Expensive Lesson


I was going up an inclined path in our forest and the front end always being too light, raised up slightly, then slowly rotated to the right and came down gently on a small stump. It landed right on the hydraulic connector lines to the front end bucket.  The only way to get it off was to remove the stump… of course afterwards the bucket was not raising properly… . $1400.00 later and it works just fine…!

Tractor tales

There is never a shortage of tasks on a small farm for a small tractor. Here are a few applications of the past few months:

Tractor news for October 2020

In October, My son Alex started the process of converting our lower sheep pasture to a terraced and weeping-tile drained field . Most of the work was done with a larger excavator, but the Kyoti came in handy for a few jobs;

More tractor news

So I am always looking for ways to solve problems with my Kyoti tractor to give me an excuse to play on it,  Here  are a few more unusual applications of my tractor, for instance, what is the best way to pound in a fence post? :

And when you want to move a neighbour’s bathtub… no problem:

Or for the  removal of that bad invasive shrub in our area called Daphne:

…and in the process of digging with the backhoe,  I unearthed a bottle of Crystal Spring Water Supply  Ginger Beer… Victoria BC .. circa 1910: still in excellent condition.

 

But I didn’t get a picture of the process of the tractor moving some large rocks for the base of a rock retaining wall that I built for my neighbour.. anyway here is the finished product:

 

 

Building a raised bed

I find that using a raised bed with recycled windows for cover and planting winter crops in September is a great solution here for supply of winter lettuces and spinach for early spring harvest. Here is the process I used:
12 – 2’X2’concrete pavers were used and scrap lumber was used to tie it together

Extending the Pond Patio

We needed a flat area for the picnic table so I undertook to extend the small patio, peeling off the soil first to extend the floor of stone.

Tree Pruning and Transplant time


I don’t recommend this to everyone but it certainly worked well when I had to cut some limbs from a tree which was too close to one of the farm buildings.

 

Before it got too soggy here in the winter I used the tractor backhoe to do several transplants around the farm. Originally in the mid 1990s, some plants just got planted in the wrong place, and it becomes obvious once they grow a bit. I find that transplanting trees works 80% of the time.

Fall Tractor work


Some last minute fall work today as the weather is to turn cold and wet, with early snowfall. So today I put on my gardens  compost from my steamy pile of a mixture of horse manure, seaweed, wood chips, local coffee shop coffee grounds and  and household compost.

And getting a few more buckets of firewood was essential, as it looks like we are in for a cold wet winter from now on .