Working out the CK35

[Jaybr]

Y'all from all the granite states...We could use that here on Whidbey Island, WA. The home and road building is still in full boom and the pits are charging an arm and a shoulder-joint for rock... 5/8" crushed is $18 a ton plus $78 haul fee is the cheapest around. Another reason to get this FEL, I been hauling rock in the flatbed for years since the prices doubled and my shovels were getting sore.

Plus age and beer ain't helping lol.

Not too many rocks here. There are about a dozen boulders on the side of my driveway that the excavator dug up putting it in, but I haven't found any underground yet. That said, when they dug my well they hit bedrock at 20'.

Price of stone has almost doubled here in the last 6 months for some reason. I paid around $9 a ton in Dec, called for a couple loads last week and they said it was up over $16 now.

I did get 2 more stumps up today when the rain slacked off for about an hour.

 

[RexB]

You are a Stumpin' guy from ****, thought I had a lot but I wouldn't trade you no sir.

You getting the rain from that tropical storm/depression that came in from the Gulf over Florida and heading northwards?

 

[Jaybr]

Yes we got that rain all day yesterday. It was nice a clear today with a good breeze, dried out my work area enough to get back on the tractor this evening. got up 2 more stumps with the BH, and with the ground being moist was able to push over a few more trees and pop the stumps with the FEL.

Spent most of my time this evening cleaning up some of the mess I've made of all the trees. Had to make some room to work the tractor, hate it when I have to get off and do manual labor.

I'm waiting on a new Jinma chipper, which will be a big help cleaning up. I'm only 100 miles from Ranch Hand, and he has a shipment due in this week. I'm hoping I can pick it up assembled and read to go by the end of the week.

The next clearing project is much bigger, wife wants about an acre pasture. It may be awhile before I start that one.

 

[Jaybr]

I got a few more dug up Monday evening, and more on Tuesday evening. I've cleared about all I can without cleaning up all the mess, and I didn't want to move the trees as the chipper was due in this week.

Talked to Ranch Hand Supply last night and the chipper is in and will be assembled and ready for pickup tomorrow

Probably won't get back at the clearing job until Sunday as I won't get home from picking up the chipper until after dark and my son is graduating high school on Sat. Should be able to finish the job Sunday though and get started on the chicken coup sometime next week.

 

[RexB]

Could have used a chipper two months ago but didn't have the tractor then...

To make a short story long:

We're getting generally ripped off here with removing downed trees. Western Washington got socked and inundated by two weeks of high winds and rainfloods last November. Trees blown down for miles and miles, roofs blown off, towns destroyed, logjams blocking Interstates and washing away AmTrak, all that. I had 3-dozen trees down across the lane, drive, yard, back on my woods trails, couldn't walk anywhere.

So in March when we all start digging out, I called around to rent a backhoe for skidding, I'd just sold the 'dozer, it figures. Didn't want to have burn piles going on all sides of this 8 acres again so thought I'd do the non-polluting green PC thing and chip the trees then haul them to the county dump recycling where they sell the chips for extra money.

All three rental outfits here doubled their prices for backhoes.

Ok fine, I'll rent just a chipper, tow it behind the pickup to the trees, buck and feed them in: $169 a day chipper rent. Yea sure I'm a fish hook me.

Ok fine, I'll just buck them and haul to the dump so they can still make some money to defray costs. The dam dump wanted $77 a ton; I'd guesstimate I had ~30 tons if I hauled it all.

I understand and believe in the economics of supply and demand. But when I drive by these rental outfits, there will be one or two of their backhoes and chippers sitting idle in the lot waiting for someone to rent a Kubota 26hp for $350 a day, so it's not like they're all rented out all the time.

So to **** with 'em all, I bucked and burned for five weeks to clear out the tangled mess. Then when we visited our folks in Oregon, i gathered money together and went and bought a brand spanking new Kioti 30hp tractor, woot!

(I'd have loved to get the tractor first, but didn't make up my mind for that big expense until I was nearly done busting my butt like usual.)

EDit: i'm copying this blurb to my "new ck30" post for valuable insightful historically importont reasons lol.

I :heart: this l'il Kioti

 

[Jaybr]

Got 33 tons of gravel dropped on the driveway on Thursday, spent 3 hours spreading that Thurday evening. Picked up the Jinma chipper on Friday and didn't get around to unloading it from the truck until this morning.

Chipped all the trees today, chipper worked great and I now have some nice piles of chips to do something with. My son is going to haul all the stumps to the pile on the other side of property tomorrow, and I'll get back in there and start clearing some more trees later this week.

42 hours on the tractor already, need to schedule the 50 hour service in another week.