Bad things hit while bush hogging?

[Highbeam]

A big bundle of barbed wire. Well it might not have been a bundle before I hit it but the bundle swung around with the mower and before I could shut it off I lost a good bit of paint from the one rear tractor wheel.

A propane tank. Ever since they required that new fancy OPD valve on the tanks the old style of tank has been garbage and people toss them in the woods when they run out. Well I hit one and it luckily wasn't breached and didn't get pitched but it sure shook the mower/tractor.

Finally throwing a mower blade is sorta like running something over. I've lost one blade and it makes a boom followed by that sick unbalanced feeling.

Lots and lots of field mice.

 

[TerryJ]

Nest of ground hornets....

DITTO!!! Was NOT a good day! When it was all said and done I counted nine stings.

 

[xlr82v2]

I've hit ground bees, steel wheels, old tires, fence posts, bicycles, tree stumps, rocks, ant hills, rabbits, snakes, turtles, and yes, bambi.

Getting a bambi makes me sick... really hate it when that happens. But, there's practically nothing you can do to prevent it... they just won't move. Every once in a while, you'll see them before they go under, but usually they're invisible.

 

[frank_f15]

My wallet including, money, credit cards, drivers liscense, pistol permit and any other junk one carries in their wallet. People at the bak had a good laugh when i pieced back enough to get some of my money replaced.

 

[Conservation]

The wallet one cracked me up. I can see that happening.
Fence posts last weekend.
Also, a bunch of barbed wire
The one I hate the most is those rubberaized animal bowls, about 18" across. That will get your attention. Once you hit them, they are in the mower until it stops. Meanwhile, you are fumbling for the clutch and your hinney is puckered about as tight as it will go.

 

[Tom_H]

PVC water main coming out of well tank-geyser

Hornets' nest

Whacked & busted ornamental mailbox with one side of ROPS while trying to avoid tree branches on other side

Litter of 4 newborn golden kittens. Concussion killed 3. Mom abandoned #4 who survived 2 days.

 

[SLOBuds]

Yea, some of that stuff - no live animals thank goodness! But we also spend hours and hours planting acorns, saplings, and trees on our parcel. Every year we lose a few trees that we have previously invested much care and feeding to get started.

Wife gets furious. I duck because her words and voice can KILL. Most of these were hand watered, hand weeded, hand dug, gopher-caged, drought-defying trees now instantly transformed into mulch. It's one thing to lose them to normal mortality rates. It's another thing to go out there and kill it deliberately!



Brush clearning for this year was finished last weekend. I took out 2 or 3 little guys. The brush is 4-5 feet tall and we don't do a good enough job staking our work some times.

 

[EastTexFrank]

It would probably be easier to say what I haven't hit over the years but here are the things that easily come to mind.

1. Ground hornets and bee's nest - both interesting stories.

2. T-posts and barbed wire - more than once.

3. Car tire - that made the bush hog jump.

4. 16 foot farm gate

5. 75 foot of water hose - that was almost as bad as wire to get off.

6. My hat (twice) and a pair of Ray-Bans.

7. Some curious sort of I-beam vehicle frame that weighed about 400 pounds.

8. My M-I-L's cat. I never told her about that one.

9. Umpteen stumps

10. My favorite, and I must admit it didn't happen to me, but a friend ran over a prosthetic leg with a red sock on the foot. How the h**l do you lose a prosthetic leg and not notice? It scared the bejeez out of him. He thought that he'd killed somebody. Me ... I thought it was hilarious when he told me.

And those are only a few of my favorite things.

 

[FarmGeek]

This subject is always interesting and a fun read.

In order of destruction...

Two 75 foot garden hoses.
My wife was so proud of using them to water the garden FOR THE FIRST TIME. She laid them in the 'tall grass' to be out of the way. Bless her.

Skunk.
Not with the blades but the rear tire gave the same result. I really hate loosing skunks. They keep the yellow jacket nest in check.

Snakes (two at the same time)
I'll teach 'em to not gang up on me!

Field Mice.
Ok, these take third gear ;-)

My cell phone.

