Mowing Hired a landscaper!

[stlbill]

All great responses! Thank you everyone!

The landscaper I am using bid much lower than anyone I else. I am concerned he will (have to) eventually raise his price to stay in business. I try to pay in cash and round-up when I can to not take complete advantage. It also seems to be a two employee company and if either gets sick or injured after I sell my tractor....

 

[shooterdon]

All great responses! Thank you everyone!

The landscaper I am using bid much lower than anyone I else. I am concerned he will (have to) eventually raise his price to stay in business. I try to pay in cash and round-up when I can to not take complete advantage. It also seems to be a two employee company and if either gets sick or injured after I sell my tractor....

You now know a ZT will do the job if operated properly. If you only used the tractor to cut grass, a ZT is much less expensive and twice as fast.

Watch how the landscaper does the job and learn from it. Look at the specifications of the mower he us using and what an equivalent or better machine would cost you.

Factor in the value of your time...after taxes.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I had a landscaper years ago. The grass was never cut on weekends. Rich people, came before me.

And when the bill came, I thought, for that, I can do it too.

So, I started with a FORD 917 flail and have been working my way up ever since.

My main machine (Cushman 6150) supposedly will cut 100 acres in an 8 hour shift. That's my formula. I have a LOT of grass to cut and no interest in spending a lot of time cutting it. I get it all done, twenty minutes here and half an hour there. More like flying a small plane!

Buy, top notch, highly productive equipment.

Also, when weather puts you behind and the grass is growing like crazy, it's no problem to get on top of it again.

 

[hdmyers]

I had a landscaper years ago. The grass was never cut on weekends. Rich people, came before me.

And when the bill came, I thought, for that, I can do it too.

So, I started with a FORD 917 flail and have been working my way up ever since.

My main machine (Cushman 6150) supposedly will cut 100 acres in an 8 hour shift. That's my formula. I have a LOT of grass to cut and no interest in spending a lot of time cutting it. I get it all done, twenty minutes here and half an hour there. More like flying a small plane!

Buy, top notch, highly productive equipment.

Also, when weather puts you behind and the grass is growing like crazy, it's no problem to get on top of it again.

*** I went from cutting all my back fields, entire front lawn (~2acres) etc. Now i cut a path to the lake four mowers wide.... and trim around my outbuildings to keep the brush at bay. When i get my tractor i'm sure i'll do some hogging of driveway edges and a few paths... but the resurgence of wildlife has been amazing. NO room for friends kid's to play soccer etc... which doesn't bother me in the least

cheers

 

[Tinhack]

What the heck is "IT". If you're talking about Information Technology, my second career was IT. What ever it is, it's running your life instead of the other way around. Perhaps you should sell everything and move to an apartment. :confused3:

 

[mred2]

IT, I still have boxes of tab cards. They may come back. If you don't know what an 80 column card was used for you haven't been in computers very long. I also have some of the 96 column cards. And an 8K memory bank from the 1960's. It is about 6 x 10 and 4 inches thick. All for 8K memory. And when I started it was DP, data processing. Times have changed, I am not sure all of it was for the good. And while the new tractors are great for power and attachments, there is still something about the old one that I still love.

 

[Tinhack]

Yep, I remember the cards and 8k of memory. It was DP in the 70's and 80's too. I recall we had to split the RPG deck up into parts for the Card Compiler. We didn't get disk drives until about a year after I started there. Everything was on mag tape. Got a boost to 24k and thought that was better than sliced bread. I'm pretty sure I don't have any cards left but I know I have some "Green Bar". :laughing:

 

[mred2]

I don't have any green bar, but there are a couple of boxes in the warehouse where I work. Owner said we might use it someday. An IBM 360/20 IPL was from a card deck. I kept an old hard drive from and IBM 1130. It held 1 meg of data. The 1130 IPL'ed from cards. For all you new timers, IPL was initial program load. What you young people call boot. I am not that old, I just started young. I also have a programming board from an IBM 402 tab machine. And I collect old VHS tapes. About 5,000. One my projects that I hope to do someday is to rebuild/repair an old barn on the property.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Tape seems to be a horrible medium to save. I once got many 8 track tapes and they all started to deteriorate. The foam behind the head and the foil splicing tape would let go.

Oxide on old Reel to Reel tapes would rub off on the head and start to squeal like crazy.

I loved the old DEC mini computers and DECwriters. There was something so "special" about that stuff. You could show me the worlds most powerful computer today, and it's just like yahn!

 

[man00]

If they show up to do the work thats great.From my experience to get anyone to show up now days is a chore.

I agree, and if they do show up they work about two hours then leave

 

[Frankenkubota]

$200.00 an hour. My guy, after 5 delays due to rain, is supposedly on his way to my place right now with what he calls the MOTHER OF ALL WOOD CHIPPERS.

I’m excited to see it work.

He says he had to buy a huge skid steer, add pumps and capacity, bought a monster attachment that obviously goes on the front. The attachment has a big metal cylinder that is mounted horizontally, east/west. He says a 5-6 in oak is no problem.

Goes on to say it takes the stumps down to grade and leaves nothing but mulch! Hope so.

Over the past 3 months I’ve cleared about 1.5 acres of pure jungle by hand. 2 chain saws a rope and a hernia. I bet I’ve removed 500 1-4 in diameter weedy trees, maybe 5000? You can not walk through it, period.

I will post video if I can.

BTW. Everyone knows how it works. Most my guys like cash and will sometimes give a discount....I wonder why?

This is the first guy in 50 years that looked me right in the eye and said, I do everything under the table and ONLY work for cash. No BS! I thought I was back in Italy. 40% of the Italian economy is black, under the table, and everyone knows it!

Like John Lennon said, Just gimme some truth.

 

[Frankenkubota]

I broke a $32000.00 attachment!

Not exactly me. The forest clearing guy came Saturday morning to clear my weedy trees that make up my jungle/rain forest. You literally can not walk thru it, unless you follow the game trails.

His attachment cost $32000.00, made in Sweden and only lasted 1.5 hours. It has the quick attach same as everything else I致e seen. The pins on the QA locate and are held in by what I call metal straps.

He broke both of his! Also took out one of the cutter teeth on rocks, tuff day.

Coincidence, I broke the same strap on my OEM bucket from kubota last month but, I believe the Swedish attachment used higher quality steel than kubota? Mine welded back no problem, I must be more gentle.

He quit, said too much for his machine. In the end it was the rocks, not the trees.

I致e cleared 3 acres buy hand, looks like 3 more.

 

[sixdogs]

Frankenkubota--It would help if you posted a general idea of your location.

 

[Frankenkubota]

I was afraid someone would come looking for me!

Kidding