Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[RollingAcres]

Has any of you ever seen that?

I've never seen that.

 

[AmberLops]

Wow! I've never seen that either
I guess they lke to cool off too, right?
I did see 2 strange-looking deer today...maybe they were mule deer? Definitely not white-tails!

 

[AmberLops]

Not to change the subject but have you read The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls?
It's an amazing book!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Not to change the subject but have you read The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls?
It's an amazing book!

Not that I recall. I'll have to look it up and maybe download a sample.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Can any of you recommend a good brand and/or model or equally important a brand and/or model to avoid?

I didn't get any feedback on my question regarding landscape rakes, so I will explicitly ask the folks I know have tractors but don't remember if you have landscape rakes. Miss @Baymule, Mr. @Bruce, and Mr. @Mike CHS, can any of you recommend a good brand or model or not recommend a bad brand or model?

I have been intending on taking a picture of the most dangerous animal we have here on our home stead. I was able to get a very close picture without this animal knowing I was there. Here is the dangerous animal:


On a more serious note, our red bud tree appears to be dying. I trimmed off a dead limb last week, thinking that maybe I needed to prune that limb. At the time, everything else on the tree looked fine. But today while mowing, I noticed a big portion of the tree looks dead. Any ideas what might be wrong?


Finally, the grass in the pastures is being raked and baled today. I'll try to get some pictures.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Baymule]

I know nothing about landscape rakes, much less what brand to get or stay away from.

that is a terrible dangerous animal there, it's a wonder it didn't wake up and hurt you!

 

[Mike CHS]

I saw your post earlier but missed the question about landscape rakes. I have the one that TSC carries, County Line? It does a really good job depending on what you are doing. It is super at moving gravel on the driveway. I have used it a bunch for moving tree trimmings but I do most of that in reverse on the tractor. If you pull many branches it gets balled up and the rake will skip over the pile or even get hung up if you do too much. By doing it in reverse, you just pivot the rack and the pile works in your favor and if it gets too much you just go forward and push some more.

 

[Bruce]

I just went with the Mahindra 6' rake when I bought the tractor, don't know who actually makes it but I do know that some of the "implements" are made by a USA company including the backhoe and loader. I didn't buy the gauge wheels because IIRC they wanted a fair bit of money for them and I didn't know if I would need them. Not sure if that is a problem for the future if I want to level stuff out. I see that Everything Attachments has an interesting rake that has 2 angle adjustments, one up front to swing the rake to the side of the tractor and one at the rake to angle that separately.

Can't tell you how well the rake works because I haven't used it yet! I did get and install the quick hitch bushings though. Hopefully I can find time to smooth things out behind the barn, the alpacas' poop pile moves as they use the "active" edge. Plus I need to get some stone for the driveway and 2 "lanes" to the barn. I had to put the EV charging station in the drive bay since I had no open slots in the service panel in the house. The station won't be real useful if I can't get the car back uphill to the parking area. And the tractor made quite an impression just outside its door, need to fill that in with stone.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Thanks, all, for your inputs on the landscape rake. I am torn between going the expensive route and buy the Everything Attachments rake, which is $1145 for a 6 ft rake + $366 for the gauge wheels, or go with something for about half that much, such as the Titan Attachments sold by Amazon, which is $723 including the gauge wheels. I watched Hamiltonville Farm use the Everything Attachments and Stony Ridge Farmer use the Titan attachments and both seemed to do well. I'll figure something out. Thanks again for your inputs.

As I have mentioned before, I am like a little boy whose favorite toy is broken, namely my tractor. This morning I decided quit pouting and sucking on my thumb and instead to work out in the pasture, despite it being hot. I know a number of you have worked outdoors even when it was hot, such as Miss @B&B Happy goats, when the temperature was at or near 100º F th) with almost that high humidity, having to take care of her goats, her chickens, and her rabbits, and I seemed to remember some painting going on! And I know Miss @Baymule and her DH haven't been sitting on their behinds, but have been out working, as well as @Mike CHS and Miss Teresa, as well as numerous others unnamed. So I decided it was time to stop being a wimp and get busy. Once I decided to go, then my Beautiful Gal decided to go as well. So we chose to work on what she wanted to work on, which was in the creek near the culvert, and later along the edge of the woods. I am going to need some advice on what to do about the creek and the culvert as there is some erosion happening there, but dummy me forgot to get pictures, so I will take those and post, then seek advice.

Once we finished at the creek, we went to near the gate and worked along the edge of the woods. My Beautiful Gal grabbed her favorite tool, the pole saw, along with the hedge trimmers, and went to work trimming limbs and cutting down small trees. I decided to do battle with Miss @Baymule's favorite nemesis, green briars. There was quite a large patch of those briars that had grown up in among some trees, and made that part look overgrown and really ugly. I decided to pull them all down. Using no tools other than my two gloved hands, I managed to pull them all down. I got into several arguments with the briars, and I eventually won all of them, but those briars made some sharp points in their arguing!

Well, that's all for now. Still looking for input on what I can do to save the red bud tree. I'd hate for it to die.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[RollingAcres]

Sorry I can't help with the tree issue.

I got into several arguments with the briars, and I eventually won all of them

Glad you "won" and was able to kinda take your frustration out(because of your broken toy) on the green briars.