All in all, yesterday was a pretty good day

[Mark A]

After about a 10 month search we closed on some property yesterday. It has most of the items on the list and was only a little more than I'd hoped to pay so we pulled the trigger.

 

I really didn't know it was going to be so hard to find dirt.

 

Then, since it is apparently an affront to any red blooded American male to not have one, I picked up a shiny new orange tractor as well. It is currently sitting on the trailer in my driveway. My first major task will be to survive backing it off the trailer. From my years in jeeping I became fairly adept at rolling 4wd vehicles but I really don't want to roll this one.

 

Many thanks to all that have answered land and tractor questions over the last few months. It was nice getting info from local folks with real world experience.

 

Mark

[MacGyver]

Awesome!  Excited for you guys.

[Ugly]

Congrats! That's awesome to have a new tractor right off the bat too!

[Mark A]

Congrats! That's awesome to have a new tractor right off the bat too!

Thanks. We've been saving for a LOOOOOOONG time. We are determined to pay cash as we go with the goal of having everything paid for including the house in about 3 years.

 

I am only going to get one shot at each step of this so I am trying to do things really right. One of the benefits of getting the new tractor was getting a decent sized back hoe so that I can do as much of the underground work as possible my self. We will see if that ends up saving money or not.

 

Even though I don't have a lot of spare time it is all free so I will invest it as wisely as possible.

 

Mark

[gregintenn]

Sounds like you are on the right track!

[Ugly]

There is nothing like the feeling when you are living amongst your own work, it makes it all the sweeter!

[Slappy]

Kubota's are great tractors.  My family has a 42hp Kubota with several landpride implements.  One thing I highly suggest you do, is if you see a pin such as the ones that hook from the attachment to the tractor arms, buy a backup!!  I can't tell you how many times I've had to run to the Co-Op to try and track down a pin, and to buy a bunch and find out that they are all the wrong size! haha.  

 

We like the 42hp Kubota, its powerful, yet fairly compact for narrow trails and such.  At some point though, we will get a larger one to pull bigger implements with though but we also have 425 acres.  Our largest field is 30 acres and unless you have all the time in the world, a 6' implement wont be large enough.  Right now we have leased that one out to a farmer.  But the tractor does great for all our other fields.  

[Mark A]

Well, I dug my first trench yesterday... 100' and it took about 2 hours. I am not the most graceful of backhoe operators but I have plenty of enthusiasm...

Buddy needed to control rain runoff and I needed some practice.. And, he promised beer for when we were done.

Good deal for all