Racenut
Gold Member
First post... here goes...
My friends think I'm nuts. But they live here in the city. If a bunch of tractor nuts tell me I'm crazy.. well.. I'm crazy and should just remodel my kitchen.
The scenario...
We have 5 acres of the family ranch in the sierra foothills. Mom has the 5 acres next to us. Aunts, uncles and cousins have 60-70 acres around us.
We need to take care of ours and Mom's. Mowing some of the other fields once in a while would be appreciated.
Ours has a little less than 2 acres of field, the rest trees and scrub. Mom's has her house, but otherwise pretty thick with trees and brush. Deep pine duff, lots of deadwood, manzanita, scotch broom, etc. It's a fire trap.
Private gravel road, of which we have about 500-600ft of frontage. Mom's driveway is 330ft more gravel.
Kitchen.. we've lived in this house 23 years and the kitchen could really use a makeover, especially now that we actually like to cook and use it often. There's not enough counter space for 2 people to work.
Goals...
Clearing defensible space around Mom's home.
Gradually clearing other areas of fire fuel and nuisance vegetation. Manzanita, scotch broom, wild berries and poison oak.
field mowing
road/driveway maintenance
eventual home site clearing and misc stuff you find you can do when you have the tools.
Kitchen, new cabinets and counters, move things around to get 2 good workstations.
I've talked to the local dealer. Local family business, been around for 50+ years. Good reputation and after talking to them, feel confident that they will be as good after the sale as they are before.
Looking at LS XG3135 TLB and have a quote that seems competitive, especially for California.
Add a grapple, mower and box blade and that should be a good start. Will also get a quote on 40HP and XR version due to almost 500 pounds more loader capacity. But not going to bug dealer unless I'm ready to say yes.
Friends say just hire someone to to do it. But most of my friends have no idea what that entails. We all know that will be thousands of dollars and when they're done, they take their toys and go home till you call them again.
And yes, I love tools/toys as much or more than the next guy, but I'm trying to be responsible here....
The big gotcha is that I live 250 miles away. Our long term plan is to get back home, but I don't know when that will be. I think it all comes down to the commitment to get up there and get the work done when we can. We are moving our RV up there to make that easier. I also think I don't have to justify the whole cost of the tractor, just the depreciation, though that is a bit of a guessing game. Buying a tractor won't mean we have to eat mac and cheese every other day, but it might mean the kitchen remodel gets put off a while longer. I don't have a quote for the kitchen, but it will be a lot less than a tractor.
Am I crazy?
And if so, I'm going to blame it on the voices in my head or my kids or both.
My friends think I'm nuts. But they live here in the city. If a bunch of tractor nuts tell me I'm crazy.. well.. I'm crazy and should just remodel my kitchen.
The scenario...
We have 5 acres of the family ranch in the sierra foothills. Mom has the 5 acres next to us. Aunts, uncles and cousins have 60-70 acres around us.
We need to take care of ours and Mom's. Mowing some of the other fields once in a while would be appreciated.
Ours has a little less than 2 acres of field, the rest trees and scrub. Mom's has her house, but otherwise pretty thick with trees and brush. Deep pine duff, lots of deadwood, manzanita, scotch broom, etc. It's a fire trap.
Private gravel road, of which we have about 500-600ft of frontage. Mom's driveway is 330ft more gravel.
Kitchen.. we've lived in this house 23 years and the kitchen could really use a makeover, especially now that we actually like to cook and use it often. There's not enough counter space for 2 people to work.
Goals...
Clearing defensible space around Mom's home.
Gradually clearing other areas of fire fuel and nuisance vegetation. Manzanita, scotch broom, wild berries and poison oak.
field mowing
road/driveway maintenance
eventual home site clearing and misc stuff you find you can do when you have the tools.
Kitchen, new cabinets and counters, move things around to get 2 good workstations.
I've talked to the local dealer. Local family business, been around for 50+ years. Good reputation and after talking to them, feel confident that they will be as good after the sale as they are before.
Looking at LS XG3135 TLB and have a quote that seems competitive, especially for California.
Add a grapple, mower and box blade and that should be a good start. Will also get a quote on 40HP and XR version due to almost 500 pounds more loader capacity. But not going to bug dealer unless I'm ready to say yes.
Friends say just hire someone to to do it. But most of my friends have no idea what that entails. We all know that will be thousands of dollars and when they're done, they take their toys and go home till you call them again.
And yes, I love tools/toys as much or more than the next guy, but I'm trying to be responsible here....
The big gotcha is that I live 250 miles away. Our long term plan is to get back home, but I don't know when that will be. I think it all comes down to the commitment to get up there and get the work done when we can. We are moving our RV up there to make that easier. I also think I don't have to justify the whole cost of the tractor, just the depreciation, though that is a bit of a guessing game. Buying a tractor won't mean we have to eat mac and cheese every other day, but it might mean the kitchen remodel gets put off a while longer. I don't have a quote for the kitchen, but it will be a lot less than a tractor.
Am I crazy?
And if so, I'm going to blame it on the voices in my head or my kids or both.
