Dream Tractor Job

[BrokenTrack]

My wife and I decided to sell a couple of houses, so I was just finishing up getting them ready to sell when a friend stopped by and said he needed some help. He has had a terrible time getting workers this year for his Heavy Excavating business, and said he needed someone to mow the sides of the road. He has got an Alamo Boom Flail mower on a 4430 John Deere 4X4 tractor, and knew I was not doing much and wondered if I would mow a few towns for him. I thought about it for 2 seconds and said I would.

I have been mowing now for a week, and it is a pretty good job. I do not even know how much I am getting paid because we never talked about that...I mean, it is mowing the sides of the road. I like it because the towns we work for hire a boom mower to mow to the treeline, and I have always been a fan of pushing back Maine's every growing trees next to the road.

It is slow going, 4 miles per hour, but you have your hands full on that 3rd pass, reaching out 20 feet into the ditch, swerving around telephone poles, signs, mail boxes, guy wires, tires, bikes, trees, etc, all the while following the in and out sloped ditches on contour. But it makes a huge difference when you are done.

Most people wave, or give you a thumbs up because they like being able to hit the brakes before deer jump out into the road because they can now see them, or see out of their driveways since the weeds and trees are beat back, but I have also got screamed at twice, and even got the finger once from a woman. If a person has a nice front yard, I will assess the situation and try to make the place look a good as I can by mowing the ditch, or leaving it alone depending what they have for flowers, but this woman had planted apple trees within the right of way. I was taking them out on my first pass, and my boom mower is only 6 feet wide...they had no right to be there. There is a place for trees, and a place not to have trees, and 6 feet from the edge of the road is not a place to have apple trees.

I love it mostly. It is just me, "my tractor" and the grass, and I calculated that I mow about 35 acres per day, with about 250 acres to mow this summer. It is a flail mower so maintenance is easy, checking knives morning and at noon, and carrying shackles, pins, cotter keys and knives on the tractor. And my friend has a full-time mechanic so when something breaks, he is a call away to come and fix the problem. Believe it or not, traffic is not that bad, and most people watch out for me because I cannot watch out for them, but there are a few downsides to this job too.

The worst is the ticks. I carry tick repellent and douse myself before changing the knives as ticks are EVERYWHERE on that mower. Another bad thing is the "pucker factor". A boom mowers creed is that no grass is worth mowing that causes a roll over, but at the same time people afraid of rolling tractors over need not apply for mowing the sides of the road. Yesterday I mowed an old town dump and I had to brace my left leg against that fender to keep from toppling out of the seat. I kept the mower extended out as a counterbalance, but almost pooped my pants on the back-swath. That was because my boom mower had to be on the downhill side doing that, and there was a woodchuck hole, and a tree I had to pick my mower up and over, all the while down in the mud. I thought I was going over several times.

But overall I like it, and I try to do a good job. I try to mow as far back as I can, and even on minor roads...driveways really...that the towns maintain...I treat just as I do the main highways, so that the roads look good when I am done. I have to, I am a profession boom mower operator now!

 

[Code54]

Neat. -sounds like fun.
Stay safe and enjoy!

 

[bridge4]

Post a pic sometimes of some risky or interesting stuff you see! Sounds fun,good luck and stay safe.

 

[LouNY]

Nothing like an "easy" job to keep a person active, enjoy and keep the rubber down.

 

[Birdhunter1]

people afraid of rolling tractors over need not apply for mowing the sides of the road

That ain't no joke, I worked summer help for the county highway department out of high school and I was on the mowing crew quite often. I learned a lot about mowing on hills and get a chuckle when some people get the pucker factor on things that wouldn't even phase you on the roadside after about a week.

 

[EddieWalker]

That does sound like a great way to spend your day!!! I've watched them work here in East Texas and it's always impressive to see the results that they get. We are in full mowing season with the Highway mowers on the Interstate, the County mowers on the local highways and the city mowers all over the place. In one day, I think I saw over twenty 15 foot batwings, a couple of 6 foot bushogs and two of those side mowers that you are using. We went from overgrown, to all out war all in one week!!!!

 

[Diggin It]

If a person has a nice front yard, I will assess the situation and try to make the place look a good as I can by mowing the ditch, or leaving it alone depending what they have for flowers, but this woman had planted apple trees within the right of way. I was taking them out on my first pass, and my boom mower is only 6 feet wide...they had no right to be there. There is a place for trees, and a place not to have trees, and 6 feet from the edge of the road is not a place to have apple trees.

Did anyone from the town or county give you the authority to make that decision? Do you know for sure that they didn't have some kind of variance or other legal permission to plant there?

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
If there was than he would/should have been told. I can think of no reason why anybody would do that. A friend did something similar... intentionally building a retaining wall inside the road R/W. I tried to explain to him that if they had to remove it he was SOL, but he had some explanation which didn't even make sense.

Hey B.T., I was wondering how you were doing. It's good to see you posting.

 

[Diggin It]

^^^^
If there was than he would/should have been told.

As a new, part-time, possibly temporary employee of a contractor, did anybody from the town or county even know he was out there doing mowing to be able to tell him?

