TODAYS SEAT TIME

Not much seat time according to the hour meter, but tried out a new way of storing my excess firewood so I only have to stack it once. Free pallets (my local store has to pay to dispose of them so they are happy if they disappear!) and a couple of 2x4s.
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This is pretty much the limit for my B3200 FEL with wet poplar/maple.

Dodging the showers, today was a beautiful day to be in the yard......
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Soon this will be covered in snow (more tractor time) and then these lovely trees will produce sap for our family's maple syrup and the cycle continues

The past two days I have been bush hogging along the tree line. The time consuming thing is that you have to back in, pull out and move over a little and back in again. Also there is a sharp drop off to be careful of. But it sure does look nice when I finished.

Moved a little wood to the splitter using the fel as a wheel barrow and work table. Sure saves a lot of back strain having the loader do the lifting.

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Originally Posted by Stewie1

1*tried out a new way of storing my excess firewood so I only have to stack it once.
2*Free pallets (my local store has to pay to dispose of them so they are happy if they disappear!) and a couple of 2x4s.

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http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/a...d-pallet-1.jpg
1* I like this.
It's quick easy simple and free and is stackable too.
What more could you ask for?
I don't know how i missed this one since i have used pallets for so many tractoring purposes.
2*I get all the free pallets I want / need at Lowes .
I have also gotten nice several boards such as 2x4 and several other sizes along with both treared and untreated plywood sheets

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Originally Posted by LBrown59

I don't know how i missed this one since i have used pallets for so many tractoring purposes.

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Of course I can't claim credit for this as I saw the idea somewhere on TBN (where else?) but I liked the idea and tried it out. Works for me and others....

Yesterday I taught my self how to cut a PTO shaft. Today I tested out my Wallenstein BX42. Great machine!

Last Saturday it was time to dig out some dirt behind the barn to improve drainage from a hill behind it. After every rain a puddle collects there. An inch of rain had fallen in the past few days, softening the ground a bit and showing where to dig.

With smooth bucket FEL and box blade, I scraped off the top foot or so in a taper from the barn down to the base of the hill, the low end forming a swale leading to a creek. There was no good place to leave the spoils, so they are currently piled up like a levee between the hill and the barn. After two hours, the pile was 1.5 ft high, 4 ft wide, and about 40 ft long which comes to about 9 cubic yards. There were plenty of basketball sized rocks to pry out which made for slow going.

Unfortunately, maneuvering among the rocks pushed in the sidewall of the right rear tire, broke the bead, and caused it to lose air. It took me another hour or so to wash the mud off, jack up the rear end, wrap not one but two 2" ratchet straps around the tire (standing on the ratchet handles to get enough force) to press the bead back against the rim, then reaching in behind the tire to its valve stem with the air hose to pop the bead back on.

Tire pressure was 18psi which is good for traction but not enough to prevent this kind of flat. Max is 30psi in the rears (19.5x12.25 R4s). Next time I'll try 25psi as a compromise. There was no fluid in the tire; it would have be lost when the bead came off. I keep the tractor light for transport and ballast it as needed.

I pumped a bunch of red grease into the FEL pivots after washing. They had been in the mud and the new grease pushed a bunch of black stuff out from inside the joints.

I started cutting some old Fir today as an on going forest improvement project. Around here fir more than 50 or 60 years old has stump rot that only gets worse with time. I have to keep trimming the butts until I reach solid wood and hope I have enough left to make 2 or 3 fairly straight 10' or 12' foot saw logs. It takes about 8 trees to get a 500 board foot load in my one ton dump which right now is worth $140 at the saw mill 7 miles away. It is slow work. I try not to do to much damage. I am lucky to make $12 an hour after fuel. But it keeps an old guy busy and happy.
I took some pictures of the first 2 trees. There was a little hole I was able to winch them up through, tops first. The foliage is on the way out but it is still pretty in the woods.

Spent a good part of today deepening the edge of a pond at the farm! Area is about 50' long & 2-1/2' deeper now, used the clay to build up a roadway & fill some nearby ditches. Using the 790 w/300 loader.

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Originally Posted by Gordon Gould

I started cutting some old Fir today as an on going forest improvement project. Around here fir more than 50 or 60 years old has stump rot that only gets worse with time. I have to keep trimming the butts until I reach solid wood and hope I have enough left to make 2 or 3 fairly straight 10' or 12' foot saw logs. It takes about 8 trees to get a 500 board foot load in my one ton dump which right now is worth $140 at the saw mill 7 miles away. It is slow work. I try not to do to much damage. I am lucky to make $12 an hour after fuel. But it keeps an old guy busy and happy.
I took some pictures of the first 2 trees. There was a little hole I was able to winch them up through, tops first. The foliage is on the way out but it is still pretty in the woods.

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Hard to tell in the photo......is that fir or beech?