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We were delayed, waiting on building permit to be approved. It took 4 months to get approval, so just last month, I was able to really start clearing the homesite. We have our footings in place, and blockwork was supposed to start last yesterday. Here is a drone shot from this past weekend...

Moving a Crepe Myrtle from the dam. Not the best time to dug up and relocate a tree but it had to be done now. There were three of them to move and I thought it would be better to put the first one in the bed of the Bobcat and dig up another and carry that with the excavator. Didn't work out...

I will definitely be hitting up their bearing section, Once I am certain of the size. One of the gangs was a little stubborn but has loosened up a little once I started using it. I'm sure I will have a few surprises when I start working on it but that is to be expected. I have no idea of the...

I have been in need of a harrow. I have wasted an extraordinary amount of seed over the last year, because I was trying to make do with what I had and having the seed wash away with the first rain. Lots of grass and clover and buckwheat and millet have found their way down into the woods and...

Because a large part of this fence will eventually get moved I just did 10 foot poles. 3 feet in the ground with 7 strands of hot steel wire. Previously we had a lazy 3 strand fence that successfully kept them out of the orchard so the 7 foot should do the trick. We are two years away from a...

There are some amazing views from the homesite. This is from the deck I built on our camper, which is situated about 60-70 yds from the homesite, and where the barn will eventually sit.

Just to give a little teaser on the house design. This is one of the sketch pictures from over a year ago....some changes have been made. There will be no garage underneath. And my wife said no way on the color.

We broke ground on the homesite this weekend. As many of you know, I have been building an orchard in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. 55 acres purchased in last summer 2015. We had 20-25 acres logged, leaving us with an inordinate amount of slash and debris. We have 3 acres of Apple...

I put in the 24 foot culvert and it wasn't quite long enough to satisfy me. because it had to go in at angle and decline it restricted the road to about 12 usable feet for driving. Sure, we could have made do with that. But I have two 18 year olds, a 14 year old, a wild willed wife, a 20 year...

We have had some huge rain the last two weeks. Last week I got to see the good and bad aspects of my road. The ditching worked until it got to the bottom of the hill. Then it flowed across the road and washed some of the rock away....but more than that, the silt it washed out covered the rock...

Took this picture of the oats growing last week.

I just put some shorts on and went out in the garage to take pictures.

I have gravel all the way up to the level of the homesite. I have a 60+ yard pad to place our travel trailer on so we can stay on site when we are up there working on the house. It was a good feeling to get those last two truck loads of #3 stone spread today.

I made some more progress today. This morning And then the stone was delivered I had them leave extra so I could tidy things up. They delivered the culverts that I am going to put in. And I got to work to and dug another 50 yds. Bit by bit we will get it done. All told the piece of road...

We are getting more stone delivered tomorrow. We have another 90 yds prepared. I was hoping to have a lot more done, but equipment failures, yesterday, cost me about 6 hours of work time. Working on the ditch. posing up the hill....slowly, slowly My assistant is dutifully shaping the...

Somehow. The tie rod worked its way lose and ended up getting bent It it bent just enough that I can't line it up to reinstall. Does anyone know of a part number and perhaps a crossover part that would fit?tractor is Kioti RX 7320 cab power shuttle. Left side.

The place is going to look like the surface of the moon for quite some time, but every now and then, the beauty of it all come crashing thru.

Yesterday was almost all digging with the excavator....An hour before dark I hooked up the blade. Got a little play time with it and then had time to think on it last night. Today was a maintenance day, until about an hour before dark, when I had another shot at it with the blade. Much...

Resurecting my "zombie thread" on road build. Wife and I have been working on it recently and today I had some #3 rock delivered. I also bought a blade yesterday after spending 2 months watching crags list.

Well now we know what happens when IT hits the fan.

I got it running.....but I'm not sure how. The problem is electrical and certainly associated with the Fusible link. I have the wire type of fusible link. When I pull one of the links....it will run. If I have the fuse in place...it won't start. This makes no sense at all. I took a...

LED. I think the only thing that kept it from going up in smoke was the battery died out.

A few months ago I posted about my excavator not starting. Komatsu PC130-6 http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/construction-equipment/369723-excavator-wont-start-starter-maybe.html#post4558756 It was the starter. In the process of fixing it, I replaced the batteries, and then replaced the...

