Good Morning!!!! 59F @ 7:00AM. Mostly sunny. High 86F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Happy day to all the mothers out there!
Exciting news about the oriels, Jay.
Ted, does your new tractor have a hydrostatic transmission, and if so, how many pedals does it have? And I hope you have an easy time dismounting the backhoe. Do you have a stand for it? I used a piece of log for mine before I made one just the right height from scraps of steel tube.
Even a little progress is a good sign, David, especially if you still have a path forward.
Finished the first mowing yesterday, or at least have done all that I could. The last bit meant backing down hill to a little two foot drop to the driveway, hanging the flail mower over the edge, then going back up. That was working fine until the last pass when a few feet up the wheels started slipping again that the tractor sliding back down. The brakes held it, and lifting the mower let me get back up. There was more to do, but it'll take someone with bigger stones than I have this year to do it.
Or a better tractor. On the way up the driveway to do the other side of its berm, an expensive crunch came from the right rear gear case and hydraulic fluid started pouring out. The axle had shifted out of its seal, but at least the wheel was still attached. I slowly backed down the drive until the front wheels locked, but the tractor took off again when I got it out of 4WD. Got it stopped with the brakes, but it was out of fluid by the time it got to the bottom of the hill and now there it sits. I hope to get a neighbor to help me tow it to the garage and get an autopsy done today so I can order parts when the dealership opens tomorrow. But this is the last straw for that tractor, and I'm thinking perhaps a tracked skid steer would be a lot safer on the hills around here anyway. If I got one big enough, it might even be up to the excavation work I need. But maybe not; I've got some homework to do. I'm very happy the tractor failed when it did; very likely it would have flipped over backwards had I tried to back down the slope where the wheels were slipping.
Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend.