For decades, my family used to rake rocks out of our gardens every year but we haven't done that in 20 years. The rocks are now starting to overwhelm us (more rocks than dirt, I swear). This week I built a rock screen (see pic.) to sift out the stones using my almost-new BX1880 (has 18 hours); this job is why I bought a loader. It took me two days and cost about $60 in new PT lumber & galvanized hardware to make the screen (the plywood was leftover from another project). On Saturday evening, I tried it out with a half bucket load and it worked very well, but the sun was going down so I called it a day.
It hadn't rained in a week, but on Sunday we got about an inch.
Today (Monday) was a nice day, bright and sunny, so after work I gave it another try and I had a far different result. While the dirt wasn't mud by any means, it certainly was a lot thicker & heavier. The 1/2" by 1" caging I used for my screen was at times overwhelmed with clumping, even with my sandy soil. I should've waited another day but I was so impatient...
To cap off my stupidity, I didn't put any weight on the rear hitch (and I have a weight box!). When I tried to dump the first full bucket of semi-moist dirt onto the screen by raising the loader, it gave me a heckuva fright when the rear wheels started lifting off the ground (and that's with the 50lb wheel weights). I quickly pushed the control stick forward and settled the tractor. Then I slowly dumped the load onto the ground and did the "drive of shame" back to the shed to attach the weight box like I should have done in the first place. It was pretty dumb of me, but be assured I won't be doing that again. After putting on the weight box, things went much better.
At least the rock screen works and leaves me with some very nice soil (see pic below from before it rained). Still, this job is going to take me a while. I just have so. many. rocks... Gah! The worst part is that just 4 miles north of me, there's a big commercial farm that has no rocks in their soil at all.
At the end of today, I did manage to dump a bucket load of stones in about an hour's work.
It hadn't rained in a week, but on Sunday we got about an inch.
Today (Monday) was a nice day, bright and sunny, so after work I gave it another try and I had a far different result. While the dirt wasn't mud by any means, it certainly was a lot thicker & heavier. The 1/2" by 1" caging I used for my screen was at times overwhelmed with clumping, even with my sandy soil. I should've waited another day but I was so impatient...
To cap off my stupidity, I didn't put any weight on the rear hitch (and I have a weight box!). When I tried to dump the first full bucket of semi-moist dirt onto the screen by raising the loader, it gave me a heckuva fright when the rear wheels started lifting off the ground (and that's with the 50lb wheel weights). I quickly pushed the control stick forward and settled the tractor. Then I slowly dumped the load onto the ground and did the "drive of shame" back to the shed to attach the weight box like I should have done in the first place. It was pretty dumb of me, but be assured I won't be doing that again. After putting on the weight box, things went much better.
At least the rock screen works and leaves me with some very nice soil (see pic below from before it rained). Still, this job is going to take me a while. I just have so. many. rocks... Gah! The worst part is that just 4 miles north of me, there's a big commercial farm that has no rocks in their soil at all.
At the end of today, I did manage to dump a bucket load of stones in about an hour's work.
.
.