When they were logging my land, the timber company spread grave in two areas. One area was very muddy and they spread out 4 inch stone. Would it be a waste of time to try to lossen it up with the boxblade and scarifiers and move it with FEL?

The title says it all. My tracks were slack and I was going to tighten them. One side took the grease, but the other side didn't, so now I have one tight side and one sloppy side. The temperatures were in mid 30's today. I have owned the Excavator for 1 year and basically I am a newbie to...

My son in law is a construction worker. Temperatures outside have been harsh, often in the low 20's each morning, with some wind. He is a hard working guy who doesn't spend much on his clothing. Usually layering multiple sweatshirts and some thermal underwear. I know he doesn't spend much on...

On the other side of the swamp , going up a steep hill is a very old road. It crosses over onto another property and is over grown on their land and starting to be on mine. It was made by stacking rocks and filling with dirt. I would guess by hand and animals. That's quite some work. But it...

I spent the weekend Camping and hunting at my homesite. I had a new eye when I was walking that road. I am going to give this a go. If we get into January and it just doesn't feel like it is something I can handle, I will call someone in to finish it. I spent a couple hours on it yesterday...

Short story- I had a contractor who was supposed to start last week dressing my dirt road and laying gravel---he never showed so I told him not to come long story I had several contractors come take a look at my road and give me bids on rolling out the gravel. Two bids that I considered for...

And finally, the view from the bottom .

I had poured buckets of water along the top of the bags I stacked. From what I saw previously, I knew they would all have cracks in them. I peeled off the paper from the top bag This week and mixed up a couple additional bags of cement and made some patches of the cracks, filling in the voids...

That is fantastic work.

I had grand plans for opening day morning. And then I overslept...Didn't get to the woods till 915...hunted for a couple hours then did some farm work. That was Saturday. Sunday morning, I got to the woods just as the sun was starting to lighten the sky. I sat over an improvised food plot for...

I felt that the lower wall needed to be built up some. We added another 112 bags this weekend. It was just enough to make it even with the hillsides. I pinned them together with rebar running at various angles then also going backward into the soil. Then I spent some seat time in the...

Sitting on the lot, where I bought it Getting ready to bring it home Doing work with the wife Taking a break to check out the build site.

I peeled some of the paper off the bags. All the bags on the top row seem to be cracked. I think a lot of this is due to how dry it has been. We got two soaking rains but other than that, not really enough. I don't have any worries about the strength of the wall, only the asthetics of it...

Bow season started a few weeks ago. I used to hunt all day Saturday, every week of hunting season, and also take a few days off so that I could hunt during the week. I hunted during Bow, muzzle loader, and general firearms season. I even hunted in early urban bow and late urban bow. State law...

I spent a good portion of the day Sunday reshaping the overflow for the dam. There is no easy way to do it. You have to grab a shovel and get to work. I also used a string level. I am sure I will be going back and revisiting it a few times to insure that it remains open and that there is enough...

It has been almost a month since I worked on the bridge. My stepson and I went out and put in a day working on it. First we spent a few hours shaping the head end of the spill way, raking away dirt to get back down to the grass underneath and recover some of the original terrain line. Then I...

Once again, my local Komatsu dealer had a better price for replacement parts than I can find on the web. For about $250 I got a new starter and installed it today. I have a soft copy of the shop manual and it was not completely clear on the instructions, so I took a few pictures. First you...

Komatsu PC 130-6. Turn the key and lights on display come on. Makes normal beep noises. Glow plug light goes off and I turn the key all the way. All I get is a very loud mechanical click from the engine area. I thought maybe it was just a weak battery. My batteries were marked as bein from...

My wife and son were both throwing in with me this weekend. When it the cement was stacked 3.5 feet high, we drove some rods down thru it into the ground. If you are at bedrock level, you shouldn't try to drive a rod down thru the bags ......I nearly wore myself out trying to drive the rods...

So. We did a little work on the bridge this weekend. I had a few things slowing me down. Saturday was my granddaughter's first birthday party and in the evening I went to a family BBQ for my sister in law. Sunday I got started with my wife and son around noon. The weather was great...it...

