First order of business was the walkout basement stairs (if you could call them that) were nit only a disaster but also I suspected was the cause if constant water in the basement, There's other contributing factors but a lack if a drain at the bottom of the stairs wasn't helping. Initially I thought I'd put in a French drain maybe 20-25 feet away. Then the hotrodder kicked in and I thought ain't no kill like overkill some went 75 feet. I also added a T in the line to give an option to take it to the ditch if I changed my mind. Right wrong or indifferent - its been working perfectly so far. Knock on wood. I kinda skipped over the 6'X6' pad we poured at the base of the stairs and the two mini retaining walls we put in. I had planned on doing concrete steps, but ran outta time before winter.
Did some grading of the front yard - moved a crap load of dirt there. Far from done but getting there.
So now I'm up to two running "tractors" there. I've an old Oliver 1850 - 354 Perkins diesel with more gears than I can count. I think its 4 gears up, four gears down and then a hydrashift high/low which is more like X3 because there's underdrive, overdrive and 1:1 plus a couple reverse gears thrown in there just for fun! It's too big for the stuff I have, but it gets by. It did tear up the POS backblade i found there. I welded up a new mount for it, but honestly I should just get a bigger one. Recently one of the buried hydraulic seals is starting to leak. I thinking have to pull the trans to get to it ! Yikes!
Lately I've just been using the CASE anyways. Fir comparison I think the Oliver is nearing 100hp plus 100hp on the PTO probably in the 10 or 11 thousand pound range (its only 2 wheel drive). The case I think might Be in the 60 hp range so it's technically a smaller tractor but weighs in the 14 or 15 thousand pound range. It also has a cab so that's mega cool because when the rain cones and you're in the middle of a project you just smile. Compared to the Oliver where you curse mother nature a bit before going inside.
So it's OFFICIAL I'm now one of those off road 4 wheel drive guys...well sorta.
The property itself is basically a disaster but we're getting there. Got several junk vehicles hauled away and do more and more each time. The house needs a ton of work - thats a huge understatement. There's 18 acres - I made a big dirt pile for a pistol backstop. The barn probably should be torn down but I'm thinking i should try to save it. Eventually i'd like to have something built. its definitely become a love hate relationship there as it seems everything that can go wrong will do it in spades there. Still dragging tools back and forth - trying to leave stuff I would be too heart broken if it got stolen. Which leads me to why I chose a backhoe over a mini excavator. Again right wrong or indifferent my thought was simply this were not there 99percent of the time. Any crackhead with a S10 and a POS trailer could steal a mini excavator. Moving the 15K lb backhoe is gonna take some much better stuff. Not that they couldn't unjust thought it was less in demand, harder to move and therefor less likely.
Holy Smokes ! I type far more than I planned!
Racin'Jacin
