Hello from Texas

Jumpin Juniper · Sep 17, 2016

Hello everyone. I seem to always end up here while researching tractors so I joined up to ask stupid questions. :confused2: I live in the burbs but have 5 acres of SOLID WALL TO WALL CEDAR in the country that I plan on taming in the near future. They call it cedar around here but it is technically juniper. Whatever you call it, it can be a real enemy. Plan to carve out a driveway, clear a home site, drill piers, dam a creek, dig a septic, bury a cistern and maybe even dig a swimming pool and more. All of these things require hiring a tractor and seems to me it would be less expensive to just buy a small tractor. Right now I am leaning towards a refurbished Yanmar out of Mesquite Texas but read a couple horror stories here so everything is still up in the air. Lots of dealers in my area so also considering LS, Kioti and Branson seems to be a good deal. Will need a FEL, auger, and box blade from the get go. A backhoe would be great but might be out of my price range. Who knows, maybe one of the big boys will have a financing special that I can't resist. If I do end up financing I would like the payments to be around $200 and plan is to pay it off when I sell my house. However it goes nice to be here and look forward to learning from the experienced folks around here.
Ron

Wagtail · Sep 17, 2016

G'day Mate and welcome to TBN from Downunder.

Enjoy the site.

Reload5 · Sep 18, 2016

Welcome fellow Texan! Sounds like you're right down the road from me with all those evil cedar / juniper trees and I think we just might have an identical list of projects on our respective properties.

I'm learning that implement shopping is becoming addictive...

teg · Sep 18, 2016

Jumpin Juniper said:
...just buy a small tractor...

Ron, a small tractor can do it but not that fast, do you have the extra time? Do you have large rocks? That might too much to ask from a small tractor... believe me, if you hire it out, they will not be coming in with a small tractor. Welcome to TBN

Jumpin Juniper · Sep 18, 2016

Wagtail said:
G'day Mate and welcome to TBN from Downunder.

Enjoy the site.

Thanks and I have been!

Reload5 said:
Welcome fellow Texan! Sounds like you're right down the road from me with all those evil cedar / juniper trees and I think we just might have an identical list of projects on our respective properties.

I'm learning that implement shopping is becoming addictive...

Yes sir if it ain't mesquite it is cedar around here. Maybe we should go in halfsies on a brute of a machine? Haha!

teg said:
Ron, a small tractor can do it but not that fast, do you have the extra time? Do you have large rocks? That might too much to ask from a small tractor... believe me, if you hire it out, they will not be coming in with a small tractor. Welcome to TBN

Thanks for the welcome and yes by all means I would prefer a larger tractor. The whole point of moving away from the city to live cheap can get expensive REAL fast! The plan is to be all bought and paid for when I get there or not go there at all. Maybe if I stick around here for long enough I will have the confidence to buy an older, larger, cheaper tractor to simplify my tasks. I do have plenty of time really and once the initial tough items are done, the tractor will be mostly for maintenance to the land. Would love a backhoe (if it is easy enough to swap out) on a 50hp machine but the reality is I would be lucky to get 25hp without a backhoe. Even 25hp with a narrow trenching bucket would be fine by me. The ground can be pretty rocky but have not encountered any rocks bigger than my head. I would like to start with FEL and 9" auger to begin but I am open to wherever the road may lead...