Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Thanks, @greybeard and Miss @farmerjan , for your wise counseling. I am SO ignorant in so many things. I am considering contacting the guy who baled the hay and working out a lease agreement. I think that would take care of the pastures that are worth growing hay on. That would leave the woods and the south pastures that aren't worth baling hay on.

Regarding the pond, I currently have the following equipment to manage the growth:
+ 4 cycle troy-built string trimmer with the following attachments:
- string trimmer (of course)
- brush cutter
- hedge trimmer
- pole saw
+ Kobalt battery powered hedge trimmer
+ Dewalt power too pack, including a reciprocating saw
+ Troy-built push type lawn mower and Cub Cadet Zero-turn radius riding lawn mower
+ hand powered hedge trimmers and lopping shears
+ no chain saw yet

Greybeard, when you say to be cautious about clearing out the vegetation around the pond, I had (mistakenly?) thought that I could clear out the undergrowth on the pond dam but leave the mature trees. That way, little direct rain would strike the dam, hitting the trees first. We had hoped to make the pond accessible to fishing from the dam, and were considering setting up a bench and picnic table on the south bank of the pond under the sweet gum trees. But I certainly don't want to cause erosion around the pond if I can help it.

Regarding the tax issues, where can I find out what the tax laws are, whether property taxes and tax exemptions, but also federal tax laws for agricultural and timber use? I normally do my own taxes, but now that we have retired and radically changed our financial situation, I definitely need to learn more. Is there some kind of book such as "Farming Tax Laws for Senile Texas Aggies"?

And while I am asking, I hope you fine folks can tell me how to avoid damaging a tractor's PTO shaft while grass mowing. Here is the link to the Youtube video where I first learned about the issue:

. How do you folks clear out low areas without damaging your tractor and brush hog?

Finally, (@Baymule , you will probably get a kick out of this), how do I deal with green briars? We cleared them out around the gate when we first bought the place. They have started growing back. I sprayed them with glysophate. They must have thought it was fertilizer, because they are continuing to grow like crazy!

Thanks again to everyone for trying to help us learn as much as we can.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[greybeard]

And while I am asking, I hope you fine folks can tell me how to avoid damaging a tractor's PTO shaft while grass mowing. Here is the link to the Youtube video where I first learned about the issue: . How do you folks clear out low areas without damaging your tractor and brush hog?

1. 'Tractor Mike' should have told people to raise the mower up some as the tractor descended down into the ravine.
2. In that kind of situation, I'm more concerned about what happens on the other end of the toplink..the tractor end. On many tractors, where the toplink pins to the tractor, is a housing that contains a real stiff control spring, with a shaft running thru it. (on some tractors, the spring is on the outside) The spring compresses when the toplink is pushed forward, the shaft acts on some linkage inside the lift housing and the apparatus that linkage connects helps to keep the implement level, especially if you are operating in what is called 'draft control'' instead of the normal 'position control' with your 3pt lift control levers. IF the trailing implement is raised in the back by uneven terrain that enough forward force is exerted on the toplink that the spring is completely compressed, damage can occur inside the 3pt lift housing and that can get a lot more expensive than a drive line. In addition, it is also fairly easy to break the toplink pin in points on the tractor as they are normally cast iron. Some of the newer designs have done away with the heavy compression spring, and the toplink shaft has a hydraulic piston attached to it inside the 3pt guts and that acts on a servo, but damage can still occur if too much forward force is exerted on the toplink by the implement.
3. There are different kinds of setups for the toplink on mowers. Rigid and flexible/swinging.

I believe 'Tractor Mike's'video shows a rigid connection for the toplink on the mower.
Rigid:

Many mowers have a swinging connection, which allows a lot more safety factor if the mower is raised up by the terrain. Normally, if it were a fixed toplink connection, the toplink would have been pinned at position B, but since it has a swinging TL setup, the adjustable TL gets pinned at Position A. When you pick the implement up, the mower pivots on the 2 lift arms and that swing arm straightens up in line with the toplink instead of sagging down as it is in the picture.

But honestly, in over 50 years of running a variety of tractors and mowers, thru all kinds of terrain, I've never torn up a drive line or destroyed a U joint because of what the mower did. It's just one of the things you learn when descending down into a ravine, arroyo or draw..you start raising the mower as soon the tractor starts up the other side. This keeps the front of the mower closer to horizontal with the output shaft of the PTO and lets the blades still cut as they rotate around to the 6 o'clock position. The blades don't give a crap whether the leading edges are doing the cutting or the trailing edges are.

 

[greybeard]

Finally, (@Baymule , you will probably get a kick out of this), how do I deal with green briars? We cleared them out around the gate when we first bought the place. They have started growing back. I sprayed them with glysophate. They must have thought it was fertilizer, because they are continuing to grow like crazy!

Probably Smilax bona-nox
I'll put my 2Ȼ in here tho it probably won't go over well with some.
Greenbrier is extremely difficult to get rid of because:
1. It, like dewberry and blackberry has a very large capacity to store energy in a bulbous part of it's root system. It's why, when you cut it down, it grows right back each time.