Yeah, that car is pretty cool.

Driveway looks good. Tractor looks good. And that car looks pretty good too.

I found out that my boys can lift those bags. So can my wife. She outworked the boys... darn near outworked me. We got 4 pallets of cement stacked up. On average, the pallets had 42 bags. 6 layers of 7 I might have miscounted the pallets I did yesterday. Today, the tractor absolutely did...

I think I was calculating cost and 80 lb bags were a better value. In retrospect it would have been worth a few bucks more for easier work. My boys and I are at bojangles fueling up. Wife is on the highway with the daughter heading home already. They don't eat fried chicken. Weird. We are al...

I was back at it yesterday. I had another load of gravel delivered to the bridge. I focused on getting the cement bag retaining wall started at the outlet end, so I could backfill with gravel. First I dug out a space under the end of the pipes that was wide enough for two bags. I removed...

I would spread out 5 or so buckets of dirt then pick thru it to remove sticks, roots, and large rocks. When there was about 6 inches I drove on it to compact it. When there was a foot of dirt I stopped worrying about the larger rocks unless they were larger than a bowling ball. I am amazed at...

I was able to send that first picture from the mountain, but couldn't follow it up. Let me back up a bit. this weekend, I made good progress. I started early moving stone for an hour or so and then My wife showed up and was moving stone for about 7 hours on Saturday. I would wait till she...

I have a bridge. I still have a lot of work to do. I'll be be doing more fill and cover work next weekend. But I have a bridge. I had two more trucks of stone delivered Friday. And then two more today. I was able to get the last one dropped right on the job site. Saved me at least 4 hours of...

Sorry, I just re-read my earlier post and saw that I said it is 100 lbs. It is 100 gallons. I suppose a combination tank/tool box would work, but I really don't want to haul the fuel all over with me. I keep the tank on my Farm which is about 120 miles from home. I drive the truck back...

I need a tool box. My 4 door truck is a wreck with all the stuff that is always in the floor of the backseat and in the truck bed. I need to be able to take the box out about 1n'e a month or so to put my diesel tank in and get fuel for the tractor. I can't be the first guy with this problem...

A few more pictures. Getting the trench "just right." I spent a lot of time, once I got all the pipes in, knifing in the stone around the base of the pipes....trying to fill the crevices on the pipe to achieve the maximum strength and structural integrity of the pipe. I would cast a...

This weekend, we began the bridge build. First excavating the trench, Then moving the pipes into place. My 17 year old boys were working with me every time I had to get down on the ground. My wife showed up Sunday to move gravel. The 55 tons of #57 crushed stone that I had delivered were...

I got started today. First we had to transport 3 of the pipes from the rod to the pond. That was a good time. Used two straps to carry and another to keep it pointed forward while unfroze down the driveway with the excavator. Here is the excavator sitting in the overflow stream bed before...

I have had 6 pipe pieces delivered. There was a 7th piece but it was damaged when being unloaded so I sent it back. I have the rest of my materials on site and I'm ready to build. Should I document the build on this thread or start a new one?

I bought the Rice Stealth 16 footer drove it home today. Put about 140 miles on it.

Ford crossing won't. work. It's way too steep. I need to make a bridge so I can drive up that hill. The reason for the large diameter and long run of pipe is to achieve a deep enough drop from start to finish to make the water flow fast enough in the event of a large storm. I am the last...

I have been outside installing a trailer wiring harness for my Dodge Ram. 2004 1500. It came with a 4 pin so I bought the conversion adapter to 7 blade and I was running the brake wire and the hot wire. It's almost 90 degrees so I'm sweaty. I was under the hood putting in the 40 amp circuit...

So now you have me thinking and worrying. I may build up the base line to a foot above the inlet line. Like you said, better now than later. I'll take lots of pictures. This is what I am going to be crossing....gently building up from where I am standing to the crest on the left. The...

I have searched the old forums and only been able to find one thread on a retaining wall made from stacked cement bags. It isn't anything revolutionary, but it is something that I have not done before. I am creating a bridge crossing over the dam overflow of my pond. I hired an engineer to...

Wife at 6 paces (15-18 feet). 9mm.