Bunnies - but they might not qualify.
As I was mowing they ran out into the cut area where two hawks swooped down and proceeded to pack a lunch for later. Felt sorry for Bugs but that was COOL to watch! The hawks had been circling for a while.

 

[woodlandfarms]

I got a new one which was a basketball. I listed the other crazy stuff I have hit and this is the one that scared the heck out of me. The noise is just terrifying.

 

[LBrown59]

Rocks seems to make a heck of a bunch of noise as they are being reduced to rubble. The worst thing I hit was a fence...That I had just installed a couple months before Took out a 4" wood post then proceded rip the high tensel steel wire off of the other posts. This didn't impress the wife at all.

Why not: what does it take to impress her anyway?

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I got a new one which was a basketball. I listed the other crazy stuff I have hit and this is the one that scared the heck out of me. The noise is just terrifying.

Oh yeah! I hit a football buried in the weeds last fall. Sounded like an atomic bomb!

 

[SailorBob]

An armadillo. Talk about a racket. Scared me good. Bush hog won though.

 

[TerryJ]

Oh yeah! I hit a football buried in the weeds last fall. Sounded like an atomic bomb!

I was just going to list that one. Man, those things do make a boom!!!

 

[Heavyduty]

I ain't never hit a basketball that busted, they always go about 300 feet toward 100K houses.

 

[shughes]

For me the weirdiest one was a golfball.....made about 300 (or so it seemed trips round and round under the bushhog before it came out....with great force out the back....was still gaining altitude last I saw it...........those things make a heck of a racket under a bushhogg...trust me!

 

[Marshal9]

I whacked the on/off handle of an old gas and oil well that had not been tended to until after the incident. The gas company now keeps the area cleared.

 

[sld]

I had a 33 lb front suitcase weight fall off and I ran right over it.

The bush hog immediately started leaking oil but the gear box seems fine. I parked it and haven't used it since. It was always a little too heavy for my little tractor so I bought a smaller KK hog.

Now I keep a sharp eye out as much as possible.

 

[Ryan03]

The worst thing I ever hit with the brush hog was the draw bar off of my tractor. I was brushhogging around the FIL's lake, when all of a sudden I felt a huge crash that resonated through the entire tractor, accompanied by a thunderous bang. The retaining pin had fallen out of my drawbar, and it slid out of the mount, under the front of the brush hog, and caught the cutter bar on the hog, unfortunately, the other end was still in the mount, which was ripped in half by the drawbar. No damage to the tractor case though THANK GOD.

I still have the draw bar that is now bent in a 2 inch arc, I will post a pic of it tomorrow.

Ryan.

 

[JayDavis]

Ummm, a few hundred feet of that thick guage electric fence wire. Why it is always over 100F outside when you get stuff wrapped up in a shredder?

A skunk, and I DID shred that bad boy up.

T-post laying in the grass. Not much fuss, one loud bang and then a 3ft long missle arcing towards the horizon.

6" Pump hose. That stuff is tough, and heavy. It didn't cut but wadded up and stalled a 160hp tractor pulling a 15ft batwing before I knew what happened

Cow skull, that makes a lot of racket AND shrapnel

A trailer holding several bee boxes. One of the wings clipped the corner and jerked the trailer sideways. Talk about day becoming night. The sky was black, I was scared and I was in a cab tractor.

Huge ruts... I can tell you how many times I'll be cruising along on smooth ground and all the sudden, I'm eating steering wheel and the shredder is eating dirt cause a bull decided to dig a hole to China.

A playboy magazine.... I did this last Saturday. I was cutting the side of the road, and all of a sudden, a dull "thunk" sound followed by confetti....nude girl confetti...

A traffic cone... these things make a lot of noise and just one can be used to seemingly turn a 1000sq ft of ground bright orange with the debris.

My own hydraulic hose... the wing shaft got this one, must have been rubbing on the deck lift cylinder hose for a while. When it wore through, instant spray of hyd fluid everywhere.. Also had a hyd hose going to the front mounted cooler rupture. Sprayed into the fan roatating at PTO speed..... that equals about 5 gallons of oil sprayed back onto the engine and the front glass and steps... and... well pretty much everything.