tractors create work!!

[BruceW]

I have owned my 3010 with loader and backhoe for 1 month now and let me tell you I haven't spent this much time on the blister end of a shovel in years! A tractor can definitely do a lot of work but unfortunately each project seems to have a lot of manual labor associated as well like putting the finishing touches on filling holes around new water spickets, raking and leveling the newly filled in ditch, laying brick where newly laid water and electric for pool egress house, laying pipe, pulling wire, plumbing and installing the new pool, and numerous trips to lumber, plumbing, and electrical suppliers.

The other thing I have discovered that instead of being done with our work quicker we just do more work. I know this sounds like a personal problem and I am sure there are Kubota support groups for help but I thought I would come to you all first.

I could "tolerate" all this work if while I was doing it I did not have to listen to my wife running the tractor with FEL to move mulch. Oh the agony it's like the little boy who watches his sister riding his bike but can't complain because he hasn't finished cleaning his room yet.

I must need more gadgets for the tractor, do they have one that will lay brick?? Preferably that runs off the rear pto.

 

[Harv]

Bruce -

I've had the same observations ever since I got my L2500DT last September. The reason I got the thing in the first place is that I was sick and tired of being too sore to walk or stand up straight after a weekend at the property. Since the arrival of the tractor, I am frequently just as sore, for the reasons you mention plus all the jumping off and on associated with many of my chores.

On the other hand -- my favorite thing to do in the evening is to take stock of what I accomplished during the day. Now, instead of looking at a couple hundred square feet of bare soil I cleaned off with a hoe, I see several acres of freshly scraped and leveled earth that I took care of with the box blade. Instead of a hundred yards of new walking path that I cleared with my trimmer/mower, I have a quarter mile of 10-foot wide road that I prepped with the brush hog and finished off with the box blade. Instead of 30 wheelbarrows of dirt moved from the middle of the field to a pile near the greenhouse, I see 10 cubic yards of fresh soil moved a hundred yards from where it was to where I wanted it.

The list goes on, but you get the idea. As a desk jockey by trade, I need the excercise, but now I weigh the aches and pains against what looks like the accomplishment of ten men, and I couldn't be happier. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[skent]

Last winter, looking down the 900 foot driveway to the road, after all the snow was moved, was a whole lot nicer knowing it had taken me less than an hour with the Kubota vs 3+ hours with the Sears.

Steve

 

[GlueGuy]

I might go along with that except for one little thing in my regard.

The weekend before we got Lucy, my wife & I spent a combined 22 hours doing "remedial" repairs on our gravel road with shovels, rakes, and pick axes. That, and it was only the "bare minimum" we could do to prevent serious erosion.

The next weekend, I spent something like 5 hours learning how to use Lucy. Of that 5 hours, less than 1/2 hour of it was finishing the job we had merely "started" the wekeend before. The other 4 1/2 hours was fixing other parts of the road that we had not even touched.

To me, it's all in the perspective...

The GlueGuy

 

[BruceW]

I too take immense pleasure and sense of accomplishment from what I can achieve with my Kubota including the drastic reduction in hours each project takes. This was a humourous attempt to say that the tractor appears to be driving us rather then us driving the tractor.

bruce

 

[Anonymous Poster]

They also create new reasons to buy more implements. I now MUST buy a box blade to fix the ruts left by my rig in the back yard. Can't fix these with my rear blade, (Yeh, right) a box blade will do a much better job!!!

 

[GlueGuy]

I can appreciate that. I think I took it that way, but I was also responding to Harv's comments.

It's true though. I've noticed that I now have what I call "tractor eyes", and I don't look at "problems" the way I used to. I can now "see" ways to fix little "earth arrangement" issues, that used to be insurmountable with a just a shovel.... /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

The GlueGuy

 

[skent]

Much of what we can do (and it is a learned task) will take longer the first and second time around. First time I cut hay I had no idea what I was doing, where I was going, raking the wrong way, not leaving end of row turn-around space, and wasted LOTS of fuel, time, wear and tear on equipment, had to go back and p/u stray bales etc. But once you learn when to drop the box blade, how to feather the tilt and height, co-ordinate the hydro (foot) action with the joystick, It really does save not just time, but more important it saves sweat.

Steve

 

[Bird]

Hey, I've been there, Steve. Until I started running the baler, I never realized how important it was to rake it right./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif The fellow pulling the rake determines how hard the guy with the baler will work.

Bird

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Bruce,

Before I purchased the B7500 with midmount mower I spent 6-8 hours a week of mind numbing, butt bouncing, clatter laden fullfillment that the lawn was mowed. I refer to this activity as "crimes against nature".

Now that I have the tractor I spend 2-4 hours a month servicing and tinkering with the B7500, my wife mows the lawn. Life is good /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[rbargeron]

Every tool is an extension (multiplication) of our own ability to shape the environment with our hands and minds. And everyone has a different "scale of operations" that brings them satisfaction. Whether it's a planter box on a city fire escape, or a thousand acres, there's a hand trowel or 300 hp tractor that's just the ticket. And using any tool leads to more that needs doing - ain't it grand? Keeps us all alive.

 

[day13]

Gotta add my 2 cents..

My wife is an avid gardener..always ordering 5 yards of mulch, 8 yards of top soil...etc. used to take me a couple of week ends to move it all by cart. Now it gets done in an hour.

She calls the tractor my toy..HA..Her gardens never looked so good! It's her toy, I just run the thing!!!

If she ever learns how to drive it, I might just become obsolete!

 

[jdkid]

Hi ya Bird
here's the tip get the guy on the rake to bale a few rounds then he know just how inportent a good raking job is.yep tractor do make work or maybe ya do the work is a better way of looking at it ,pic this a mound of soil by ya house no tractor ya leave it there and plant things on it BUT with tractor ya flattern it cos it makes it faster to mow (damm another job wheres it going to end??)
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>here's the tip get the guy on the rake to bale a few rounds</font color=blue>

Yep, JD, that's what they did to me./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif A few years ago a neighbor asked me to rake hay for him and I did; thought I was doing a good job. Then he asked me to run the baler and let him rake. He raked some the way I'd been doing it, and then started raking it right./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[skent]

You start rembering weather you need an odd number of rows to get you to the next field, or an even number to get you back to an empty wagon. Draging a baler across a big field with a wagon you are losin' 10 minutes here, having to go across the field to p/u a new wagon you lose another 10 or 15 minutes. If you keep that up, before you know it you've lost an hour or two and 5 or more gallons of fuel. . . .

Steve