What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[Old_Paint]

Owl boxes are on my punch list. We hear hoot owls and screech owls all the time around here. We saw one perched in a neighbor's tree a few weeks ago. That was a HUGE owl. It was big enough to carry off a cat or small dog. The feeding's gonna be pretty good around here considering the number of little dogs and stray cats.

 

[pokey1416]

Water service job today. Started off badly...couldn't find the old galvanized line. Dug in both side of the sewer line and finally found it under an abandoned gas line. Oh, just what is it with people coming outside in their PJ's and no friggin shoes?

and nobody cuts their grass before we come...

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Dig:

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Three attempts two pull the old/new service. Kubota failed, Chevy dig truck failed. The Ram dump pulled it like it wasn't there. We got really lucky. We were PO'd that we'd have to drive the new service from a hallway in the basement under the porch. I said, lets give my truck a shot it. Glad that we tried. Saved us so much work.

New service and curb box in place.

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Done:

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Bye:

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Dig:

View attachment 110248

Three attempts two pull the old/new service. Kubota failed, Chevy dig truck failed. The Ram dump pulled it like it wasn't there. We got really lucky. We were PO'd that we'd have to drive the new service from a hallway in the basement under the porch. I said, lets give my truck a shot it. Glad that we tried. Saved us so much work.

New service and curb box in place.

View attachment 110250

Done:

View attachment 110252

Bye:

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Do you have a QA on the bucket? If so, check this out. We have a Volvo wheeled excavator at work w/ steelwrist and this companies North American distributor is in Fort Wayne IN (2 hrs from us). I think we’re going to go with the HSM180 which is 70” wide. Works great to get dirt out of grass. https://www.hilltip.com/en/products/sweepers/sweepaway-brush/

 

[SAR Tracker]

I almost killed a friend yesterday.

As a Vet, I volunteer myself and my LX2610 to cut, split, stack and deliver free firewood to Vets and Vets widows here in my small town. Yesterday was a “wood day”. I was using the backhoe (BH77) with a mechanical thumb to hold logs up off the ground so another guy could cut them into 16” rounds with a chainsaw. He finished the last cut on a log and turned around to walk a few steps to put the chainsaw down. I didn’t see him stop and bend down to pick up a small branch. Swung the boom back around to the right to get another log and saw him go down. Glancing blow from the bucket off his hearing protection muffs. He bounced right back up and signaled he was OK. I had to shut the machine off for a few and take a walk til the shakes stopped. I coulda killed him. It’s ALWAYS the operators fault. Should he have been watching the equipment? Sure. But I should have been watching HIM. In the long run, no harm, no foul, except to my nerves. But like they say – Safety Regs are written in blood. Stay safe out there.

 

[RCW]

SAR Tracker - so glad it was no worse.

Very stark reminder how quickly bad things can happen.

Thank you for your service. I’m sure the wood recipients appreciate your continued service….worthwhile and generous project indeed.

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

SAR Tracker - so glad it was no worse.

Very stark reminder how quickly bad things can happen.

Thank you for your service I’m sure the wood recipients appreciate your continued service….worthwhile and generous project indeed.

Agreed. Stuff happens fast.

Stay safe.

Have a program of hand signals if possible before working with men and machines.

Glad everyone was OK.

 

[D2Cat]

Partner, sometimes there are things that happen that make us stop and re-evaluate what/how we do something. We make small adjustments and keep on trucking. Don't beat yourself up too bad. Fortunately you were swinging sideways and not moving down where you would have pinned him between the hoe and the ground.

You provide a positive service based on who you are and what you believe. I believe that is part of why some people, you and your co-worker in this case, are spared tragedy. You get what you sow, more than you sow, later than you sow, and you're sowing good!! Be blessed.

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

I almost killed a friend yesterday.

As a Vet, I volunteer myself and my LX2610 to cut, split, stack and deliver free firewood to Vets and Vets widows here in my small town. Yesterday was a “wood day”. I was using the backhoe (BH77) with a mechanical thumb to hold logs up off the ground so another guy could cut them into 16” rounds with a chainsaw. He finished the last cut on a log and turned around to walk a few steps to put the chainsaw down. I didn’t see him stop and bend down to pick up a small branch. Swung the boom back around to the right to get another log and saw him go down. Glancing blow from the bucket off his hearing protection muffs. He bounced right back up and signaled he was OK. I had to shut the machine off for a few and take a walk til the shakes stopped. I coulda killed him. It’s ALWAYS the operators fault. Should he have been watching the equipment? Sure. But I should have been watching HIM. In the long run, no harm, no foul, except to my nerves. But like they say – Safety Regs are written in blood. Stay safe out there.

See my previous post on this.

Hand signals. And No Walk Zones.

With the machine's noise... it's impossible to hear ANYTHING as a person on the ground and especially as an operator.

 

[RCW]

I mowed and refueled. Winter additive will go in the can this time. Use a biocide year round. Hard to believe I’m using a winter additive already, but good insurance.….

