Its been a while since I've posted here. Lots of working on the farm.
Mainly over the past month or so, I've worked on fence and fence row brush, removal. I have to say, one of the very best investments I have made is in the Danuser Intimidator. It has absolutely made fence, tree, and brush removal a breeze. Combined with my new MASSIVE root grapple, and I've been able to move about anything on my property I have set a mind to.
Pulling fence with the Intimidator is straight forward and easy. I or my wife, cuts wire about every 3 to 5 posts. All strands are cut. I will pull post 1, 2, 4, and 5 and drop them on the ground. I then to go post 3 and pull it, pulling it as I reverse. This pulls all other posts remaining attached, as well as all wire. This is key, because the wire is the hard thing to deal with for me. Leaving the wire attached to several posts keeps it manageable and together. The fence consists of a mix of woven wire with a barbed wire strand along the top. But there are also MANY patches consisting of heavy guage 'panels' of 4x8-10' welded wire, intermixed. Given that this will all be new pastures for horses, I have to insure that every piece of wire is picked up and removed. I've done my best, but intermittently, I'll find a piece laying about. Luckily, the wire is mostly old and fragile, and the barbed wire is about 3-shakes from total rusty dirt as it is. I had multiple internal fences within the property. They are all gone now. My peripheral fence is of the same 'model' ie 50yo woven/barbed/panel patched fence. It is about 2miles circumference. The internal fence was approximately a mile or so, broken up into sections.
After the fence was out, I needed to work on incorporating and smoothing them into a single overall pasture, smooth enough for a horse to be running across the previous fence row, without tripping or losing a step. I don't want the previous fence rows and buildup to constrain my own final paddock layout. Therefore, I am currently working on the dirt. And to that effect, I flew to Dallas and came back with a little testosterone induced purchase.
I had been looking for a truck, and had no luck locally. I knew that Dallas was a location that had supplied most of the trucks which are local, therefore, I decided to cut out the middle man. That is a story in and of itself, which I'll detail at a later date. But, in addition to the truck, I had found a potential dirt pan in Arkansas. It just so happened that it was only about 30miles out of my way, on the drive back. So, I called the owner/refurbisher (RS BASS) and he was gracious enough to meet me on a Sunday morning, as I drove through town.
I took a look at the 6.5yd dirt pan, knew I liked it and just had to figure out how to get it home. I needed a trailer. But where to find one, on a Sunday morning? I tossed around renting a U-haul car hauler, but quickly realized that although the weight might be OK, the overall machine would no doubt have caused me trouble with any Cop on the road. So... think... think... HELLO Craigslist!!!
I found a used 28' Gooseneck trailer about 40miles away for a great price. It is an old trailer, but the guy had recently put a new deck, axles, and brakes on it. He was going to haul a Backhoe, but found the trailer was just too light with single wheel tandems, for such a heavy beast. So he parked it and bought a dually tandem heavy weight trailer. I looked the trailer over, handed over the cash, and set out to pick up my dirt pan. But... I remembered, while at the dirt pan place, there was a long drag blade that I thought might really be useful for smoothing out the shallow roll/dips I noticed on my property. I'm trying to prep the place for the next 30 years of mowing. I'd like to have it as smooth and easy to care for as possible. And NOW is the time I can do my best at it. There is no reason other than me, to not have it in great shape come pasture mowing time.
So, I made an offer on both the dirt pan and blade, he accepted, and we loaded. Chained it down with some Harbor Freight chains and boomers which held wonderfully, I might add. And hit the road.
Made it home the next morning, totaling around 900miles, 550 of which were towing a GN with dirt pan and blade. That new (to me) 2006 F-350 crew, dually, diesel was awesome. I've never driven one before, but it pulled that load of about 13000lbs without a bit of drag.
