Good Morning!!!! 50F @ 7:15AM. Partly cloudy. High 69F. Winds light and variable.
Love the way the plank layup stands out on the end tables, Ted. And the finish brings out the tiger stripe, too.:thumbsup:
You can do pretty much anything with a larger tractor you can with a smaller one, but not the other way around, Thomas. But you can't argue with female "logic", either. Good luck with that one, buddy!:laughing:
Had another go at starting the big trencher after the battery charged overnight, but it only turned over a couple times before we both gave up. Refueled the tractor, then brought the truck around to jump the trencher, and it lit off on the first revolution. Jumping up to the driver's seat, I verified that the only brake is an emergency brake, and it doesn't do much in the way of slowing anything down. And then I noticed that even it idle, the darn thing creeps veeeeery slowly to the rear. Hmmmm, this is going to be interesting. The transmission seems to be hydrostatic, as the rocker throttle doesn't change the RPMs at all. Those are controlled by a hand throttle on the dash: Unscrew it and it will eventually raise the RPMs, and the push button on the end of it doesn't do anything I could find. I could only get the gear shift to move into one of the three locations; every other one just ground with an alarming noise. So off we went, very slowly and carefully, trying to keep the thing on as level a grade as possible. The seat is about six feet up in the air, and that really accentuates sideways motion, making the tip feel far worse than it is.
First task was to use the front blade to level out the pad for the generator, and with enough experimentation and small cuts, I did get it better. Not perfect by a long shot, and I did use the box blade to get the notches out, but good enough that an inch or two of road base gravel will make up the difference. Then I got it turned 90° and pointed down hill, sheesh, don't kick the shift lever out of gear getting on or off the seat, it's right between your knees! And remember if it does let go, you can power the front blade down and hope it catches something, or drop the big wheel in back and see if that does anything. :confused2: Ah, the joys of homeowner "maintained" equipment! Anyway, took many tries to get the saw lined up with the upper parts of the trenches, but with many hops up and down to run back there to see where it was, all the while leaving enough room for the thing to creep backwards until I could get back to the controls, I got the two trenches cut. Found some more concrete buried in the ground, but aside from a little more lurching and the sound of gravel in the shoot, you'd never know the teeth were cutting it. Hoping I was done, I got it moved back to the end of the extension cord and the battery charger, and got it hooked up again after it shut down.
Then I used the tractor to move the spoils on the surface away from the trenches, first using a hoe to drag them back from the edges. That's when I learned my hoe needs a longer handle, as Mr. Back didn't at all like bending over that far. I also found out that I couldn't get the tractor close enough to use the FEL in some places, so those got hand shoveled. Now I understand why construction workers like to lean on shovels: In my case, it's to let the back relax and not complain quite so loudly. Fortunately, sitting with my feet in the trench and shoveling into the bucket doesn't hurt as much, and I got both trenches cleared out without too much more discomfort. But I also learned that one of them has a three or four foot section that isn't deep enough, caused by the front wheels of the trencher going off the edge of the flat pad down the hill and me not compensating enough by dropping the saw far enough. Not sure if I can get it cleaned up with the mattock or not, and depending on where the trenches ended up, I might need to cut one more short trench anyway. So before today's town run, I'll get the measuring tape and string back out and see where things stand.
Finished up the day clearing out the last forty feet or so of trench out to the solar panel rack. About five feet of that was full of spoil, put there when the trencher drove over it to get off of it. The rest only had a foot or so of loose dirt in it, but for some reason the blocked section had lots of rocks, and they were compacted, and I was glad when that was over with. I really didn't expect to be this far along with the trench clearing, and even if I have to do some touch up work tomorrow, it looks like I'll be plumbing gas line and laying electrical conduit over the weekend. And with no rain in the ten day forecast, I should get a start on the solar panel rack posts, too.
Visiting a new eye doctor this afternoon, and hoping he can figure out something to help me see better. Not looking forward to the dilation, and sitting around in the parking lot with those funny filter lenses stuck in back of my glasses, waiting on the stuff to wear off, though.
Hang in there, gang, Friday's comin'!
