At Home In The Woods

[hitekcountry]

Obed
If I remember correctly you bought your tractor knowing you would be building this house. So any comments on how useful that piece of equipment is and also if you could change that decision would you like to have, bigger, smaller, more horse power, backhoe?

 

[radioman]

This area was filled with red clay by the excavator last fall. I'm not sure why he added fill here. He was not supposed to add to the natural grade and doing so here would just made the slope behind the house steeper. He added a good 12" of clay to this area. The clay has packed incredibly hard and has lots of rocks in it. I went back and between using the FEL and the box blade for digging the dirt. The tractor had an extremely tough time cutting through the clay. It was slow, slow, slow work. Often I would have to get my 6 foot steel digging bar and pry a rock out of the clay because that was faster than getting the rock out with the FEL. The boxblade was useless for digging rocks larger than a softball out of the packed clay.

The wife asked me why I did not use the scarifiers on the boxblade to break up the hard packed clay. Actually, I did not think of using them. However, upon reflection, I'm afraid that I would break them when they would inevitably catch on one of the rocks.

With that much work around your house and still more to do, you need to get a toothbar for the FEL.

 

[Obed]

Obed
If I remember correctly you bought your tractor knowing you would be building this house. So any comments on how useful that piece of equipment is and also if you could change that decision would you like to have, bigger, smaller, more horse power, backhoe?

Yes, I bought the tractor to maintain our other property (61 acres of woods on the plateau) where we had originally intended to build the house. (Anybody want to buy 61 acres on a scenic mountain river? I'm motivated.) The tractor was wonderful for cleaning up the plateau property. And yes, the tractor has been great help on our current property where we are now building.

• We dug some of the footers for the house with the backhoe attachment.
• I ran 60 ft of the camper's septic pipe using the backhoe.
• The boxblade has been great for grading our 900 ft driveway through the woods.
• I used the backhoe and FEL to prep the area for the well so the well rig could dig the well.
• The tractor was used to backfill the basement and garage areas with gravel before pouring the slabs.
• I used the backhoe to clear the trees where the camper and storage trailer now sit.
• I used the boxblade and FEL this weekend to do the grading in preparation for the construction of the back porch and deck.

I would pick the same tractor again for my needs. To tell you the truth, I can't image living here and building the house without the tractor. The horse power (28 HP) is normally enough for what I use it for; more horse power would just use more diesel. For some of the heavy dirt work I've done, a little bigger tractor would be useful but I don't do enough of that to want a bigger tractor. Plus, a bigger tractor would be harder to maneuver around the tight spaces I've got. The HST (hydrostatic transmission) has been invaluable. This weekend's work would have gone much slower if I'd had to change gears every time I wanted to change direction from backwards to forwards and visa-versa. The two things I'd really like would be a toothbar for the FEL and an 18" backhoe bucket in addition to the 9" backoe bucket that came with the tractor. The biggest downside to this tractor is how difficult it is to attach and detach the backhoe. Once I have a garage and a flat surface to store the backhoe, I'm hoping that attaching/detaching the backhoe will be much easier.

Obed

 

[Obed]

With that much work around your house and still more to do, you need to get a toothbar for the FEL.

I would LOVE to have a toothbar for the FEL. This weekend's work would have progressed twice as fast with a toothbar that could dig through the hard packed red clay.

Obed

 

[Obed]

I spent today finishing the grading for the back porch and deck. The weatherman didn't quite get it right. Today's forecast was a high of 45 F and partly sunny. It was overcast all day with a high of 38 F. Grading this steep area was nerve racking.

I'm thrilled I got this task done. I've been concerned about the grading of this area all winter but haven't been able to do anything about it because building materials have blocked my access to this spot. It took two days of work but it's now done. I'll have to fine-tune by hand the areas next to the concrete when the brick gets laid.

 

[Obed]

After finishing the grading today, there was one more task I needed to perform. I'm thinking that at a later date I might rent a skid-steer to push these massive dirt piles behind the house down the hill and taper them down. However, once the deck construction begins, there wouldn't be enough room between the deck and the hugh pile of dirt to get any machinery around the deck to access the dirt. The picture shows the tractor is sitting where the deck will be located. These are the "before" pictures.

So I moved a WHOLE BUNCH OF DIRT with my FEL and dumped it down the backside of the dirt pile. I have no idea how many buckets I moved. I was very uncomfortable driving the tractor on top of the new dirt I just put on the back of the dirt pile in order to dump the next loads of dirt over the back. Fortunately, it went without mishap. I now have enough room to get a skid-steer back there after the house is finished.

The

 

[Obed]

These pictures show the area after I finished. I now have enough room to get a skid-steer around the deck after it is constructed.

The wife made me a chocolate cake to reward me for my work this weekend. Life is good!

 

[Obed]

Here are the latest house pictures. The roof work has gone very slowly. However, we have some felt on some of the roof now.

 

[2manyrocks]

The weather has just not been favorable to building lately, but better weather is not far off. :thumbsup:

 

[Diamondpilot]

Very nice job on the dirt work. Looks like a true professional.

I agree about the tractor size. I also have a 28HP tractor but its about 1/4 again the physical size of your JD and I find it perfect for me. I could not imagine going with a smaller machine or a slightly larger machine.

As or the BH when you get the concrete slab make a dolly for the BH. I have made dollys for all my stuff and man does it make it easy. For a BH I would either weld up one or bolt together some 4x4 timber and use nice 4" or larger casters. Just roll the implement over to the tractor and make all the small adjustments needed. I have one for my Bush Hog, 2 bottom plow, 6' disc, grader blade, 7' snow plow, FEL bucket, ect. Works great and saves your back and will keep your little one from learning a bunch of 4 letter words.

Chris