Building a Hobby Farm- from woods to eggs

[3RRL]

I sure have enjoyed the twists and turns of this thread.
Tony, you are way ahead of me with your gardens and chickens. Man, I wish I was moved in already so I can start tilling ground like you.
One especially nice thing about this thread is how much your kids are loving it. You'd have to look far and wide to do any better for them than what you did.

[Flatheadyoungin]

All of you are killing me! I really put the cart before the horse. I bought the tractor before the land.

However, the owner of the 40 acres is supposed to come in to town on the 22nd of this month. We've been preapproved on the loan for the land. I just hope something crazy doesn't happen to nix the deal

Can't wait to start digging two culverts, spreading some gravel, bush hogging, using the chainsaw.......with spring and nice weather, it's killing me!!!

Great thread, good reading about other that enjoy/have common interests.

[easygo]

I too am a regular reader and occasional contributor here. Things that Tony and several others here are doing are way over my head due to lack of time, but it certainly is great reading.
So. Ladies and Gentleman! Keep it coming.
(The snow have finally melted here, but it is now too muddy to use the tractor without doing some serious damage. I'm having withdrawal problems.)

[tony123]

I'm back...we've been out of town for a while. It's nice to be back and in touch with the thread again! I'm sure everyone feels this way, but it is also nice to not have the pressure of the trip looming over me. Between the weather getting nicer and the trip behind me, I'm sure to make some good progress in the next several months.

Adam, that is neat that we have these similarities and are so close to each other. I hope you participate from here on, and look forward to one day meeting.

Thanks to all for the encouragement. Rob, if I accomplish nothing else, I want the boys to have fun!

Flathead, welcome.

[tony123]

Today I got the lumber to start construction on the chicken tractor. We got back from our trip, and the girls were much larger!

Also went and got a brush hog. A 4' Howse. Got it for $450, so it was much cheaper than other options, making it a no brainer. I'm a bit nervous if I made a wise choice or not? My property is pretty sloping and between the trees, rice paddy tires, etc. I hope it works out. My other option was to get a small riding mower for grass cutting. I just didn't like adding more engines to maintain. This also helps justify the tractor purchase to my wife. We'll see how it goes...as I type this my neighbor just got home with a new JD lawn tractor to compliment his large Kubota. I think some turf tires may be in my future. Although I don't know if they will do the job for tilling and box blade work.

I'll post photos of the brush hog later. Hope to do some cutting this evening with it.

[Tororider]

Glad to hear you got back safely. Vacations are nice, but coming home is always a good feeling.

Post some pictures of your girls when you get a chance, I missed out on the unbelievably fast growth, but my three seem to be doing well. They like getting outside in their pen.

I will be interested to see how your brush cutter works on your hills, although I would have done the same thing. The more attachments for your tractor the more valuable your tractor becomes, or at least percieved value.

I have no experience with turf vs ag tires, we have industrial. From what I hear industrial are a decent tradeoff. I wouldn't want to cut a nice lawn with them, but they get decent enough traction for pulling/pushing and don't tear the heck out of everything, so that might be a consideration for you. I am guessing that changing tires often would get old.

[Adam23]

Tony - Great purchase on the bush hog! Did you get that used or new? Where did you find it. I am looking for the same thing and that price seems right on!

Ag tires are very hard on the ground. I had AG's on my Yanmar and now have the industrial R4's on the Kubota. I like the R4's much better as they have great traction for pulling/tilling/blade work but are fairly easy on the grass. If I turn sharp or have it in 4wd and turn sharp it will tear up the grass but no where near as bad as the AG's used to. On the other hand the AG's are great for muddy conditions and for really pulling something heavy. In the mud the R4's load up very quickly and do not clear well at all. I have no experience with turf, but would not suggest them for your hilly terrain and type of activities you use your tractor for. Turfs are good if you maintain a very nice lawn and that is what 80% of your tractor is for.

I have 13 chicks and they are right about the same age as yours and I am suprised at the speed in which they are growing as well. They look funny as they are getting their feathers developed. They almost resemble a good sized quail at this point. My boy and I are both excited to get them in the hen house with the other chickens and have them start producing eggs. I have 4 other adult hens in the hen house right now that we got last week and we are only getting 2 eggs a day on average and have had 2 days with no eggs. I wonder if it is just them getting used to the coope. I guess a couple of more weeks will tell.

I picked up a couple of starter plants for my garden yesterday from a local greenhouse around the corner from me. I got a bell pepper plant, 3 tomato plants, a straight neck squash, watermelon, and cantalope. I have them in the garage right now and am not sure when I should plant them. My wife went to the Chineese Distribution Center (wal-mart) and got a bunch of seeds that I need to get in the ground soon as well. When should we start planting this stuff?

I will get some pictures on here of the garden and coope soon so you all can see. I doubt that I will be able to be as descriptive as Tony has been with the plot map - that was fantastic. It really put my bearing straight on where your planning on doing everything. I guess I can try but don't expect to much!

[scgargoyle]

About time you got back, Tony! We had to resort to talking to .... each other! You're probably gonna have to something about your ag tires- yours are particularly aggressive. On really firm, established turf, you might get away with it, but you're a long way from that. Looking forward to seeing the chicken tractor!

[tony123]

I called Hoye Tractor today. Rear Turfs will be $700 !!!! No can do. I've been searching the forum, and came across a thread where a guy took a sawzall to these rice paddy tires. He cut about half of the tread down, particularly they looked rounded on the outside. I meant to post the link here, but can't find it right now? He claims it was the best mod he's ever done and says it made a significant difference. Something about tearing into perfectly good tires doesn't seem right. But I ain't spending $700 and the ones I have don't fit my need. After this first year or two of "construction" I expect the tractor to be used 80% or more for cutting grass.

Adam, the brush hog came from Southland Equipment here in TR. I'd appreciate though if you don't go in mentioning me or the price. They have them priced higher.

Here's a few shots of it.







You can see that my trailer has paid for itself once again! Got home and got it unloaded (i.e. let it fall out of the trailer). I wrestled the darn thing for 20 minutes trying to get it hooked up to the tractor only to find that the PTO shaft is too long. I'll have to take it off and cut it down. I'm not too sure how to determine where to cut? anyone have pointers? I do have an overrun clutch, and am guessing I need to cut 6" or so off the shaft. Was hoping to have some action shots tonight, but that will have to wait.

Here are the girls. They've been getting 2-3 hours a day grazing out in the yard. The dogs are getting more used to them, but I still keep a real close eye on the lab.







I can't put my hands on my garden calander, but I think most summer stuff can go in this weekend. I'll track it down and post what we're planting later this weekend. We hope to get it in Saturday if the rain holds out. On the other hand, I've got all that grass seed out and would rather it get rain!

[Tororider]

Nice looking cutter and chickens. It sure looks like the boys are having fun with them.

The pto shaft should be cut a couple inches shorter than you need with it totally overlapped. Since the two pieces of the shaft slide over each other if you cut it so that it would be a couple inches too short with the pieces pushed together as much as they can go, you should have plenty of wiggle room when you slide it out. If any of that made sense. Someone else may have better advice and be able to better describe what I am trying to say.