Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Bruce]

Before I read your last post I was assuming you wanted a cab tractor because you live where it gets too dang hot to be outside most of the day without A/C. The skin cancer thing is an even better reason. I take it the price gets you a loader with bucket and nothing else. You can use your grapple (and forks if you have them). It is a Cat II 3 point but you can use your Cat I implements though I'd be careful not to work them too hard, that is one powerful tractor compared to mine (twice the HP in fact) and mine doesn't know its own strength. I managed to bend the top of the "guard" on the pallet fork rack just tilting them down to dump a big rock last summer. I hadn't noticed that the guard started pressing into a tree as I tilted and lifted. I think I might be able to push it back (sort of) into shape with a hydraulic jack, no way I could do it by hand.

 

[chickens really]

Interesting journal!
I don't have anything to say about tractors though.
Have a great day.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I take it the price gets you a loader with bucket and nothing else... It is a Cat II 3 point but you can use your Cat I implements though I'd be careful not to work them too hard, that is one powerful tractor compared to mine (twice the HP in fact) and mine doesn't know its own strength...

That's correct. I am having a third function valve installed so I can operate my grapple and tree shear. All of my implements are Cat I. My NH TC48DA was a Cat II as well, but much less horsepower. I have a feeling I may be replacing the mower soon after getting the tractor.

Interesting journal!
I don't have anything to say about tractors though.
Have a great day.

Thank you, Miss @chickens really! Read my journal whenever something gets you down and you need some comic relief. And you might want to learn about tractors. You have a beautiful place and may decide that a tractor would be quite useful to help keep it that way.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

I have a feeling I may be replacing the mower soon after getting the tractor.

Nah, just be careful with it. The only real reason to replace it would be if you want to get bigger one that this new tractor can handle. Maybe a nice batwing like TTWT showed a while back. I bet you could pull a really good size one.

 

[farmerjan]

Batwing mowers/bushhogs are real nice..... cover alot of ground.... BUT you have to be real careful to watch a much bigger area for rocks and ledges. You can raise the sides up a bit, like to do the sides of a drive path like we have into and out of fields.... but you have to be VERY EXTRA careful about any objects that might fly up and out. They are not as maneuverable in tight places.
We have a 15 ft batwing that is absolutely great at a couple of places. But I mostly prefer the single large bushhog for doing most of the pastures because I like to get up close and around the rocks and ledges. I think it is 8 or 9 feet. That is plenty for me except in the couple of big pastures where there are few rocks.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

I doubt that I will ever get a batwing mower, unless the guy who is currently leasing the pastures decides not to lease them any more, and even then I would probably stay with a single deck. I do try to be careful with the mower and not intentionally abuse it, but as we have cleared trees and bushes around the pasture edges I have sometime left stumps that are too tall. Because of a lack of a tractor, the grass and small shrubs have started growing up around the pastures again, which hides a lot of the stumps. I expect that I will be breaking a lot of shear pins on the mower. I just hope the gear box holds up.

 

[chickens really]

That's correct. I am having a third function valve installed so I can operate my grapple and tree shear. All of my implements are Cat I. My NH TC48DA was a Cat II as well, but much less horsepower. I have a feeling I may be replacing the mower soon after getting the tractor.



Thank you, Miss @chickens really! Read my journal whenever something gets you down and you need some comic relief. And you might want to learn about tractors. You have a beautiful place and may decide that a tractor would be quite useful to help keep it that way.

Senile Texas Aggie

My husband keeps talking about getting a small tractor for around here. It would come in handy for some projects we have.

 

[Ridgetop]

WOW! Look how far you have come STA - remember when you were discussing getting a tractor with Greybeard? Now you just reel off things like grapples, third function gears, batwng mowers, forks and tree shears, etc. not to mentions horsepower and torq!!!

Can't wait to hear what all you do with this new tractor. Paying cash is a good idea. Who needs food? Besides with a tractor like that you can put in a ginormous garden, build a chicken coop, rabbit shed, and be completely self supporting. If you have to dig up any more water lines, though, you might want to use a shovel instead of this tractor. LOL

Your Beautiful Gal is a good woman!

 

[Bruce]

My husband keeps talking about getting a small tractor for around here. It would come in handy for some projects we have.

What projects and what size? You'll likely find more projects once you have it than you are thinking of now.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Look how far you have come STA - remember when you were discussing getting a tractor with Greybeard?