In most places a mower has no decision making ability at all. Someone from the local government would have to contact the property owner about any possible violation like those trees.

 

[Industrial Toys]

They just cut our roadsides, with a disk mower I think. I believe it's contacted work, and figure the guy get's a bit of a break when he comes to my place and the grass is cut park-like.

I know when I use my ditch mower, it's not an easy task. I can do it for short periods, but for the back and forth and operating so many height, in and out, and angle adjustments at the same time, it would wear me out in short order.

 

[BrokenTrack]

^^^^
If there was than he would/should have been told. I can think of no reason why anybody would do that. A friend did something similar... intentionally building a retaining wall inside the road R/W. I tried to explain to him that if they had to remove it he was SOL, but he had some explanation which didn't even make sense.

Hey B.T., I was wondering how you were doing. It's good to see you posting.

Yeah I have the right to mow anything within 33 feet of the center of the roadway. Since I have a 6 foot mower, making (3) passes (18 feet), with a 12 foot travel lane, puts me at 30 feet; well within the right of way.

If the woman wanted her apple trees saved, she should have put up a sign; it is that simple. Mowing always starts the second week of July in that particular town, so it is not like she did not know I was coming through.

I got the finger when I told her she should not be planting trees on other people's land. (Property starts 33 feet from the center of the road or even further depending on the right of way width). But I was really doing her a favor in disguise. If a person I walking down the roadway, and they do not have 3 feet of room from the edge of the roadway in which to walk due to plantings, the landowner is liable for the pedestrian's death/injury if they are struck by a car/truck. A lot of people do not know that, and would cut their bushes back if they did.

 

[Jstpssng]

Yeah I have the right to mow anything within 33 feet of the center of the roadway. Since I have a 6 foot mower, making (3) passes (18 feet), with a 12 foot travel lane, puts me at 30 feet; well within the right of way.

If the woman wanted her apple trees saved, she should have put up a sign; it is that simple. Mowing always starts the second week of July in that particular town, so it is not like she did not know I was coming through.

I got the finger when I told her she should not be planting trees on other people's land. (Property starts 33 feet from the center of the road or even further depending on the right of way width). But I was really doing her a favor in disguise. If a person I walking down the roadway, and they do not have 3 feet of room from the edge of the roadway in which to walk due to plantings, the landowner is liable for the pedestrian's death/injury if they are struck by a car/truck. A lot of people do not know that, and would cut their bushes back if they did.

I was unaware of that, also. My mother's hedge has grown out to less than that. In order for it to be a hindrance though a person would need to be walking in the ditch.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Hey B.T., I was wondering how you were doing. It's good to see you posting.

I am doing well I guess. Medication seems to be handling the brain cancer well enough, so for the first time in 18 months I am out and about again. I stayed busy over the winter exploring my place some, and found some interesting discoveries, enough so I wrote a book about it. A nice memoir of the last 4 years of my life.

Really a lot has happened since I was posting on here, like getting returning pituitary cancer, getting things settled in court with that logger that stole all my wood, almost financial ruin, and then just when I was sure we could not handle any more issues, Katie and I lost our unborn son. It was a lot to handle, but God met our needs, kept us fed and warm, and we survived the winter. We got a couple of people interested in one particular house, though two are up for sale, a spare house here in Maine, and another in New Hampshire.

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm sorry to hear that, especially about your son. It sounds like you are doing your best.
Take care.

 

[coobie]

I am doing well I guess. Medication seems to be handling the brain cancer well enough, so for the first time in 18 months I am out and about again. I stayed busy over the winter exploring my place some, and found some interesting discoveries, enough so I wrote a book about it. A nice memoir of the last 4 years of my life.

Really a lot has happened since I was posting on here, like getting returning pituitary cancer, getting things settled in court with that logger that stole all my wood, almost financial ruin, and then just when I was sure we could not handle any more issues, Katie and I lost our unborn son. It was a lot to handle, but God met our needs, kept us fed and warm, and we survived the winter. We got a couple of people interested in one particular house, though two are up for sale, a spare house here in Maine, and another in New Hampshire.

God speed.Wish you & your family well.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Flail Mower: 1
Brand New Chainsaw: 0

Well, it was a Husqvarna so it was not a REAL chainsaw, but it was new, WAS!

Apparently my neighbor had put his new chainsaw in the back of his truck, but then his wife went to go to the store to get lunch. She did not shut the tailgate, so when she got back, the saw was gone.

I found it.

It slid out of the back of the truck when she backed into the road, and then took off. The high weeds hid it until I came along. I totally obliterated it. All that was left was the bar, and that was bent into a pretzel.

I talk to myself because I have worked by myself for the past three years, and I just said, "well that is a first." I mean I have hit kids bikes, dozens of tires, skidder cables, sheep fence, barb wire, dozens of tires, and even property markers, but not a chainsaw...until now. Well they heard me talking to myself, so came over to look, but they did not see it. I was long gone, so they stopped at the shop and asked the mechanic who knew nothing about it, so he asked me if I saw a chainsaw in my travels. Well indeed I did!

We both got a chuckle out of it.

It is too bad, it was a new chainsaw, and in my own experience I have run them over with bulldozers and skidders.