What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[g_man]

It was windy and warm this past weekend and much of the snow has melted. It warmed up so quickly and stayed above freezing overnight so we didn't get the awful freeze and slick ice. It's supposed to be 50F and sunny this weekend so I might be running the land leveler on the gravel driveway if this keeps up. Crazy weather for sure.

You don't have a mud season out there ?? Just curious how other places are. Where we are, the frost goes down deep during the winter. Where the ground is exposed all winter like a road it will go down 4' or more, Then when the surface thaws in the spring it becomes a slurry of saturated mud because there is no drainage with everything below still frozen. It is worse with a quick warm up like you are having.

This is what I mean - it is usually a month before I can grade.

gg

 

[Hugo Habicht]

No. He use to not be scared of the tractor, ....

The reason I asked was that my cat runs (as in runs) when I start my Mini Kubota. Problem here is that she is blind, so I have to make sure every time I start the tractor that she is well away or in the house.

Maybe bigger / more modern tractors are not as loud. I thought of improving the noise level but I think that will be difficult to achieve.

 

[In Utopia]

View attachment 149185
My sawmilling customer is still bringing logs to my sawmill with his L4701. We will finish sawing these Tulip Poplar logs tomorrow and move on to the Cypress. Two more days and I should finish this job.

What are the sizes of lumber to you cut to?

 

[Chanceywd]

Bill - - look familiar?

My FIL worked there on Clinton Avenue until their closing.

View attachment 149179

That's it!

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

You don't have a mud season out there ?? Just curious how other places are. Where we are, the frost goes down deep during the winter. Where the ground is exposed all winter like a road it will go down 4' or more, Then when the surface thaws in the spring it becomes a slurry of saturated mud because there is no drainage with everything below still frozen. It is worse with a quick warm up like you are having.

This is what I mean - it is usually a month before I can grade.

View attachment 149197

gg

We sure have it over here…from past few days just a bit of snow left and maybe the top half inch is thawed…what a mess and it’s just starting…and not only that it’s still only February. I do t believe I will be running my tiller or playing in the woods anytime soon. But it is sap collecting season, so there is that. We started a few weeks ago collecting but then we froze up again. Will see what happens this week. I hope to be boiling this weekend.

 

[g_man]

We sure have it over here…from past few days just a bit of snow left and maybe the top half inch is thawed…what a mess and it’s just starting…and not only that it’s still only February. I do t believe I will be running my tiller or playing in the woods anytime soon. But it is sap collecting season, so there is that. We started a few weeks ago collecting but then we froze up again. Will see what happens this week. I hope to be boiling this weekend.

Yesterday was the first day that got above freezing (35*) since the end of December so our mud season is probably a long way off unless something drastic happens. For us it is usually mid April.

gg

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

You don't have a mud season out there ?? Just curious how other places are. Where we are, the frost goes down deep during the winter. Where the ground is exposed all winter like a road it will go down 4' or more, Then when the surface thaws in the spring it becomes a slurry of saturated mud because there is no drainage with everything below still frozen. It is worse with a quick warm up like you are having.

This is what I mean - it is usually a month before I can grade.

View attachment 149197

gg

Nope no spring break up issues here:
This was our driveway 10 years ago, it's much better now but still not perfect.

 

[McMXi]

You don't have a mud season out there ?? Just curious how other places are.

gg

Not really. The ground is dry up here, there's no clay to hold water, and I'm situated on a lot of bedrock. My friend on the river has never mentioned mud being an issue but again, I think that's down to good drainage and the fact that we don't get a lot of rain here.

 

[nerwin]

I got my butt on the tractor today and moved some snow as it got warm and some of it needed to be moved. Figured it was a good time to get some practice in with the bucket!

Video coming soon!

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

Yesterday was the first day that got above freezing (35*) since the end of December so our mud season is probably a long way off unless something drastic happens. For us it is usually mid April.

gg

50s and sunny here today. I looked the B but it was just too muddy to get her out. The other Bees were carrying out the dead bodies and stacking em like cordwood. Excellent day here for mud and muck boots…collecting sap (average day…north face of the hill is just starting to run) was a real slip and slide…the pups had a big time and earned a bath, and we had a real nice sunset just now. The feathers on the fresh batch just starting…4days old). Tractor will not be in the woods for a while based on what we slopped through.

 

[Old_Paint]

Brought the box blade to work with hopes of welding a receiver to the backside for trailers and such. Couldn’t find a suitable way without mass fabrication, abandoned that idea. Since it was here decided to weld up a quick basket for chains and the like. Pretty happy with it. Rattle can skills could use some help, but who is gonna see it? Other than the internet of course!
View attachment 148784
View attachment 148785
And yes, I painted the dirt.

Dirt is paintable. I have quite a collection of multi-colored dirt that I chipped off when I need to weld something that the dirt won’t hold anymore.

 

[Old_Paint]

Nice shop setup. Have heat?

No heat other than a little propane salamander thing and an even smaller oil bath heater (1500W). . I want to put in a wood burning stove that I fed as a teenager, but chimney material is stoopid expensive. If the local building inspector sees it and I can’t prove it was done by a ‘professional contractor’ (i.e. someone likely related to him), he can and will likely condemn my 4 year old shop. I had enough BS because I plumbed a water line to it. The missus doesn’t want me to put in heat because she says she already feels like a workshop widow for about 10 months every year until it’s just too cold to stay out there. We have fairly mild winter weather, but I think this has been the worst winter in a long time. We had snow twice this year and a lot more sub freezing weather than normal. The Canucks must have left the back door open.

