freedomlives
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2015
- Messages
- 566
- Location
- Husak, Slovakia, EU
- Tractor
- Iseki TS35F, Goldoni Special 140 with powered trailer -- Goldoni Special 128 -- Goldoni Uno for mowing -- Czech Vari system
I'm an American living in a small rural village with my Slovak wife.
For the first few years here, I have been stubbornly not getting any tractor, partly because all I could afford would be some quite old tractor, and while I like playing mechanic sometimes on the car I would be afraid I would end up with some old tractor always needing repair, or belching black smoke from a worn out engine, etc. We've kept, since getting married 5 years ago, goats, vietnamese (pot-belly) pigs, chickens, and for a year-and-a-half a cow and a bull. Last year the mayor of the village encouraged us to apply for subsidies on our land (which are given not only for growing crops, but even just grazing/cutting hay). I planned to build permanent fencing and get cattle again, but due to several things haven't been able to get to the fencing until this year. So first my father in law and I went at with scythes. And while in one morning we cut a lot (it is only effective to cut with a scythe when there is dew), it still was only a small dent in the 4 acres we needed to cut. So he went to get a neighbor with a tractor and a disc/drum mower, which made another small dent and then a disc broke on a stone. And every other neighbor with a drum mower and tractor either didn't mow other people's fields for fear of hitting a stone, or else did mow and had already broken their mowers for that year (apparently these older mowers don't stand up well to foreign objects).
So I was left with several acres needing cutting, so this pushed me into a walk behind tractor with cutterbar mower (Vari DSK-316 with Honda 190GSV motor). And several attachments and accesories later, I find that it is good for some things, but insufficient for others, so I'm thinking about these more powerful Italian walk behind tractors, and figure I'll ask in the forums here some specific questions.
And here is how I managed to get the hay to the barn (downhill from where I cut it) before I got a trailer for the DSK-317 gearbox
(The Vari system uses a large 4 speed gearbox for trailers, plowing, rototilling (tines replace the wheels) and then a small one speed gearbox for driving active attachments like the mower)
For the first few years here, I have been stubbornly not getting any tractor, partly because all I could afford would be some quite old tractor, and while I like playing mechanic sometimes on the car I would be afraid I would end up with some old tractor always needing repair, or belching black smoke from a worn out engine, etc. We've kept, since getting married 5 years ago, goats, vietnamese (pot-belly) pigs, chickens, and for a year-and-a-half a cow and a bull. Last year the mayor of the village encouraged us to apply for subsidies on our land (which are given not only for growing crops, but even just grazing/cutting hay). I planned to build permanent fencing and get cattle again, but due to several things haven't been able to get to the fencing until this year. So first my father in law and I went at with scythes. And while in one morning we cut a lot (it is only effective to cut with a scythe when there is dew), it still was only a small dent in the 4 acres we needed to cut. So he went to get a neighbor with a tractor and a disc/drum mower, which made another small dent and then a disc broke on a stone. And every other neighbor with a drum mower and tractor either didn't mow other people's fields for fear of hitting a stone, or else did mow and had already broken their mowers for that year (apparently these older mowers don't stand up well to foreign objects).
So I was left with several acres needing cutting, so this pushed me into a walk behind tractor with cutterbar mower (Vari DSK-316 with Honda 190GSV motor). And several attachments and accesories later, I find that it is good for some things, but insufficient for others, so I'm thinking about these more powerful Italian walk behind tractors, and figure I'll ask in the forums here some specific questions.
And here is how I managed to get the hay to the barn (downhill from where I cut it) before I got a trailer for the DSK-317 gearbox
(The Vari system uses a large 4 speed gearbox for trailers, plowing, rototilling (tines replace the wheels) and then a small one speed gearbox for driving active attachments like the mower)
