What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[CaveCreekRay]

OK... I shouldn't complain. Everyone needs a retirement hobby anyway right?

This area is gorgeous. Many neighbors have horses. Tons of smart deer hang inside of town limits because there is no hunting and they mooch as good as any animal. Bobcats, occasional Mountain lions. Sometimes a Skunk but lots of Javelina. Coyotes come and go. Cave Creek is on the northern edge of Phoenix and has a nice "frontier" feel about it.

This property is pretty nice but the couple that owned it before us became ill and couldn't maintain it. It was right out of 1980, inside. After they moved out, the place sat for almost two years because no one would bite off the renovations necessary to turn it around. It was going downhill fast. Just getting the structural stuff done took 9 months. Tile removal. Mold remediation. Removed 110 feet of exterior wall due to water damage and termites and completely replaced everything. All windows replaced. Complete re-stucco. Remodeled three interior fireplaces (gas-powered concrete saw hooked up to hose... now THERE is a mess!). Gutted two bathrooms. New air conditioning. The list goes on... Fortunately, the seller came down on the price to move the place after we found the mold. That gave us enough room to finance the renovation. In a year, we should have most of everything done.

The beginning point of this whole wah-wah was, I couldn't have gotten started without my tractor. I found a sad, abused 126 hour tractor that needed help. I restored it along the way while the tractor helped me restore this property.

For newbies or folks thinking about whether to buy a tractor or not, use my example as a decision point. Tractors are versatile machines but, they cannot do everything. They have their limitations. The fact that I am now using mine like a powered "wheelbarrow" is just one of the ways it helps me so much with what I am trying to do. Once I get all the yard renovation done, the tractor will have a nice easy job hauling trailers for tree trimming or raking the driveway with a new implement I am going to weld up. I literally could not do what I do day to day without my machine.

Killer sunsets...
Outdoor kitties...
More outdoor friends...
Grown-ups encouraged to act like kids (cowboy action shooter)
Strong feeling of standing for our rights (on the steps of the State Capital during a rally last year)

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Came up with a neat way to haul large boulders, ones too heavy or large to slide into the loader...

Harbor Freight has nifty straps rated at 6000 lb which is about ten times more than I'll need. I use two of them and then a 13,000 lb ratchet strap I cut to about ten foot long for loader use. Works awesome. The ratchet strap lets you shorten the suspension strap to keep the loads as low to the ground as possible. The straps also stick like Velcro to rough boulders allowing you to leave the "belly" of the boulder free to sit upon a wood "teeter" if you need to store them out of the way. The teeter allows you to get the straps back under them when its time to move them to the final location. I am just guessing but I think the larger boulders I am handling are 400 lbs...

-Main suspension strap just threads through the loops on the HF straps
-Transports nice and low
-Temporary rock "nursery" with larger stones sitting on blocking in center

 

[Lil Foot]

Wow, you did have your hands full with that house! Guy I used to work with lives just off El Sendero.
Here's how I move rocks to large for my little beastie.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

A sled is a great idea but wouldn't work for me because I have to temporarily relocate these against a wall and then set them into place when I figure what goes where. I need the "giant hand" attachment for my machine but haven't found one yet. This will work as I have only about ten to fifteen that won't travel in the bucket.

Weird thing is, this whole yard was created after the wall went up. The only access was through the gate, which means these boulders were manhandled through the gate on a cart by hand. Yikes!

 

[andmel]

Just completed a 'weeks long' effort to tune up my 'new to me' 1986 L2850. Degrease and pressure wash. Change crank case oil and filter, flush & refill front axle housing gear oil, flush hydraulics with diesel to remove sludge and water buildup, replace hydraulic fluid & filter, adjust steering gear box for slop, adjust toe-in for wobble at higher speed, lube EVERYTHING else, touchup paint, flush and refill radiator, tighten injector lines, replace front main seal, reassemble, turn the key and .......BINGO, runs like a champ!!! Woops, found another leak...

 

[PWM3rd]

Added/Installed Hodge Stabilizers to 3 point hitch and R2 Manufacturing edge tamers to bucket.

 

[pendoreille]

I made two quarter inch plate shims for my PTB. My bucket is 48 3/4 wide and the PTB came 48". I may still add a couple washers. ole finish carpenter that likes things "dead nuts".

 

[ShaunRH]

I made two quarter inch plate shims for my PTB. My bucket is 48 3/4 wide and the PTB came 48". I may still add a couple washers. ole finish carpenter that likes things "dead nuts".

Problem with tractors is that they tend to not stay that way for long...

I'm not sure there's a perfectly round hole left in my old D-17.

 

[olthumpa]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

What Kubota.
I can not see 30 feet.

 

[ShaunRH]

Hang on olthumpa! get the shovels ready...

It's a little drizzly out here on the left coast, wish it would rain buckets... I know you guys don't feel it, but you're lucky to get wet stuff, even if frozen wet stuff, out there. We're all under drought restrictions here.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

We're all under drought restrictions here.