Just a PS - - you can see our friend Kenny's Extended Hook at the top of my Quick Hitch. The extra 5/8" of the hook doesn't sound like much but is priceless - - solved a couple issues I had with my implements.

Highly recommended, and he has a bunch of other cool stuff too.

Home - BoltOnHooks LLC

 

[NCL4701]

I almost killed a friend yesterday.

As a Vet, I volunteer myself and my LX2610 to cut, split, stack and deliver free firewood to Vets and Vets widows here in my small town. Yesterday was a “wood day”. I was using the backhoe (BH77) with a mechanical thumb to hold logs up off the ground so another guy could cut them into 16” rounds with a chainsaw. He finished the last cut on a log and turned around to walk a few steps to put the chainsaw down. I didn’t see him stop and bend down to pick up a small branch. Swung the boom back around to the right to get another log and saw him go down. Glancing blow from the bucket off his hearing protection muffs. He bounced right back up and signaled he was OK. I had to shut the machine off for a few and take a walk til the shakes stopped. I coulda killed him. It’s ALWAYS the operators fault. Should he have been watching the equipment? Sure. But I should have been watching HIM. In the long run, no harm, no foul, except to my nerves. But like they say – Safety Regs are written in blood. Stay safe out there.

No excuse, but it’s easy to do. About a year and a half back I came quite close to backing over my wife. We had a tree that had fallen into a neighbors yard. For him it was in the far reaches of his back yard and he wasn’t much concerned about it. For us it was a few hundred yards out in the woods and we knew nothing about it. We saw him one afternoon and saw the tree in his yard so we offered to pull it back over to our side and get it cleaned up. He was good with that so next day we got to it.

Wife and I were both out there and had it in enough pieces it was just grapple the brush to the brush pile and the bigger stuff to the wood yard for processing into firewood. Since there was nothing left for her to do unless she wanted to do the grapple work, she said she was headed back to the house and she drove the Mule back home.

I’d made a few trips to the brush pile and was down to the logs. I was repositioning one to get it in a good position for the quarter mile trip to the wood yard. Pushed it forward then started backing up to reposition the tractor and looked behind me IN THAT ORDER because I was mostly paying attention to the grapple end of the tractor. No problem being I was near nothing and no one. As I look back I see my wife who’s supposed to be in the house diving out of the way of the 600lb boxblade aimed at her.

She said she forgot something or other and decided to walk back instead of driving the Mule so I hadn’t heard her. She saw me moving forward and said she had no clue I could change direction that quickly so walking 3’ behind the tractor seemed safe to her. I’ve been the guy on the ground many times as well. Not smart on her part (mainly not smart trusting her DA husband not to squash her), but I’m the guy in the seat slinging around a 6000lb machine looking in the wrong direction so it’s on me, period. I don’t know that we were exactly traumatized but it was enough neither of us were even mad at the other. Just thankful she wasn’t hurt. Agreed going forward the operator needs to look where they’re going at all times and folks on the ground need to make eye contact with the operator and acknowledge each other before approaching. (Sometimes she’s the operator and I’m the one on the ground.)

So yeah. Only takes a second…

Glad your friend is OK.

 

[06B3030]

Nice looking install. I like the custom mount. Looks like it ought to hold just fine.

Thanks!
The mount was overkill...but that's how I roll! hahahaha

 

[Siesta Sundance]

Someone lost round bales over a week ago about 5 miles north of me. So I put The Laundry Fairy in the truck with a trailer and I jumped on the Orange with the grapple and drove down to salvage what I could. I was able to grab almost 2 bales worth. Almost free hay, just time and some fuel costs. Plus a little bit of litter control, I grab as much of the twine as I could.

 

[S-G-R]

Mowed close to 7 acres of grass with the LX3310 ans FDR2584. It's been growing as fast and is as green as it would be in june.

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

Cleaned up some storm blow down.

Went to push over one of the trees in last pic as it was dead, and promptly got it hung in the other one. Cut and dropped both. Will clean up tomorrow. Might light that big ass pile too.

 

[NCL4701]

This was a short retaining wall at my father’s old house where my son and his fiancé live. It’s about 35 years old, constructed of used railroad ties, and getting pretty punky so it was time to remove and replace. Grapple made disassembly and removal easy.

First one we removed had a yellow jacket nest in it. Part of the nest that was in the rotted out hollow of the timber was quite visible while it was elevated in the grapple.

After the initial battle with the tiny hellions was over, we had the field workers continuing to look for the nest throughout the day. Apparently some of the nest extended past the wall into the dirt behind as they dug out the hole in the dirt bank and continued business as usual. A second battle with the survivors appears to have concluded the war. If not, we shall continue until victory is ours!

Had a pile of punky old Timbers to dump in the random log hole.