Yes, I do. I am very appreciative of the help and guidance he and others here on the forum provided. I remember posting on my journal about an ad for a tractor that had terms I had no idea what they meant, such as "R4 Ind". I remember thinking, "Does that mean the tractor has 4 rear tires? Does it mean that the tractor has independent rear suspension? I have never heard of a tractor with independent rear suspension." I think it was Mr. @Bruce who then told me that it meant the kind of tire that was on the tractor, the R4 being the tread pattern and the "Ind" meaning industrial applications. (Thanks for that explanation, Mr. Bruce.)

My husband keeps talking about getting a small tractor for around here. It would come in handy for some projects we have.

What projects and what size? You'll likely find more projects once you have it than you are thinking of now.

Miss @chickens really, you would probably be amazed to find out just how much more work you can get done with a tractor and some implements/attachments. For example, having a good mower for the tractor means that you can cut grass a lot faster in your pasture, and if you get a more robust mower, you can easily cut down small saplings as well. Having a front end loader with a bucket, you can move dirt, gravel, and wood chips around a lot easier. If you get a tree shear (very pricey but highly useful if you have a lot of trees), you can cut down larger trees and tree limbs, instead of having to fight with the trees to cut with a chainsaw or pole saw. If you get a grapple, you can carry a lot of items that are not easily moved with a loader bucket, such as tree limbs, rocks, and other debris. If you get a wood chipper for it, you can make all of the wood chips you could use from the trees and tree limbs you cut down. If you have a gravel driveway, you can easily maintain it with box blade or land plane. You could get a backhoe attachment if you need to dig up stumps or dig trenches (very pricey but quite useful for some projects.) You can talk to Miss @Baymule, who owns a subcompact Kubota that I think she calls Marigold, that she and her DH use for their farm. Mr. @Bruce owns a larger Mahindra which he uses to mow his pastures, pallet forks to carry logs out of the woods, and a backhoe attachment which he used to dredge his pond during a drought a couple of years ago. Mr @Mike CHS owns a tractor that he uses for mowing areas that his sheep can't access, and for other things.

If you want to watch a couple of YouTube videos, I recommend "GP Outdoors", who owns a B2601 Kubota subcompact tractor and does all kinds of things with it. Outdoors with the Morgans also uses several different tractors and implements. (It was on their channel that I saw just how useful a grapple could be and decided to get one.) If you want to learn tractor basics, watch Tractor Mike. Then you and your husband will have an idea just what you can do with a tractor.

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I forgot to mention earlier, but last week I bought another push mower to replace the one that died. I finally gave up on the shop where I took the previous mower. It seems he is swamped with work and he has still yet to look at the mower to see if it can be repaired. The new mower is almost the same as the previous one, except that the gas tank is smaller. Normally my Beautiful Gal mows around the shrubs and other obstacles while I mow the main part of the yard with the zero turn radius (ZTR) mower. When my gal stopped sooner than I expected, I asked if there were something wrong. She said she ran out of gas. So I filled the mower with gas. Then I asked her if she wanted to use the ZTR mower and I use the push mower. To my surprise, she said yes. After a few moments of hesitancy as she learned the controls, she then started mowing the yard with surprising skill. I think I may have lost my job on the ZTR and have taken over the push mower job!

The faucet in the kitchen has needed replacing for a while now, so yesterday I did that. I read the instructions (I know, I may have to surrender my man card for doing that) but I think I would have been better off if I had not. I removed the old faucet (a 3 hole style one), which was a little ornery but not too bad, and put in the new faucet (a 1 hole style with a 3 hole cover plate). Once I finished, I discovered that I had a gasket left over. After looking at the diagram, it appeared that the gasket was for the faucet where it mounted to the sink. Muttering to myself, I took it all apart and then tried to put the gasket on the mounting plate. It wouldn't fit. After looking at the diagram again, I saw where the gasket was for a 1 hole mounting configuration, but not the 3 hole configuration. I had done it right the first time! So I put it all back together. At least it was easier the second time.

I may need to buy a new trailer to haul the new tractor with. Yesterday I measured the width of the trailer from inside to inside of the rails and it was 76". Kioti on their web site says the tractor is 77.2". I plan to go to the dealer today and measure the tractor to confirm, but if the tractor won't fit, then when I buy a new trailer I will get one with a higher GVWR.

Senile Texas Aggie