I'm looking at tandem trailers. I looked at some Rice, Mustang, and Big Tex trailers. Feature to feature, the difference in price is about 200-400 dollars for. 14 foot trailer. The less expensive one, BigTex only has one brake axle. The Rice and Mustang have two axle brakes. All seem solidly...

Muzzleloader. 100 yds

This is one of the pictures that convinced me to have him flown to the USA and adopt him.

I'm having trouble sizing the wood stove for my new construction house that I am about to build. I am not using conventional construction, but also nothing revolutionary. This is going to be a post and beam SIPS house on a cement slab with cement floors and hydronic radiant heat in the floors...

This one is just a few miles from my property.

The weather has been a blessing and a curse. Hard to run any equipment because of how badly it tears up the soil but the trees seem to have done well. So far they are all alive and the deer haven't been coming in too much. I only saw one tree last week that looked like it had some damage. We...

I ordered a Cyclops fence charger from Valley Farm supply. I ordered the whole solar charger and field box kit. Unfortunately, they sent the fence charger but the solar panel charger and box won't be ready for a few weeks. It appears they have those built by local Amish community when...

Just a quick update. The trees that went in last week are doing very well. Only one tree showed signs of having been nibbled on by deer. We used a combination of Milorganite and pepper spray. I will be putting an electric fence up soon. The rapid emergence of buds is pretty amazing to me.

My wife was asked, at her work, what she was doing this weekend. She said working the orchard. Some of her coworkers laughed and one of them said "she hasn't figured out yet, that farmers hire other people to work". We got a laugh out of it. The Girl who said it is 26 years old, living at...

So on Friday, when I got there, it was raining. Trees were delivered and onsite by 10. Somehow, I drove the truck, towing the auger, and loaded down with 37 bags of lime, out to the field, unloaded the pallet, and drove back of without getting stuck., although it did float from side to side a...

I didn't get to start digging until 2 PM. I planted 33 trees today...worked till about 8:45. It is wet Terribly wet. Tomorrow my wife and kids will be out there. I will be busting my butt and so will they....I crack a mean whip. I'm hoping for 200.....150 would really thrill me. The...

We are ten hours till Tree-mageddon. My dream of having a commercial Orchard and Cidery will be born tomorrow. At about 10 AM I am to receive the first 385 trees, to be planted this weekend. It is too late in the season, we have had 4 inches of rain in the last two weeks, there is too much...

It was too wet today to do very much, so I went to Crutchfield and picked up a stereo and an Adapter. Since my wife has more seat time in the tractor than me and probably will for a while, It is her Mother's day gift. She loves her music. It wasn't hard to put in with the two piece screw...

I left the fuel cap off when I left the farm last week. We had over 1.5 inches of rain. I will be draining some of the die from the filter. But I ran the tractor just the same. My wife did a lot of work today while I was in the excavator.

I cleared 3 acres myself, for my fruit trees to go in...that has been a tremendous amount of work. But, I expect to have the trees in the ground in two weeks. My new loggers started moving their gear onto the property yesterday. I think they will get things done much more effectively than the...

Just a small fraction of the stumps I've either dug up or cut off the trees I pushed over.

My Kioti hit 100 hours yesterday. I like it a lot. My wife loves it. The last two weekends, my son in law has been operating the tractor while I use the excavator. We have been clearing several acres of land and preparing it for planting. It has been a huge undertaking. We have a...

Put in some hours this weekend, skidding and stacking trees.

This is what it looked like Sunday morning. We spend all of saturday afternoon pulling trees off the piles so we can get the soil ready for planting. I thin that if we keep our noses down, we can make really good progress. I wish we had more time to do some brush burns but it isn't...

So, after Eddie's fix with the banjo bolt, I have been going strong. I've had to change the inline filter twice. First time after 1 day and the next time after almost a week. I'm going to keep an eye on it, but I think the fuel issue is under control. Since I will have a very long trench...

Quick and dirty grill guard. A bread tray and zip ties. It's temporary.

I was getting 25 acres logged (clear cut) so I could have a few fields, and plant about 15 acres of apples....only trying to plant 3 right now...the rest is to come. I had hired a forester to market it and he found a young guy who seemed like a go getter. Small operation with old equipment...