Son was helping. He helped quite a lot. I’ll have to admit it was really nice to have a reasonably fit adult man to share the physical requirements of the job. Of course we had the L for most of the heavy lifting.

A little backfill and all done.

Did this little one on the other side of the house today as well.

 

[D2Cat]

How do you anchor the ties into the soil so they don't roll inward?

 

[Siesta Sundance]

This was a short retaining wall at my father’s old house where my son and his fiancé live. It’s about 35 years old, constructed of used railroad ties, and getting pretty punky so it was time to remove and replace. Grapple made disassembly and removal easy. View attachment 110644
First one we removed had a yellow jacket nest in it. Part of the nest that was in the rotted out hollow of the timber was quite visible while it was elevated in the grapple. View attachment 110645
After the initial battle with the tiny hellions was over, we had the field workers continuing to look for the nest throughout the day. Apparently some of the nest extended past the wall into the dirt behind as they dug out the hole in the dirt bank and continued business as usual. A second battle with the survivors appears to have concluded the war. If not, we shall continue until victory is ours! View attachment 110646
Had a pile of punky old Timbers to dump in the random log hole. View attachment 110647
Son was helping. He helped quite a lot. I’ll have to admit it was really nice to have a reasonably fit adult man to share the physical requirements of the job. Of course we had the L for most of the heavy lifting. View attachment 110648 View attachment 110649 A little backfill and all done. View attachment 110650
Did this little one on the other side of the house today as well. View attachment 110651

Soil exposed directy to bricks down in Texas is an instant invite to wood destroying insects into the house. No termite issues in NC?

 

[NCL4701]

How do you anchor the ties into the soil so they don't roll inward?

Dry concrete about 4” thick under the bottom run. Drive 1/2” rebar (4 per timber) through the timber and 24” into the red clay below. Doesn’t take much moisture for the dry concrete mix to turn into concrete. Each successive layer is pinned with 1/2” rebar.

That’s the way it was built 35 years ago and quite similar to this larger wall at the adjacent house we rebuilt 3 years ago. The bigger one is high enough it’s lag bolted to ground anchors in three places. The wall we did today isn’t high enough to need anchors.

 

[NCL4701]

Soil exposed directy to bricks down in Texas is an instant invite to wood destroying insects into the house. No termite issues in NC?

We do treat for termites and they are present here but brick, CMU, poured concrete… nothing unusual about masonry of various types in direct contact with soil in our area.

 

[fried1765]

This was a short retaining wall at my father’s old house where my son and his fiancé live. It’s about 35 years old, constructed of used railroad ties, and getting pretty punky so it was time to remove and replace. Grapple made disassembly and removal easy. View attachment 110644
First one we removed had a yellow jacket nest in it. Part of the nest that was in the rotted out hollow of the timber was quite visible while it was elevated in the grapple. View attachment 110645
After the initial battle with the tiny hellions was over, we had the field workers continuing to look for the nest throughout the day. Apparently some of the nest extended past the wall into the dirt behind as they dug out the hole in the dirt bank and continued business as usual. A second battle with the survivors appears to have concluded the war. If not, we shall continue until victory is ours! View attachment 110646
Had a pile of punky old Timbers to dump in the random log hole. View attachment 110647
Son was helping. He helped quite a lot. I’ll have to admit it was really nice to have a reasonably fit adult man to share the physical requirements of the job. Of course we had the L for most of the heavy lifting. View attachment 110648 View attachment 110649 A little backfill and all done. View attachment 110650
Did this little one on the other side of the house today as well. View attachment 110651

Having the proper tools, simply makes most every job a pleasurable one!

 

[ken erickson]

This was a short retaining wall at my father’s old house where my son and his fiancé live. It’s about 35 years old, constructed of used railroad ties, and getting pretty punky so it was time to remove and replace. Grapple made disassembly and removal easy. View attachment 110644
First one we removed had a yellow jacket nest in it. Part of the nest that was in the rotted out hollow of the timber was quite visible while it was elevated in the grapple. View attachment 110645
After the initial battle with the tiny hellions was over, we had the field workers continuing to look for the nest throughout the day. Apparently some of the nest extended past the wall into the dirt behind as they dug out the hole in the dirt bank and continued business as usual. A second battle with the survivors appears to have concluded the war. If not, we shall continue until victory is ours! View attachment 110646
Had a pile of punky old Timbers to dump in the random log hole. View attachment 110647
Son was helping. He helped quite a lot. I’ll have to admit it was really nice to have a reasonably fit adult man to share the physical requirements of the job. Of course we had the L for most of the heavy lifting. View attachment 110648 View attachment 110649 A little backfill and all done. View attachment 110650
Did this little one on the other side of the house today as well. View attachment 110651

Where you aware of the yellow jacket nest before starting the demolition?
Hope no one was stung, they can be dangerous when swarming or if a person is allergic to their venom. It has been a bad year for yellow jackets here at my house and I have a few ground nests at my land that I give a wide berth to.