So last week we bought our first tractor, a Massey Ferguson 1533 with Power Shuttle, FEL and tooth bar I posted up a few pics of the new acquisition right after it had been delivered to us here. I figured we should post up a follow up to show you what we've put this new tractor through in its first week
The first day, the evening of the day we got it, we wanted to test it out of course! Here's the wife grinning ear to ear on her new toy:
And here she is getting it dirty turning some manure in the improvised manure pile:
After that, the tractor was nice and dirty, as it should be i guess
One of the first projects we had planned to do was to move a fence + gate down by the stalls. The gate that was there was only a 4ft gate, and we needed it to be a much bigger gate so a tractor / truck could get through it. We also wanted to move the fence + gate to open up more space for a tractor / truck to be able to move around closer to the barn. To create the new fence we had to sink two 4x6 posts. We are also planning on fencing in the whole front yard (3/4 acre or so), so the choice for our first implement was easy. It was acquired on Friday and hooked up on Saturday to tackle the job:
And after carefully moving around, angling, positioning and familiarizing ourselves with the tractor and controls etc, it was time to drill baby drill:
After that we did the second hole, ended up measuring a lot again, manually dug some more to get the posts' distance just right, and then finally poured in some gravel at the bottom, set the posts, braced them and poured concrete. By then it was way past lunch time, so we took a break so the concrete would get a chance to set. When we got back we put the boards up (screwed them in, not hammered, i hate nails), removed the braces and filled the holes around the posts with dirt. The end result for day 1:
Me posing proudly next to our first project
The next day it was time to take down the old fence + small gate. You can see the old fence with the little gate behind me in that previous picture. We first hung the new big gate so that the area was closed off, then we proceeded to dismantle the old fence & gate:
The first post came out fairly easy. We had to figure out how to do it right, but it didn't really give us much difficulty. But the 2 posts on either side of the gate proved to be a challenge! The tractor was not able to just pull 'm out, and we had to manually dig quite a bit. Turned out the posts were sunk quite deep and had a big chunk of concrete around them. But after a lot of pushing, pulling and digging we finally got them out:
(Notice the proper use of seatbelt by the wife After reading some of the threads in the Safety forum, i pressed upon her the importance of using that. I'm proud of her. )
After we filled the holes and cleaned up we called it a day. We were pretty pleased with our first tractor project Sure, it took us all weekend to do it, but hey, we're new at this
The tractor certainly earned its keep this weekend. It was well worth the monthly tractor payment to have it to do the digging and pulling etc I figure if on average we get one good weekend like this out of the tractor each month, it'll be well worth it!
Looking forward to many more fun projects on the tractor
The first day, the evening of the day we got it, we wanted to test it out of course! Here's the wife grinning ear to ear on her new toy:
And here she is getting it dirty turning some manure in the improvised manure pile:
After that, the tractor was nice and dirty, as it should be i guess
One of the first projects we had planned to do was to move a fence + gate down by the stalls. The gate that was there was only a 4ft gate, and we needed it to be a much bigger gate so a tractor / truck could get through it. We also wanted to move the fence + gate to open up more space for a tractor / truck to be able to move around closer to the barn. To create the new fence we had to sink two 4x6 posts. We are also planning on fencing in the whole front yard (3/4 acre or so), so the choice for our first implement was easy. It was acquired on Friday and hooked up on Saturday to tackle the job:
And after carefully moving around, angling, positioning and familiarizing ourselves with the tractor and controls etc, it was time to drill baby drill:
After that we did the second hole, ended up measuring a lot again, manually dug some more to get the posts' distance just right, and then finally poured in some gravel at the bottom, set the posts, braced them and poured concrete. By then it was way past lunch time, so we took a break so the concrete would get a chance to set. When we got back we put the boards up (screwed them in, not hammered, i hate nails), removed the braces and filled the holes around the posts with dirt. The end result for day 1:
Me posing proudly next to our first project
The next day it was time to take down the old fence + small gate. You can see the old fence with the little gate behind me in that previous picture. We first hung the new big gate so that the area was closed off, then we proceeded to dismantle the old fence & gate:
The first post came out fairly easy. We had to figure out how to do it right, but it didn't really give us much difficulty. But the 2 posts on either side of the gate proved to be a challenge! The tractor was not able to just pull 'm out, and we had to manually dig quite a bit. Turned out the posts were sunk quite deep and had a big chunk of concrete around them. But after a lot of pushing, pulling and digging we finally got them out:
(Notice the proper use of seatbelt by the wife After reading some of the threads in the Safety forum, i pressed upon her the importance of using that. I'm proud of her. )
After we filled the holes and cleaned up we called it a day. We were pretty pleased with our first tractor project Sure, it took us all weekend to do it, but hey, we're new at this
The tractor certainly earned its keep this weekend. It was well worth the monthly tractor payment to have it to do the digging and pulling etc I figure if on average we get one good weekend like this out of the tractor each month, it'll be well worth it!
Looking forward to many more fun projects on the tractor
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