The grass monster is back in action. Almost a half hour less time doing the usual mowing compared to a BX rider with same size deck, at a relaxed pace (I'm rusty on the levers) Had forgot about the showers of clippings the ZD throws around. You wear a bit even if it's not windy. Put new blades on 2 years ago and have not touched them after ~70 hours of mowing. Still puts down a very nice cut. Will get a spare set to swap out this fall or next spring and resharpen the others to be ready for the next swap.
Spent 4 hours cleaning up trails yesterday. Meant to do some weed eating but time got away from me. Some trails have not had any attention besides keeping them open for the buggy. Well needed. Grabbed the other White oak stem I left behind early this spring. Made two easy drags instead of one hard one. Only tiny bit of punk on outer layer. Went smooth and easy. Two cut deal as it was ready to go otherwise. Pulled out out far enough so that I could back right up to the other log. These are a pretty decent drag for the tractor. Chocked it to keep it from rolling. Log rolled so dirty side will hopefully get rinsed by rain. Got two of them that size. Found another white oak that looks to have butt rot while cleaning the trails. Whole bunch of good wood there I hope. Worked on the river bank a bit today trying to beat the poison Ivy back. Got the other side of the pavilion faced this afternoon. Had a fire last night. Great weather this weekend. I got a bit bit of stuff done.
Angle looks rather acute to me. I see frequent sharpenings in the future? At least it isn’t gouged up.
Factory grind, untouched with 70 or so hours on them. The OEM Kubota blades are made of samurai steel, I think. My blades do no live a charmed life. Sticks, tree roots, walnuts, small rocks (oops), dirt sometimes...it all mows. It likely helps that I am a 'high mower'. Usually at 4" so I miss a lot of debris that are too heavy for the mower to lift. Will get them sharpened once I acquire a spare set. Been hunting the uber high lifts but fear they may have been dicon'ed. The OEM Kubota blade world is a dark and secretive realm, for some reason. The only 'standardization' to speak of is by each line/series of which there are many. The blades perform well enough and cost low enough that I'm not even entertaining the aftermarket. Reports of needing to slow down with the vaunted gator blades or cut quality drops...
Finally remembered to measure diameter diameter on the backhoe. Two different kits available depending on. Had some yummy biscuits and gravy delivered to me. Neighbor hollers at me to come over and look at something. He's having some tree work done. Brings me over to one of the workers trucks...big dodge and shows me this. Finally got started on the firewood sales stand today. Needing a few more bits of raw material. Roofing mainly. Hope to get it finished up in the next couple weeks.
It'll not be built to any standards other than my own, but it'll be sturdy. I should be hurrying. Highway on other side of river has annoying construction lights so traffic is up on my side.
Who likes free stuff and has two thumbs? <---that guy! New shop project. Was just given an abandoned, unrepaired Yamaha 4k Genny by the fellers in the shop. Possible carb issues, other unknown. It'll run again so long as it doesn't need a crank or there is something wrong with the genset. Gotta throw together some sort of wheel kit. She's stout for a 4k.
Will seem trivial to most. Had to really work to find these available for purchase. I find the stock spikes on the large frame Makitas too aggressive and too long. The European customers get a totally different set of spikes. I am guessing they handed some saws to men cutting trees with big bark out west who then berated them for the 'puny' spikes and Makita responded with gusto. Will soon have a fairly unique version of the 7900 at least here in the States anyways. Gonna get an inch of usable bar length back. Will likely order another set of these for one of the box saws/future. Edit: Forgot to document, but got the grill grates blasted last night. My buddy didn't have the aggressive media in his blaster so I couldn't really get them uber clean. They are now again usable, which is all that matters. Found a patent # on one grate and need to look it up.
Started tearing down the generator. A bit of nasty old fuel in there, but the coal dust is more concerning. It has ingested some during its use. Unsure if would cause detriment like old fashioned dirt or not. Will peek into the cylinder via spark plug holes and hope to see some crosshatching. If I can, no issue. Carburetor arrangement is complicated and different from how Honda goes about it. Has auto choke ran off a vacuum solenoid deal. Found full correct model # and am able to source most parts. (EF4000DEM - elec start designates the M) Found oem wheel kits but way too spendy. Will canibalize/finagle something together. It's 196lbs without any fluids. Genset is just beastly large for the wattage and I'm happy about that. It's just old enough to be overbuilt rather than price point built. Hopefully I don't run into any oddities getting it going again. Will update progress.
It's gonna need another wash. Pulled tank to make things easier. Put the battery on charger to see if it's worth anything. Sourced new intake gaskets for $1.89ea. Hope to fire it off next week sometime.
Broke ground on the fire pit today. Found a pine stump. Yay. I won. Finished up the firewood stand base today. Stripped a pallet for lumber besides a couple old 2x4s. Installed the euro spec spikes last night on 7900. The stockers are just too much for my tastes. Put a 20" bar back on after gaining an inch of working chain.
Awful quiet in here. I must have forgot to post my victory last week. Had to lay an extension ladder out from my goat path to get this maple out of my view. Fell where desired, but kissed the end of the ladder on it's way down. Yikes. The hole made.
Speaking of rocks. My river bank project sprang into action over the holiday. So the concrete chunks need to be *on the bank, not in a pile at bottom. This presents an issue when you don't have nice flat slabs to work with. If you shove them off or toss them, they end up rolling way too far out into river. So I decided to make a short piece of barrier from 3 t posts and a piece of old horse fence. Hard to spot in the photo. Worked in practice though not the most elegant solution. Through them down into the fence, then go down and manually place them one by one. I can hardly climb the bank for reference...maybe a 7' drop here. Tree being undermined, so attention needed. How far into the pile I made it Friday. Anyone keeping track, this is the state of the Weber project before a parts order. Needs heated and seasoned.
Yesterday my nephew had camped on the river lot and foolishly offered to help me with the rock project. Don't need the catch barrier when there are two sets of hands and we were working on a slightly easier to get to section. Much progress made. The river had come up a foot or two from rain not allowing me to finish where I stopped Then hit the woods and ran a battery through the little Mak prepping the new white oak blowdown top a little. Pruned the branches back along the trail that leads to it also. Then went and finally cleared the sugar maple off of a main trail. Been being lazy about it. Trunk is suspended, so no rush to haul in for wood. My stick pruner causes a bit of issue for transport. My solution. Lazy day today. Didn't do much besides a little work on the firewood stand. Forgot to eat this salad from lunch so it became my afternoon snack.
Isn't that an old new chain? Good find either way! Wonder how long its been in there? I should clean out my truck!
