Haven't posted anything in quite a while, been crazy busy with both a new "day" job running me ragged, and also work around the house, with some mowing jobs thrown in.
I was back at one of my "regular" customer sites in July. I've posted many pictures of this site in the past, so only a couple pictures this time:
Noticed my blades were getting pretty worn unloading it when I got home. 8 years they've been on there, don't know how many acres:
Decided to get new blades. Old blades vs. New blades:
I also decided to finally put chain guards on my mower, which never had them, after a customer at another site walked right up behind me while I was backing into a corner by a gate to "trim" the corner. He got within 20 feet of me before I looked up and saw him. I was focused on getting into the corner and not hitting the gate, looked up and he was right there. ! I had always told myself I'd be able to "look out" for people and most of the time there was never anyone around where I was mowing. Scared the crap out of me, so I ordered chain guards:
Figured I'd replace my broken PTO shaft guard while I was at it.
Chain guards went on easy, but swapping blades was a pain in the rear. The bolt hole in the top of the deck didn't line up centered to the bolt on the stump jumper. Had to cut out a section on the deck for the socket to fit down straight. Also had to locate a funky sized socket in town for my 3/4 impact drive.
Couldn't hold the new blade and bolt up from the bottom while driving the nut on from the top, so I took the mower off and stood it up vertical with the FEL to do the swap (no picture of that, and not OSHA approved) but it worked.
Used the tractor to help cut and split some free firewood, nothing big, but free is free:
I got a full tote's worth anyway.
My new employer was clearing out an old warehouse space and was going to throw away some old pallet racking, so they let me take it home. Used the FEL to help put up the racking and set some shelving material:
Not pretty, but free is free. Lol.
Back to one of my regular customers that I just cut on a calendar schedule. Wasn't going to work out this time, as they're tearing down all the old silo's and buildings. They just forgot to let me know. I'll have to return to that one after they're done and have *hopefully* cleaned up all their messes:
I was very surprised that there was still a bit of grain in each one of those old grain bins. I sure hope they do a thorough site clean up after they're done. I don't relish the idea of what I'm going to find in the tall weeds now.
Just did another small mowing job yesterday. Very sweet old lady I work with, lives alone, and let her pasture get away from her this year. We've had a wet season and her weeds were too much for her old and very tired little sub compact to manage. Got everything loaded up and ready Friday night. Heading out Saturday morning:
Just took a few pictures at her place. She sits on 26 acres with a couple horses, which she manages by herself. Just got away from her this year. Lots of weeds and old wheat grown up without much "good" grass. Hopefully with it cut back the grass can come back in. I told her this one was free, since she was in a bad spot and even though she never said, I could tell money was tight for her. I ended up being there all day.
Around her barns and in her corrals the weeds were chest high and you could barely walk from building to building. You can kind of see by the fence lines that was the height of the weeds when I got there. I got in there the best I could, some very tight quarters between a couple corrals and her buildings. I did let her pay me for my fuel, as she was insisting on paying me "something". She also had an amazing crop of large rocks mostly half buried in the ground. Each time I'd find one, I would wonder is that a gopher mound (tons of those) or is it a rock. Many rocks. My "new" mower blades are beat to death. I glanced at them while loading up to come home, but I didn't want to make a big deal out of it with her standing there. I'll have to look at them today when I get unloaded, but I think they're about destroyed. I may put the old ones back on. Lol.
Well, that about catches me up. Sorry for the long post. Hope you enjoy the pictures, I'd kind of gotten out of the habit of taking and posting "mowing pictures", as I figured they would be boring after a while. Most of the time I'm done and heading home before I realize I didn't take any. I guess as long as you guys find them interesting I'll try to get back to taking more pictures again.
