The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

Never a dull moment!

Seems that way. Feels like you show up for work and something always needs fixed. If there’s one thing I wish I could have, it would be more reliability in the equipment.
Don’t get me started on labor/help. We need more rednecks and high school grads who just want to work.

Do you get any time off for Christmas?
Good Luck!

Yes. I decided to take the next week-10 days and focus on my family and try to give thanks and be grateful. This is an important time of the year. The birth of Christ.

Thanks for the kind note. Good luck to you as well.

 

[Hay Dude]

Next project is a week of log chipping and log removal.
Probably looking at starting in early January once the holidays have passed.
In the meantime, minor repairs & upgrades at the shop, cleaning & repairing the baler, etc.

 

[sixdogs]

Not sure about others but I never had more good times than fixing equipment and things related to it. Maybe not all giggles when I'm stuck or things go wrong but it's hard to replace the feeling of a job well done, that you did yourself and are now finished.

Probably the best times were around the holidays when I wrapped something up in the barn, maybe a little late and went inside to warmth and Christmas and smiles and all the things that go with it. A hot wood stove made it even better and a blizzard outside is as good as it gets.

 

[Dryland Farmer]

I agree that fixing things can be enjoyable when I have a lot of time to do it but when it has to work today it kind of takes the fun out of it.

 

[Hay Dude]

I agree that fixing things can be enjoyable when I have a lot of time to do it but when it has to work today it kind of takes the fun out of it.

Or laying on your back in a field with ants, or my dirt floor shop thats colder than a ice cube.
I don’t want to come back reincarnated as a billionaire…..nope….I just want a luxury shop with a heated concrete floor, and please….make it 200 x 100.

 

[RayIN]

Back to clearing the fence…..
I got all the brush & saplings cut down & pulled away.
Today, I used the CX-15 to grind it all up. Worked great.

View attachment 1947246

Didn’t have to rent a chipper (Lord knows I need to buy one really BAD)

Below, here’s what it looked like after a slow steady pass.

View attachment 1947247

Below: Looking the other way. Lots more done.

View attachment 1947248

I left anything over 3” diameter in piles. Picked them up and put them in loader bucket. Dumped in woods. I’m damn near done!

Trying to figure out a way to rake up the chippings. They’re too heavy for the grass.
Did I mention I need a 9’ wide york rake?


And a chipper? And a skid loader? And a 4th tractor? And a tandem axle hay truck?

Around me the local landowners got a real deal from the utility company(REMC). REMC hired a tree-trimming company to clear the right-0f-way under power lines. They clear-cut the fence-rows, all that remains is nearly rotted fence posts and old wire.
Yes it cost a lot more than spraying. I think this was a knee-jerk reaction to complaints about past spraying.

 

[Hay Dude]

Around me the local landowners got a real deal from the utility company(REMC). REMC hired a tree-trimming company to clear the right-0f-way under power lines. They clear-cut the fence-rows, all that remains is nearly rotted fence posts and old wire.
Yes it cost a lot more than spraying. I think this was a knee-jerk reaction to complaints about past spraying.

Spraying is definitely attracting more attention since Roundup got negative press.

 

[two_bit_score]

Around me the local landowners got a real deal from the utility company(REMC). REMC hired a tree-trimming company to clear the right-0f-way under power lines. They clear-cut the fence-rows, all that remains is nearly rotted fence posts and old wire.
Yes it cost a lot more than spraying. I think this was a knee-jerk reaction to complaints about past spraying.

Maybe it will give property owners a change to get those fences repaired and back in shape.

 

[RayIN]

Maybe it will give property owners a change to get those fences repaired and back in shape.

I learned from my dad, don't allow fence rows to get overgrown, cut all tree sprouts ASAP. It slowly destroys the fence; and NEVER nail fencing to a tree. If a large tree is in the proposed fence-row use 2 construction nails to fasten a 2x4 to the tree, then attach the fencing to the 2x4.
Then, as the tree grows it pushes the 2x4 away instead of growing around the fencingThe double-headed construction nails allow them to be pulled anytime it's needed.

 

[Hay Dude]

I learned from my dad, don't allow fence rows to get overgrown, cut all tree sprouts ASAP. It slowly destroys the fence; and NEVER nail fencing to a tree. If a large tree is in the proposed fence-row use 2 construction nails to fasten a 2x4 to the tree, then attach the fencing to the 2x4.
Then, as the tree grows it pushes the 2x4 away instead of growing around the fencingThe double-headed construction nails allow them to be pulled anytime it's needed.

I need you to stop out and tell the property owners around here. My requests to them are ignored.
I have cut 3” diameter saplings tangled in fence lines more times than I care to remember.