2. Both the plant's thorny vine/stalk and it's leaves are waxy and shiny, which means most water based herbicides will not be absorbed by the plant leaves or stems and therefore the root system will live on, and probably the above ground part as well. You need a product that will penetrate the waxy leaf and stalk..a crop/vegetable or petroleum based oil/solvent. (I use diesel)

Unless you have extremely loose sandy soil, grubbing/digging it out of the ground is a backbreaking chore, and even then, greenbrier also produces seeds which means the natural seedbank will contain many many seeds just waiting for the right time to sprout and emerge, but I've killed hundreds if thousands of them and never picked up a shovel or pickax.
Even this, is only about 75-80% effective, meaning up to 1/4 of all the plants you spray won't die.
Your old alma mater has developed the fix.
http://counties.agrilife.org/smith/files/2011/06/7668972153_9.pdf

There are a few variants of greenbrier that have dull leaves and they ARE susceptible to glyco and other water based herbicides.


(You, like me, are now old. Work smart, not hard)

 

[Bruce]

11. Are you interested in providing more of your own food supply?
We wouldn't mind trying. Our one and only attempt at growing a garden was 42 years ago, when we had been married less than a year. We managed to grow a lot more weeds and grass than vegetables, and what vegetables we had were eaten on by insects.

Welcome to gardening!

$12 to $14,000 is alot of money, but it would be the last one I would ever buy that size

$14K doesn't buy much in the way of a new tractor these days. It might get you the smallest sub-compact which really isn't big enough to handle acreage, certainly not anything close to what @Senile_Texas_Aggie has.

 

[Latestarter]

You can also peruse Craig's list for tractors for sale. If you can hire out for the field to be mowed right now to get the weeds knocked back, and get serious about a used tractor later in the fall, there are deals to be had. Many larger tractor dealerships also rent out equipment and you might be able to rent a tractor with brush hog over a weekend and get it done yourself. I know the Kubota dealership near me does and believe the John Deere dealership does as well. A weekend ought to be enough to get it all done depending on weather of course. As for size, I would guess that a tractor in the 40-50hp range would be more than adequate... I don't have one yet either, and sure wish I did. I just want one strong enough to lift a round bale with the FEL. Oh, and I believe most of the tractor FEL's nowadays are quick connect/disconnect, so you can take it off the tractor if you need tight maneuvering in the woods for example.

 

[greybeard]

$14K doesn't buy much in the way of a new tractor these days. It might get you the smallest sub-compact which really isn't big enough to handle acreage, certainly not anything close to what @Senile_Texas_Aggie has

I'm pretty sure that's probably what she is talking about..just something to replace her lawnmower and do a bit more too. A New Holland 'Boomer 24 series for instance with a loader and 60" deck might come close to that price range if she didn't mind having last year's model.

or if she likes orange..she could probably get a loader with it for $2k-$3k more.
From Kubota build me one/choose options and price page:

I have a lawn mower that gives me a fit and am thinking maybe I just need a good all purpose small tractor that I can use where our big ones are just too much, and ditch the lawnmower too.

 

[Bruce]

Guess I'd have to see the "lawn" before I could decide if that would be a good "mower plus" replacement. Certainly not with the Ag tires though.

 

[greybeard]

You would tear more grass up with the %$#!@*& tail wheel than with the ag tires unless you raised the mower at every turn...

 

[farmerjan]

The Kubota that I was looking at when I stopped by the dealer was a "sub-compact". I was concerned about the following...IN THIS ORDER....width and height to get in the small barn/shed that I use for the nurse cows, then fel. Has to be less than 50" wide at the very max and 70" high. with the fold down ROL it was okay. The subcompact has the option of a belly mower, and a front end loader, and will take most other attachments. Can get a small backhoe or a tiller or bushhog or other things. They are offering some very good deals now and the last years model would save me 1,000.. ....Quoted price through end of July was 13,000 with the FEL and tiller. Bushhog was another 1800. Didn't price it with the belly mower but if I remember it was about the cost of the bushhog and it is a quick connect one that you can ride up on a small set of ramps or something and attach. I was interested in the fel and the size to fit in the doorway into the barn.
I have priced a massey also online and came out about the same, in the 13,000 range. I was at a used equipment dealer, who handles everything in every size you can imagine, and the used JD was over 11,000 and the kubota was 13,000 with fel and backhoe attachment.

All I was trying to get across, is that there are deals, they had some bigger kubotas and the financing packages they are offering are very good. I think Massey has some to offer. I know it wouldn't be near enough for what STA needs for his bush hogging, but they do carry bigger ones.
If you are not fairly well versed in things "farming" as STA says he is not, going and buying a used machine might not be a good move.

I like the idea of maybe trying to rent a tractor and bushhog and get a feel for what is comfortable. That way, you could see if you even feel like it is something you could comfortably do. And get some idea of the different tractors available; I personally do not like the way some of the hydraulic levers are positioned on some of the tractors, and find I prefer to use certain ones just for those reasons. Little things that a little use and experience will tell you your own preferences.

 

[greybeard]

Ever consider a finish mower behind a compact or subcompact instead of a belly deck?