No Longer Stumped

Something has come over me (or left me), and I am getting on top of a lot of jobs I’ve put off.

I had a big rock in my yard. It was the size of a couch, minus the backrest. My tractor’s bucket will lift 1500 pounds, and I was not able to get it up using the forks. I would guess the rock is around half a ton. I dislodged it from the yard last year, if memory serves. A tiny stone protrusion was in the way when I mowed the yard, and when I decided to remove it, I found the giant rock attached to it.

Since then, I’ve had a big hole in my yard, next to another big hole from which I extracted a similar rock which was just small enough to lift with a rope. I had to mow around a big rock and two holes. It was worse than the original situation.

Yesterday I lifted one end of the rock, tied a tow strap around it, and dragged it out of the yard. Now the cattle can deal with it. Maybe they’ll use it to scratch themselves.

I had a sweet gum stump by my gate. Again, a mower obstacle. It had been there since Hurricane Irma. I put stuff on it to make it rot, and it paid no attention. Yesterday I decided to test it. I shoved the tractor’s forks under it, and up it came, along with half of the yard. I dumped it in my pasture on my shooting berm, and I used some of the berm to fill the hole. Very nice.

I had another stump which was nearly level with the ground but still in the way. I had to take the forks off the tractor in order to move dirt, so the bucket was ready for use. I scraped the stump away with ease. Excellent.

There is a huge stump just outside the yard, from Irma. It’s from a very big water oak I cut up. Chemicals didn’t bother it, and there was too much dirt in it for the chainsaw to be an option. Yesterday I ripped up the sides of it where it was rotten, and I tore up a bunch of the dead roots around it. I used the tractor to smooth out the ground around it and fill in the low areas. It’s still there, but it’s not nearly as annoying.

Today, I got rid of my citrus trees. I cut them a while back, but the stumps were still there. I had to cut them because it’s no longer possible to have citrus. Citrus greening is everywhere except the west, so if you have trees that still look good, you don’t have much time to enjoy them before they go bad. My trees were sick and produced disgusting fruit, and the people who built this house planted them way too close together anyway. Today I used my middle buster to rip the stumps out, and I dumped them in the woods.

My middle buster’s ears are bent because I’ve used it so much for clearing stumps. By “ears” I mean the thick metal tabs that hold the pins that attach it to the 3-point hitch. The steel is nearly half an inch thick. To fix the ears, I have to heat the steel, so I need to get my propane outfit running. I haven’t used it because I’ve been waiting for a unicorn to call me with a great deal on an oxygen bottle. I gave up today and got a price from Airgas, so tomorrow I’ll buy a bottle of my very own, and I’ll heat the ears and bend them back into line. Then I’ll weld some gussets in the corners to make them stiffer.

My pins are also bent. I guess that’s because they’re Chinese. I’m thinking I’ll replace two short pins with one long 7/8″ bar of solid steel. Not sure yet. It would be a pain to remove if it got bent. I could put some kind of coupler in the middle of it. It doesn’t have to be that strong in the middle. It just has to resist flexing, and there would be very little torque in the middle.

When I get the gas, I’ll pick up gusset material and a steel bar. I also plan to get an 18″ square piece of 1/4″ steel to turn into a steak griddle. I’m going to use my Offroad SWAG finger brake to turn it into a pan, and I’ll weld the corners shut to keep grease from pouring out.

That finger brake is a godsend. It opens up a whole new world of projects most people can’t hope to do even with a $1500 standalone brake.

I’ve also cut a bunch of annoying trees that looked like they had STD’s. Good riddance.

It’s nice to be going into fall in an industrious mood. Generally, my pattern is to work hard during the summer, which is miserably hot, and then sit around doing very little when the weather is good. It’s not a great way to get things done, and it can lead to additional problems such as death from heat stroke.

If I can get these things done, it almost seems like I should be able to blacktop the driveway. Is that hubris? I already have a bucket of goo and a squeegee.

I wish I could go to Airgas right now for my oxygen, but they won’t have any until tonight. Guess it’s time for a propane burger.