Jay4200
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2005
- Messages
- 2,028
- Location
- Hudson/Weare, NH
- Tractor
- L4200GST w/ LA680 & BX2200D w/ LA211
I spent the better part of the summer landscaping around my new place - I took an extended vacation and did a lot of tractoring.
The grounds had the trees removed 25 years ago, but basically had nothing else done - grounds were lumpy, rocky, mis-graded, mostly sand, and covered with misc. brush. The driveways were carved mostly from existing base material, and hadn't been worked in years. I spent most of the time pulling rocks while re-grading both the grounds and driveways. Easily pulled out about a half-million boulders or so. I also made a 100' long 2'x2' french drain that crosses through the area next to my barn to assure proper drainage for the surrounding grounds - it used up 20 yards of washed stone. When all was said and done, I had restored and re-surfaced 1100 feet of 12' driveway and two parking areas (~5000sq. ft. total) with ~6" of nitpack gravel (3/4" stone mixed with stone dust) for a grand total of 360 yards of material brought in, for a total driveway/parking surface area of just under a half-acre. I also reclaimed a little over a half acre of scrub, graded and loamed it with 235 yards of organic loam (dirt mixed with rotted poo - yummy). I'm seeding this weekend. I also trenched ~100' below frost line to replace my well line and run power (jet pump to submersible conversion - what a PITA).
I used my 2500-hour ratty Kubota 4200GST, carrying a Woods 9000 backhoe, Woods RB72 grading blade, and Bush Hog 6' landscape rake with gauge wheels (the Bush Hog rake is a POS, BTW). I also cut a clearing in the woods that overlooks my beaver swamp, and traded a little loader work with my neighbor in exchange for his grinding the stumps out of the clearing.
I got an estimate for the road work of roughly $15,000 + materials. I'm sure that didn't include all of the rock picking. I estimate the landscaping work to easily be twice that if I hired it out. I paid $15k for my tractor/BH/trailer when I bought it 5 years ago... SO, not including the well work or stumps, and not including the bonus of keeping myself busy all summer (AND losing 25 pounds), my tractor paid for itself 3 times over this summer alone. Wicked.
JayC
The grounds had the trees removed 25 years ago, but basically had nothing else done - grounds were lumpy, rocky, mis-graded, mostly sand, and covered with misc. brush. The driveways were carved mostly from existing base material, and hadn't been worked in years. I spent most of the time pulling rocks while re-grading both the grounds and driveways. Easily pulled out about a half-million boulders or so. I also made a 100' long 2'x2' french drain that crosses through the area next to my barn to assure proper drainage for the surrounding grounds - it used up 20 yards of washed stone. When all was said and done, I had restored and re-surfaced 1100 feet of 12' driveway and two parking areas (~5000sq. ft. total) with ~6" of nitpack gravel (3/4" stone mixed with stone dust) for a grand total of 360 yards of material brought in, for a total driveway/parking surface area of just under a half-acre. I also reclaimed a little over a half acre of scrub, graded and loamed it with 235 yards of organic loam (dirt mixed with rotted poo - yummy). I'm seeding this weekend. I also trenched ~100' below frost line to replace my well line and run power (jet pump to submersible conversion - what a PITA).
I used my 2500-hour ratty Kubota 4200GST, carrying a Woods 9000 backhoe, Woods RB72 grading blade, and Bush Hog 6' landscape rake with gauge wheels (the Bush Hog rake is a POS, BTW). I also cut a clearing in the woods that overlooks my beaver swamp, and traded a little loader work with my neighbor in exchange for his grinding the stumps out of the clearing.
I got an estimate for the road work of roughly $15,000 + materials. I'm sure that didn't include all of the rock picking. I estimate the landscaping work to easily be twice that if I hired it out. I paid $15k for my tractor/BH/trailer when I bought it 5 years ago... SO, not including the well work or stumps, and not including the bonus of keeping myself busy all summer (AND losing 25 pounds), my tractor paid for itself 3 times over this summer alone. Wicked.
JayC