Having missed 5 days of use, and being near the end of my vacation, I pushed the envelope as hard as I could to get things cleared. I have taken down the trees on approximately 2 acres. I'm hoping my lumber guy comes thru and has moved them off that parcel of land so I can start using the...

In my zest to make up some time today I cause my self some stupid tax. Fortunately it isn't too expensive.

EddieWalker, you are a wonderful human being. It was the Banjo Bolt strainer. As soon as I got it loose and started to unscrew it, my hand was filled with gritty crud and I knew it was going to work. I took out the screen, which did not want to budge because of all the grit, cleaned the banjo...

I want to put an inline filter on my excavator. The type with the see thru plastic and a valve at the bottom. I bought this one at TSC. Dutton-Lainson Company - Since 1886 Is this suitable for a machine, or only for a storage tank? If this is the wrong filter setup, can someone point me in...

There is just a drain valve and the fuel line on the bottom that I can find. I used the magnet and a plastic scraper duct taped to a stick. I ended up with this crud from the magnet. Also got some more stuff to flush. There is still some rust in there but it is a night and day difference...

Box blade mayhem.

Today I was running the excavator, pushing down trees, and I saw some glass on the ground.. It was obviously some old trash. I never ceased to be amazed at the trash I find in the woods. In all my years of hunting, and hiking, I have come across the most unlikely items in the strangest...

Moved some stumps.

Knocking the dirt off the stump, smooth in over the hole with the excavator bucket and moving on to the next one. When we finish with the stumps I'll use the tractor and box blade to tear out surface roots and make things more uniform.

Having read thru several posts about the 50 hour maintenance, I expected to have to change the oil and hydrostatic/transmission oil. Last night I went thru the manual and schedule and I see that all I am required to change is the transmission oil filter. Won't the transmission oil come...

When I was evaluating this excavator, I did not find a lot of owner or operator accounts on the internet. So I am adding mine to help anyone else out who decides to go this route. I've had it for 3 weeks now, and have put about 15-20 hours on it. I have used it to push down some smaller...

No, these are the full set of pallet forks with SSQD. Rated for 4400 lbs. I filled both the tractor and the excavator. It really wasn't bad at all. I was quite pleased with the pump. Here is a picture when we were taking it off the truck. BTW. This is the wife driving the tractor. Today was her...

This thread was quite timely for me. I have 2 5 gallon diesel cans and that was fine for my tractor...but since I just got a large excavator delivered to the land....which has a 65 gallon tank, and after some internet research to calculate my fuel usage, I will probably need a full tank for...

Sorry. I have a hard time getting pictures to upload.

My excavator was delivered yesterday. I got about 3 hours of seat time. The learning curve is sharp. I tried to be gentle and learn how to finesse things, instead of relying on brute force. I cleared a about 6 trees that were 6-8 inches thick, and moved several debris piles and downed trees...

I am in Virginia. I have an inland marine policy on my tractor, thru the agent who handles my house, cars and a life policy. Also an umbrella policy. But when I called to get another inland marine policy for my excavator, I was told that they won't cover it, because I am going to be using it...

From a drone high over the center of my property.

I day it was 20 degrees. Yesterday it was 21 with 18 mph winds. I had long underwear, some quick dry pants, tshirt, underarmour long sleeve, and a wool hunting jacket. Gloves and a thick cap and I was fine. The only thing I neglected was lip balm and I didn't drink enough water. I know 20...

I will let you all know how it works out.

Those are some pretty amazing pictures.

This afternoon, after driving around in my Jeep, with my bride, having a good time in the snow, we drove past a little kioti cab tractor with a plow. It was obviously heading from one job to another. I gave a quick beep on the horn and a thumbs up. That is the first time I have noticed a Kioti...

Found that one the same day.

From a summer squirrel hunt in 2013

Dropped in to Pleasent's hardware in downtown Richmond yesterday to pick up a small forest axe. It turns out that the store is closing and everything is 20% off. I figured that would not include the saws since they can send those to their other stores ( this store has been open for 100 years)...

Got lucky yesterday and harvested a doe. Spent the morning cutting her up. Ribs for dinner tonight

Noticed yesterday that I don't have a retaining pin in this. It also looks like it could slide out both sides . What holds it on from the other side? Am I missing something here?

