We had another good soaking rain overnight so I split more pine rounds from part of a pine tree mother nature took down in a windstorm, I hauled another 5 or 6 loads to the outdoor fireplace and had another nice hot fire on a rainy day. The old camera is hit and miss about taking and saving a picture so I tried the phone camera. Picture 005 is the last one of the day heading to the fireplace, picture 028 was full of white pine rounds and more dead limbs which I split or cut shorter and the area from the bigger pine back to the bottom of the last picture was stuffed full from the garage clearing of 2018. I finally can get through and cleanup more dead pine. There are some bad pictures but that's my fault.
We put some wood in this morning and then I changed the oil in the American CLS 24 ton splitter. I cleaned some saws up with the air compressor and then I took the gas out of two saws with an old turkey baster, worked great. I'll leave the gas in the 660 since I plan on lowering a few stumps before winter.
My plan was to get the pine in picture 1084 bucked up but the soft maple in picture 1082 just south of it came down, I think that I'll still get the pine first. The pine was taken down by some winds around the spring of 2020 from the tree in picture 1085. In picture 1086, you can see the other part of the soft maple that will need to come down and the last picture is a different angle of the downed pine.
I used the backhoe on the 4540 when I uncovered the septic tank, once I was within a foot of the top I used the shovel. Everything thing was good so hopefully we'll do it again in another three years. I did get more sand from our property with the FEL, I'm not sure when I used the tractor last but it started up fine and ran real good.
I bucked up the punky Maple in my above post #123, I split it and brought another 4 or 5 loads of junk wood to the outdoor fireplace, hopefully we get some snow and rain so I can burn everything. The last picture is the only good wood I kept form the Maple.
I just saw online that the maximum digging depth (flat bottom) is 100.6 inches. Our lot is full of trees so if I would dig a hole and put them in it, I would be damaging the root systems of more trees so a nice hot fire on a wet day in the outside fireplace is the method I choose. I didn't think that I would spend this much time on cleanup of the house property this year but it's looking better each week. I'm heading west with the cleanup so in another year or so, I'll be in our neighbors backyard. I did ask him if I could clean his up too and he said yes. I still have all of the logs from the garage clearing left, some will get c/s & torched in the outside fireplace this winter.
Plenty deep enough for "home projects". All in all, do you like the tractor? Any thing you'd do differently? Brand? Implements? Cost....meaning does it compete comparably to other brands? (I don't need to know what you paid.)
I never looked at another brand of tractor when we bought the 4540 so I can't even tell you how it stacks up to anything else. It has been a good tractor, it will walk through 24 inches of wet heavy snow without any problems in 4WD. If we were buying again we would go without a backhoe and add a grapple and maybe something else. We also might've went with a tractor with a cab with a/c and heat since we're getting older but we took care of that problem with the RTV. When the chit hit last year in the winter, I was sick but still had to plow our driveway and two of our neighbors, I swear being out in the cold fresh air helped me get over whatever I had. Do your research on tractors because all colors are having some problems with different models, anyone that tells ya different is full of chit.
We have split more over the summer, then we have hauled 5 trailer loads of oak and 5 loads of hickory home in the past month or so.
Nice work T.Jeff Veal , you look like you're having a great year with some of the big trees you hauled home.
Today I worked until the rains came (noon) I split some birch and picked up some smaller rounds of maple from some trail clearing, all was stacked with some yellow birch.
I started cutting some Ash again since EAB will kill it, pictured are the two I felled today and some rounds in picture 1124 I cut from some tops earlier this year. The two Ash I felled today and some of the rounds in picture 1124 are stacked.
Thanks T.Jeff Veal , the Ash trees aren't that big but it still stacks the same. Locust Post , hopefully I can get another six face cord after this stack is done. The hill in the back has some better size Ash but nothing huge, hopefully I'm back there before the end of next week. I did c/s/s another Ash today, I'll need to cleanup the tops before any snow comes.
