation.
When he moved from the farm where I grew up to the place we are now, his tractors were a 9N and Farmall H. He had a couple of small fields, about an acre total, up by the public road that needed bush hogging a couple times a year and that was it. I know he used this thing with the 9N a couple times with limited success. He had planted trees in a 10’ x 10’ grid in the little fields in addition to a smattering of a dozen or so random trees already there which resulted in the need to back up and pull forward about 5000 times to mow more than a little of it. The H had a loader on it so it wouldn’t fit with all the trees. He kept it mowed at least once a year.
Around 2008 or 2009 my mother’s Parkinson’s progressed to the point he couldn’t do much more than what was absolutely necessary outside. My brother and his wife had moved out of state. Dad wouldn’t allow anyone to help with Mom; it was the job he signed up for and he was going to do it even if it killed him, which it nearly did. After getting into a somewhat tense discussion about it he did give permission for me to mow the little fields that hadn’t been mowed in two years so long as I didn’t use any of his equipment. Over the next few days, I got the grass and briars mowed with my MTD box store riding mower. I’d have to stop when the gas in the gas tank got to boiling, but several sessions in the evenings after work got it done. I have no idea how it survived that abuse. From about 2011 to 2019, I mowed those fields with my lawnmower, first with that MTD and then with my Cub ZTR. They weren’t made for that. It was abusing them, but the rotary cutter was off limits.
About 2010, the county decided the 5000+ residences they wanted to put in all around us were going to need a sewer main, and they were going to put a section of it on our place on the north side of the creek (we live on the south side). They created a half mile or so grass strip 60’ to 100’ wide that’s kind of flat in some places but mostly sloped heavily. The H is useless on the slopes and rough terrain to get there and would be useless on the sloped sewer line if you somehow made it that far. I didn’t know until years later, but Dad tried with the 9N once. He said it barely got across the creek with all that weight hanging off the back, the slopes made it to where he couldn’t get to quite a bit of it, and at 540 on the PTO the ground speed in first gear was too fast to keep it from bogging in most of it. It just didn’t work for more than moderate grass.
Mom died in 2013. Dad had a semi-retired neighbor/friend. They hung out and did stuff together on the property, mostly around hunting. That guy had an old 35 +/- hp Workmaster that could run the bush hog. Once a year, before deer season, he’d make a few passes down the sewer line. Not exactly mow it but beat it down enough when a deer walked across the sewer line you could see it, shoot it, and not immediately lose it. He wouldn’t mow the fields by the road. I still flogged my poor lawnmower doing those. It was weird but I respected my father and if I couldn’t use his equipment even though the neighbor could, that was his prerogative. As an aside, I wasn’t allowed to hunt. My son was after I shamed my dad into letting his only grandson hunt at least a couple days.
2018. My father is now in his 80’s. He and I are outside at my brother’s old house talking about I don’t know what. There’s a ragged bass boat sitting by the basement garage so I ask him what he’s doing with that. It’s neighbor/friend’s. Motor doesn’t run, needs a little fiberglass work, and Dad is going to get it going in the next couple weeks when parts for the motor come in. Ask him if he still enjoys doing stuff like that. He says no, but he has no choice. I don’t like that. Over several conversations and a few observations the next couple months I find out Dad stored and maintains neighbor’s tractor but isn’t allowed to ever use it. Neighbor takes at least 7 deer per year from our place (way over the legal limit) before Dad is allowed one. Neighbor has access to buildings, computers, and various equipment way beyond anything close to reasonable because he “maintains” the property.
Early 2019. After a lot of research and a little shopping, I call my dad. Offer him a deal. I’m buying a tractor. That’s not a question, it’s being delivered next week. He has some 3 point implements and a better place to store it than I do. If I can store it at my brother’s old house and use his implements any time without asking, I’ll get him a key to my tractor and he can use it whenever he wants without asking. He asked what I was getting. Told him. He looked it up on the internet and told me to get him a key.
Our private road was in bad shape and somehow bush hogging had become the crux of the tail wagging the dog issue, so I knew I needed something more than his lightweight backblade for the road and a reliable bush hog. Asked him if the discounted implement in the package deal should be a box blade or bush hog. He said the bush hog looked like crap but nothing functionally wrong with it. He’d tried fixing the road but his blade and 3 tine subsoiler just bounced on it, so get the boxblade. Thus, I finally was allowed use of the ratty old bush hog.
Part 2 to follow.