The missus helped me build it actually. Together, we did EVERYTHING except finishing the concrete. I did all the forms, grade prep, and reinforcement for the slab. All the contractor had to do was pour and finish. He tried to hire me to do his form work. Local concrete vendors won’t sell to anyone but contractors, so that’s why I hired one. I [over]designed the trusses for the 24 foot span with no support posts and the walls are 16” studded rather than the normal 24 seen in this area. The covering on the inside walls is mostly repurposed pallet slats and plywood from crates to give it a rustic interior. I matched the exterior vinyl siding to our house to make it look like it belonged with the house. It pretty much served as Physical Therapy after double rotator cuff surgeries spaced 4 months apart in 2019.

It replaced a little 12x20 prefab. I wish I would’ve made it another 6’ deeper and another 12’ wider, but somehow I convinced myself that 24x36 was big enough considering the effect the big pandemic scare was already having on lumber prices. I was definitely wrong. However, I was really feeling the sting of the prices by the time I got the roof on it in 2020. I was also laid off during my recovery period (14 months per doctor prescription). I was already hunting a different job and studying retirement anyway so I had some rather choice things to say to the a**hats that bought our division and went the retirement by disability route. I didn’t burn the bridge, I nuked it. I didn’t know just how ready I was to retire.

 

[nerwin]

I put a video together today haha. Took way longer than it should. Stupid Xfinity...gigabit internet just not upload so took way too long.

Anyways here you go.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I put a video together today haha. Took way longer than it should. Stupid Xfinity...gigabit internet just not upload so took way too long.

Anyways here you go.

I know your new to the tractor game.
But...
My moving snow removal looks more like a nascar race, compared to your grandma going to church method of snow removal.

 

[nerwin]

I know your new to the tractor game.
But...
My moving snow removal looks more like a nascar race, compared to your grandma going to church method of snow removal.

I'm gentle. I haven't had any time with the bucket so this was good practice for me. I think using the snowplow helped get a little better. It was nothing but a sheet of ice. I actually tried to go much faster but tractor wasn't having it.

 

[Magicman]

What are the sizes of lumber to you cut to?

I custom saw whatever dimensions that my customers request. Here is the lumber on the job that I will finish tomorrow:

Tulip Poplar sawn one inch and various widths to 12".

Red Oak; 1" on the bottom and mostly 2X4's & 2X6's on top. 3532 board feet sawn so far.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I custom saw whatever dimensions that my customers request. Here is the lumber on the job that I will finish tomorrow:

View attachment 149226
Tulip Poplar sawn one inch and various widths to 12".

View attachment 149227
Red Oak; 1" on the bottom and mostly 2X4's & 2X6's on top. 3532 board feet sawn so far.

What's the longest you can handle?
I have a friend that has a BIG mill and he has run me quite a few 24' long lumber and beams in 8"x 8" , 2" x 16" and 1"x 24"
The 8" x 8" were a bear to work with but they looked incredible as posts and beams for a clear roof porch.

 

[Old_Paint]

This is an option I hadn't thought about!
My initial thought was to butt weld a 2” receiver tube to the box, but after thinking about it, I don’t believe that would hold up over time. Even if I added some type of gusset top or bottom. Then thought about sinking the tube into the plate and welding both sides, that’d be plenty strong. Here’s what I have to work with, top placement seems too high and plate is angled, I do have an adjustable height hitch I could make work. Still concerned about the angle. And lower position seems, well, just too low.
View attachment 148791
View attachment 148792
I should have taken some measurements while attached to tractor… oops.

Haven’t read all the replies yet, but that receiver hitch is gonna fill up with dirt if you put it in the blade like that. I thought about that same idea but talked myself out of it. I am working on a design that I can hang on the blade and lock in place, but easy to remove so I don’t have to constantly clean the dirt/mud out of the receiver. The box blade holds enough dirt (which it kindly deposits on my shop floor). Don’t need more cleaning. The quick hitch is the cat’s pajamas and I modified my towing adapter to fit the QH, so it’s a quick change out. If I think I’ll need the tow bar again, I just lay it on top of the box blade to keep it handy. I’m a little leary about putting any holes in the frame of the box blade but something that I could quickly pin on and just as easily stow would be the bees knees.

 

[johnjk]

You don't have a mud season out there ?? Just curious how other places are. Where we are, the frost goes down deep during the winter. Where the ground is exposed all winter like a road it will go down 4' or more, Then when the surface thaws in the spring it becomes a slurry of saturated mud because there is no drainage with everything below still frozen. It is worse with a quick warm up like you are having.

This is what I mean - it is usually a month before I can grade.

View attachment 149197

gg

That looks like my drive. Top 4” of soup and ice below. Water just stands there and Amazon thinks they should drive 80 mph up and down. Half tempted to dig more holes just to slow them down.

 

[Old_Paint]

I custom saw whatever dimensions that my customers request. Here is the lumber on the job that I will finish tomorrow:

View attachment 149226
Tulip Poplar sawn one inch and various widths to 12".

View attachment 149227
Red Oak; 1" on the bottom and mostly 2X4's & 2X6's on top. 3532 board feet sawn so far.

When I grow up, I wanna make pretty lumber like @Magicman.

Getting ready to pull the pin on a mill. I have quite a few oak and pine logs to learn with and some will test any skills I think I might have. First practice piece is gonna be a big curved fork for slabs just to learn how to cut crooked useless stuff into marketable slabs.

Probably going to use the straighter stuff to build a bigger better chicken coop. The missus has decided to have chickens. LOTS of chickens, and she doesn’t mind having a project we can both work on. I came up with a modular design for the run panels and cover that uses a 4x8 grid pattern and is super easy to add onto (assuming there’s no trees in the way). I already built a 6x8 coop from scrap lumber that I recovered from a couple deck replacements. It’s like a bomb shelter for chickens. I figure I’ll reuse it again to make more chicken furniture and playground equipment for them. They love climbing, so might as well make it safe for them to do it.