I am looking to make the purchase of an excavator in the 18,000-30,000 lb size range. I am leaning toward the 18,000 area since it will be more fuel efficient and I think a bit easier to control since I have no current experience. My primary reason is clearing stumps from several acres of small...

Purty mouth for the win. Edited it because I wrote "Party Mouth". But that might be a good one as well. I'm gonna be up there this weekend. I will just stop by his place and tell him I have had trouble with people trespassing on my land. I know he was there with rifle and don't want...

There are signs every 20 yds. And the gate is clearly posted.

I have game cameras on my land, including a couple that point to my driveway. I got a picture of someone checking out my tractor. No damage done and I think it was just the father of a neighbor I know. Probably just curiosity. I also got a picture of another neighbor walking down the driveway...

I have roughly 25 acres of mixed hardwoods and softwoods that I am about to have harvested. I will be buying a used excavator to do the stumping most of the trees are less than 24 inches. There are a dozen or so stumps, in the area where I plan to build my house that are close to 3 feet in...

I have only caught a fleeting glimpse of this deer in daylight. But if he comes around when I'm out with my bow, I'll be ready.

So far, this tractor has been a joy to work with, and the power shuttle has been very easy to control.

I bought 20 feet of 3/8 inch chain with a working load of 6600 lbs and 2 clevises on it. Made in Kentucky...got it at the tractor dealer for a better price than I could have gotten lesser import stuff at lowes. I don't know the grade. Will look tomorrow. The pickup was loaded down pretty...

3 bushells of apples last night. yielded 8-9 gallons of cider. Those are 6 and 3 gallon carboys.

My architect came by the property today to get a sense of where the house will go so he can adjust the design to the lay of the land. He also owns a vineyard and winery and has two John Deere Tractors. So he gave the Kioti a spin and liked it quite a bit. Then my wife decided to take it for a...

I've owned my land for 2 months. Met the neighbors when I was out there taking soil samples before the sale. Seemed nice enough. She had talked to the sellers and new that I planned to clear the land and put in an orchard. Exchanged email address. Once we took ownership I invited them over for...

The RX7320 was delivered this morning. I drove it onto the property and parked it. I had to wait about 5 hours before I could do anything with it because I had other work to do and had to go out in the woods to check up on the forester to see where he marked for cutting. When I finally got...

Went by for my lessons. It's gonna be a steep learning curve but I am excited. My box blade is on the tractor and my grapple is on the way. It gets delivered this week.

Bushhog28, do you have a picture of that?

The wicked root grapple says for tractors up to 75 HP. I'm looking for a grapple for a Kioti 7320. about 8,000-9,000 lbs of tractor with breakout for over 5,000 and lift of 3,200 lbs. Would you recommend going to a different grapple?

My 7320 is at the dealer. They are assembling everything. Probably take delivery in a week. Went by there today to fill out some paperwork and look over some of the implements he had. spending this kind of money puts a knot in my gut. I know that once I start actually using it and getting...

The currently advertised financing offers and incentives expire tomorrow. The FED didn't raise rates. I'm wondering what we will see from Kioti.

I've been to two dealers and I drove the nx6010 cab HST, nx4510 cab, HST and RX6620 power shuttle. I can get the nx6610 and the rx6620 (in cab) for about the same price. I can get the rx7300 for less than a grand more. That is an enormous amount of power for that price range. All three of...

The 4 in 1 bucket looks interesting. The root grapple is absolutely essential for what I will be doing with the tractor. Is there a special setup that I will need to use these? Thanks.

I have been reading and doing searches. Seeing that the engine is the same in all 4 models of the NX with the power delivery being different because of fuel flow, etc. Do you really see the difference? and where and when do you see it?

I apologize in advance. I have searched but have not found exactly the info I need. Partly because I don't know what kind of sprayer is needed for an apple orchard. I am still reading the tutorial on tractors I was sent. A friend who has a small vineyard of about 9 acres under vine started...

My first hello. I am closing on 55 acres of land in at the base of the blue ridge mountains in Albemarle County, VA in one month. Currently it is wooded. The plan is to clear about 30 acres total and plant an apple orchard on about 15-20 acres, and 5+ acres of hops. We will also be building...