Hi Doc,
I am what my screen name suggests, so let me help
Except for the first paragraph (which I know was tongue in cheek), I pretty well agree with the above, though while a 30+ HP tractor is nice, it is also a much bigger, and IMHO, unnecessary, step dollar-wise.
We have a 2011 Kubota
B2320 with 60" MMM and FEL purchased new from a local dealer and the only thing we have ever wished we had done differently was
MAYBE gotten a
B2920 or
B3200, but generally we are very happy with the model we have. It works in doing all the things you have expressed interest in performing, but wasn't so expensive that we feel we have to be using it every free minute to justify the cost. We bought it with Kubota's money (5 years w/o interest) and the payments are less than twice what you are paying for mowing per month figured annually (approx. $200-$250/mo), with significantly more function.
What it is especially good for is saving my back and hands from the chores I would be doing by hand otherwise, whether digging and moving dirt, moving brush, digging up trees, mowing, or whatever. There is very little outdoor work that it doesn't help make easier.
I too, enjoy time at home relaxing and doing nothing, but after a week of providing medical care to patients, all too often with difficult to quantify, and mostly intangible results, I find that there is great reward in taking on a physical project that I can stand back from and admire afterwards, especially when it will continue to be there to admire for years to come.
We have a little more than 8 acres, mostly wooded and swampy, with a 1/4-1/2 acre pond, upwards of 2 acres of grass (though not much that is really "lawn"), and approximately 1000' of gravel driveway. Our Kubota has made maintenance of all of these areas much easier.
I absolutely recommend a Piranha Tooth Bar to facilitate digging, grading, and raking. There are many threads here debating toothbars, but the PTB is really a great tool.
Whether you decide to mow or not is up to you, but for us it's another kind of occupational therapy, and we only fully mow maybe twice a season, with touch-ups to the more visible areas maybe a couple of times more. We like the longer grass and native plants that grow when we don't mow as often because they attract more wildlife like deer, turkeys, rabbits, and numerous birds.
If you decide you want to afford it, an Everything Attachments Grapple on your loader would be a great tool for woodlot management, but I tend to be a little cheap, therefore we bought chain-on forks from Yankee Warehouse which have a 1400# capacity (way more than our loader can budge- a good thing) that we find very helpful in moving logs, trees, and brush piles. Drive in to a pile, tilt up, and drive away, and most of the time the whole pile stays on to the fire pit. I AM thinking of making a mechanical, manually-operated, top jaw to help hold debris on better, when I have the (ever elusive) time.
I don't weld either, but since I never really cared for golf anyway, I am planning to start learning to do so, mostly for the fabrication of implements, and eventually to be able to make repairs if needed. I made a carry-all, and also modified my ballast box using a hand drill, and bolting it together, and I also have a (cheap, but functional) HF drill press and cold cut metal saw to help make the fabrication process easier.
If you are planning to move a lot of dirt, grade, or repair your own driveway, a box blade may make sense. It can also be used both dragging forward and dozing backwards (carefully) to move/clear snow, instead of a rear blade, or dedicated front snow blade. We use ours along with the loader to spread and grade gravel on our driveway.
Please keep us updated as to your progress and decision, we are always interested in how things work out, and maybe your experience can help the next fellow looking at making the big leap. Remember the TBN'S unOfficial motto: Without pictures, it never happened.
Happy and safe tractoring (and doctoring),
Thomas