From 1996 to 2019 I never touched this cutter. I put no telling how many hundreds (more like thousands) of hours on his tractors between ages of 8 and 18, but it was made clear as an adult, I wasn’t allowed to use his tractors or equipment of any description with rare exceptions when it was for his benefit and he couldn’t figure out any other options. It was his equipment so I respected that and he didn’t owe me any explanation.
When he moved from the farm where I grew up to the place we are now, his tractors were a 9N and Farmall H. He had a couple of small fields, about an acre total, up by the public road that needed bush hogging a couple times a year and that was it. I know he used this thing with the 9N a couple times with limited success. He had planted trees in a 10’ x 10’ grid in the little fields in addition to a smattering of a dozen or so random trees already there which resulted in the need to back up and pull forward about 5000 times to mow more than a little of it. The H had a loader on it so it wouldn’t fit with all the trees. He kept it mowed at least once a year.
Around 2008 or 2009 my mother’s Parkinson’s progressed to the point he couldn’t do much more than what was absolutely necessary outside. My brother and his wife had moved out of state. Dad wouldn’t allow anyone to help with Mom; it was the job he signed up for and he was going to do it even if it killed him, which it nearly did. After getting into a somewhat tense discussion about it he did give permission for me to mow the little fields that hadn’t been mowed in two years so long as I didn’t use any of his equipment. Over the next few days, I got the grass and briars mowed with my MTD box store riding mower. I’d have to stop when the gas in the gas tank got to boiling, but several sessions in the evenings after work got it done. I have no idea how it survived that abuse. From about 2011 to 2019, I mowed those fields with my lawnmower, first with that MTD and then with my Cub ZTR. They weren’t made for that. It was abusing them, but the rotary cutter was off limits.
About 2010, the county decided the 5000+ residences they wanted to put in all around us were going to need a sewer main, and they were going to put a section of it on our place on the north side of the creek (we live on the south side). They created a half mile or so grass strip 60’ to 100’ wide that’s kind of flat in some places but mostly sloped heavily. The H is useless on the slopes and rough terrain to get there and would be useless on the sloped sewer line if you somehow made it that far. I didn’t know until years later, but Dad tried with the 9N once. He said it barely got across the creek with all that weight hanging off the back, the slopes made it to where he couldn’t get to quite a bit of it, and at 540 on the PTO the ground speed in first gear was too fast to keep it from bogging in most of it. It just didn’t work for more than moderate grass.
Mom died in 2013. Dad had a semi-retired neighbor/friend. They hung out and did stuff together on the property, mostly around hunting. That guy had an old 35 +/- hp Workmaster that could run the bush hog. Once a year, before deer season, he’d make a few passes down the sewer line. Not exactly mow it but beat it down enough when a deer walked across the sewer line you could see it, shoot it, and not immediately lose it. He wouldn’t mow the fields by the road. I still flogged my poor lawnmower doing those. It was weird but I respected my father and if I couldn’t use his equipment even though the neighbor could, that was his prerogative. As an aside, I wasn’t allowed to hunt. My son was after I shamed my dad into letting his only grandson hunt at least a couple days.
2018. My father is now in his 80’s. He and I are outside at my brother’s old house talking about I don’t know what. There’s a ragged bass boat sitting by the basement garage so I ask him what he’s doing with that. It’s neighbor/friend’s. Motor doesn’t run, needs a little fiberglass work, and Dad is going to get it going in the next couple weeks when parts for the motor come in. Ask him if he still enjoys doing stuff like that. He says no, but he has no choice. I don’t like that. Over several conversations and a few observations the next couple months I find out Dad stored and maintains neighbor’s tractor but isn’t allowed to ever use it. Neighbor takes at least 7 deer per year from our place (way over the legal limit) before Dad is allowed one. Neighbor has access to buildings, computers, and various equipment way beyond anything close to reasonable because he “maintains” the property.
Early 2019. After a lot of research and a little shopping, I call my dad. Offer him a deal. I’m buying a tractor. That’s not a question, it’s being delivered next week. He has some 3 point implements and a better place to store it than I do. If I can store it at my brother’s old house and use his implements any time without asking, I’ll get him a key to my tractor and he can use it whenever he wants without asking. He asked what I was getting. Told him. He looked it up on the internet and told me to get him a key.
Our private road was in bad shape and somehow bush hogging had become the crux of the tail wagging the dog issue, so I knew I needed something more than his lightweight backblade for the road and a reliable bush hog. Asked him if the discounted implement in the package deal should be a box blade or bush hog. He said the bush hog looked like crap but nothing functionally wrong with it. He’d tried fixing the road but his blade and 3 tine subsoiler just bounced on it, so get the boxblade. Thus, I finally was allowed use of the ratty old bush hog.
Part 2 to follow.
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