Hello all,
I thought I had already posted here, but it says I haven't, so here goes. I had a Kioti DK series five years ago in New Hampshire, but we left after one winter, so the tractor got sold at a loss. Lessons learned by the bucketful that year....
Fast forward 5 years, and we have a not-so little house on the side of a tiny mountain in Virginia. As many will recall, we had a bit of a winter event in January, and there was a foot of hardened snow on everything, including my ice chippers and small shovels. Armed only with a pickaxe and a bent-handled snow shovel, I spent seven hours the first day, chipping out, prying up, then throwing hunks of icy snow, or snowy ice, if you prefer. Fun stuff, indeed. Another seven hours the second day, going pretty much full bore to the point of exhaustion, I got the driveway cleared and one lane out into the plowed street, for my wife to get to work. That night, the city plows came back through and blocked off our driveway again, and this was harder frozen slush/ice than I'd dealt with the previous days. My 66 year old heart never missed a beat this whole time, but I could tell by the third day of it I was courting a shoulder problem. I switched hands, because by then I had to throw the stuff over the six foot tall dam of ice chunks I'd created in the yard. It turns out there was a big bone spur abrading my rotator cuff tendon this whole time, and after about an hour the third day, it went "Snap." Miserable feeling, that. The only audible part of that snapping sensation was my saying a bad word. Four months later, I'm just now starting to do very light things after a big surgery. Not a sob story, just a narrative.
Later that day, a fellow with an old 25 horse Kubota was making a few bucks moving snow for several of my neighbors. He saw me out there whittling away with one arm, pretty ineffectually I might add, and he had his son use the tractor to clear out the street in front of our driveway. It took him all of thirty seconds, if that. I gave the dad forty bucks, even though he said I didn't owe him. Nice guy by the name of Mike.
Here is where the art of bloviating hyperbole was used to greatest possible effect. I told my wife (and anyone else foolish enough to listen) that the day I can't manage my own snow and trim my own trees, I go live in a nursing home, period. I told her to find one nearby and make us an appointment to tour the place. That is my story, and I'm sticking to it, by Jove.
Ever price a nursing home? Neither have I. I can imagine their faces when I ask how much it'd be for my 12 year old son to live with me... Yeah, I know. See the last sentence at the bottom for clarification...
The outcome is that a few months room and board at a nursing home got me a new Yanmar SA325 with a backhoe and third function in front, courtesy of a local dealer. I'll be paying on it for a while, but I'll make that trade any day. This one is open station, because my other cab one got so hot in the winter that I had to open the windows. Anyway, it messes up visibility, AND it prevents turning the seat around to use the hoe.
I even have rear remotes, which came standard. The backhoe comes off in two minutes if I could find a level surface... The seat has nice suspension, and the hydraulics are supposedly some of the best in the business. I think they're jerkier than the Kioti's were, but that was a much more powerful setup, with twice the lifting capacity. I don't know if this is a subcompact or a little compact, but it is 53" wide, and so far it seems pretty good. It is a comfortable setup, and my only complaint is that the brake pedal is on the same side as the forward and reverse go pedals. There seems no good reason for that but perhaps someone can enlighten me there. I learned to lower the rpms if it gets jerky when trying to feather it, so we're in good shape. I already have a friend's sewer line to dig up, several loads of stuff to move, and the whole cul de sac will be treated to free street clearing this winter after the city does its thing. I want to dig a root cellar for curing hams and such, and I can think of numerous ways to make this useful.
The moral of the story is stick to yours, and work it for all it's worth.
My name is John, and I am a knucklehead of the first order.
I thought I had already posted here, but it says I haven't, so here goes. I had a Kioti DK series five years ago in New Hampshire, but we left after one winter, so the tractor got sold at a loss. Lessons learned by the bucketful that year....
Fast forward 5 years, and we have a not-so little house on the side of a tiny mountain in Virginia. As many will recall, we had a bit of a winter event in January, and there was a foot of hardened snow on everything, including my ice chippers and small shovels. Armed only with a pickaxe and a bent-handled snow shovel, I spent seven hours the first day, chipping out, prying up, then throwing hunks of icy snow, or snowy ice, if you prefer. Fun stuff, indeed. Another seven hours the second day, going pretty much full bore to the point of exhaustion, I got the driveway cleared and one lane out into the plowed street, for my wife to get to work. That night, the city plows came back through and blocked off our driveway again, and this was harder frozen slush/ice than I'd dealt with the previous days. My 66 year old heart never missed a beat this whole time, but I could tell by the third day of it I was courting a shoulder problem. I switched hands, because by then I had to throw the stuff over the six foot tall dam of ice chunks I'd created in the yard. It turns out there was a big bone spur abrading my rotator cuff tendon this whole time, and after about an hour the third day, it went "Snap." Miserable feeling, that. The only audible part of that snapping sensation was my saying a bad word. Four months later, I'm just now starting to do very light things after a big surgery. Not a sob story, just a narrative.
Later that day, a fellow with an old 25 horse Kubota was making a few bucks moving snow for several of my neighbors. He saw me out there whittling away with one arm, pretty ineffectually I might add, and he had his son use the tractor to clear out the street in front of our driveway. It took him all of thirty seconds, if that. I gave the dad forty bucks, even though he said I didn't owe him. Nice guy by the name of Mike.
Here is where the art of bloviating hyperbole was used to greatest possible effect. I told my wife (and anyone else foolish enough to listen) that the day I can't manage my own snow and trim my own trees, I go live in a nursing home, period. I told her to find one nearby and make us an appointment to tour the place. That is my story, and I'm sticking to it, by Jove.
Ever price a nursing home? Neither have I. I can imagine their faces when I ask how much it'd be for my 12 year old son to live with me... Yeah, I know. See the last sentence at the bottom for clarification...
The outcome is that a few months room and board at a nursing home got me a new Yanmar SA325 with a backhoe and third function in front, courtesy of a local dealer. I'll be paying on it for a while, but I'll make that trade any day. This one is open station, because my other cab one got so hot in the winter that I had to open the windows. Anyway, it messes up visibility, AND it prevents turning the seat around to use the hoe.
I even have rear remotes, which came standard. The backhoe comes off in two minutes if I could find a level surface... The seat has nice suspension, and the hydraulics are supposedly some of the best in the business. I think they're jerkier than the Kioti's were, but that was a much more powerful setup, with twice the lifting capacity. I don't know if this is a subcompact or a little compact, but it is 53" wide, and so far it seems pretty good. It is a comfortable setup, and my only complaint is that the brake pedal is on the same side as the forward and reverse go pedals. There seems no good reason for that but perhaps someone can enlighten me there. I learned to lower the rpms if it gets jerky when trying to feather it, so we're in good shape. I already have a friend's sewer line to dig up, several loads of stuff to move, and the whole cul de sac will be treated to free street clearing this winter after the city does its thing. I want to dig a root cellar for curing hams and such, and I can think of numerous ways to make this useful.
The moral of the story is stick to yours, and work it for all it's worth.
My name is John, and I am a knucklehead of the first order.