Your about to completely dry up and blow away.

I'll make you cry, my well is at 54ft the water table around her is anywhere from 12ft and down.

 

[ShaunRH]

Yeah, we have a lot of wells at 75' and less that are no longer in water in certain areas of the County, bone dry. Those wells used to be producing at 20'-30' nominally.

Odd thing is, the environmentalists refuse to let us do desalination. Why we are always restricted by the most short sighted people is beyond me. It's all agenda driven here.

 

[Lil Foot]

I'll make you cry, my well is at 54ft the water table around her is anywhere from 12ft and down.

That's incredible! The well at my place in the mountains hit water at 580ft, drilled down to 620ft, and set the pump at 600ft.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Well, having grown up in Nevada, as far as I can tell, mid Michigan was built on a swamp. Having a dry basement is sort of a fantasy. Don't remember how far down my well is, one of my neighbors had an artesian well. Didn't need a pump at all.

 

[redfernclan]

Hmmmm. My water table is at 1 foot. During the summer when the lawn starts turning brown, I turn the sprinkler on and just move it around. Part of the reason I LOVE living n Oregon.

 

[OldeEnglish]

ShaunRH, I hope you folks get out of that drought! CA has some of the finest places to grow in the country and little to no water . I hear if your in the well drilling business out there your doing very well!

Our property in the valley has an old stone lined shallow well, 12' diameter, 20' deep built in the 1800's, maybe earlier. Coming from a masonry family, having moved my share of stone around, it amazes me how they hand dug it and laid the stone walls. Couple shovels, a donkey or 6, and a crane/pulley system is our guess how it was built. Has an overflow pipe that runs to an old trough 1' below grade that runs all the time except in the dead of a dry summer, but still has 15' of water at that time. Those old farmers were smart, and sure built things to last!

Property on top of the mountains, a good 2800 ft above sea level, the water bubbles out of the ground and literally has a stream running through the old farm house basement. It hardly dries out in the summertime up there. That mountain is full of ponds, great pike and bass fishing! It's like Mother Nature is pumping the water up there...

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Shaun,

Met a farmer yesterday who winters out here. He is a rice farmer from north of Sacramento. He said the leading cause of the drought was the enviro-nazis who have essentially shut off the water flow to the southern San Joaquin valley because of a non-native fish that is happy living in the canals and east bay. I flew over that area for 25 years and virtually all the farms that were there a decade ago are gone. The farms that were there have returned to dry lake basins and the Ag experts are saying it would take 15 years to get those back into productive farm operations again

In the winter, the rains keep the Sacramento river full and they pump that in for the rice fields.. for now at least.

He showed me a video on his phone of a gainormous rice combine filling a green wagon pulled by an enormous green tractor. I asked what they ran and he said the combine was over $500,000 while the Deere tractor and wagon ran $350,000!!! And he has four of them!

When all the farms are gone because the EPA and FDA and other 3-letter governmental jackboots step on the neck of the farmers, who will put food on our tables? When small farming operations that have run for decades are shut down for "food safety violations" who will be left to provide?

We are headed toward really dark uncertainty because our government has run amok...

 

[skeets]

I agree Ray, growing up in the country like so many here, we can see whats going on, but the city kids cannot. The majority of them know not where an egg comes from, or the meat in the plastic wrapper, or how corn gets in to the cans. Bad part is they don't care!!
After I first got married 40 some long years ago, we lived in a 3rd floor apartment. I had window boxes every place and out on the 2nd floor roof. I had all kinds of things growing, pole beans, cabbage, maters, peppers, endive. One guy across the street called the cops because he thought I was growing cannabis. Jagoff didn't know the difference between that and POLE BEANS. He said he didn't know you cold grow stuff in the city,,, DUHHHHH

 

[OldeEnglish]

I agree skeets, most of them are clueless as well as the feds. Although, Certified Organic, non GMO, is becoming a hot commodity for people that can afford it. Its a huge business today and I've noticed a lot of younger people swinging that way. People want to know where their food comes from now and how it's grown.

There has been a lot of squawk about it on wall st the padt few years and is now a multi billion dollar industry of its own.

 

[Daren Todd]

To add another perspective on our food neighbor's sponsored a college student from Rwanda last summer. Used to the government owning all the land, and no amenities that most of us take for granted. Open air markets, no processed foods and used to growing everything.

Poor kid had his mind blown for most of the summer. Couldn't get over the dish washer, and washer's and dryers. Thought we were all filthy rich because we owned two acres of land and had more then one bath room, and the neighbors parents had an above ground pool.
Happened to run into them on his first trip to the grocery store Now that was a sight to see They had to herd him out the door before there ice cream turned to mush. They said it was 6 ours before they could get him out of wally world and didn't dare take him into little rock to the mall

He had a relative staying with a family in vermont. So he went there for christmas. Got to try out all the winter activities up there also