Yard work and my equipment for doing it.

jdcrawler

Tractorologist
Member
This is what our yard looked like when we bought this property a few years ago.




While I was building the house, Marie went to work on cleaning up and mowing the immediate yard area around the house.
This is the JD mower that she used and I still use it to mow with.




We get a lot of leaves off those sycamore trees in the front yard so last fall, I bought a used lawn vacuum to pull behind the JD to pick up the grass clippings and the leaves from the front yard.




This was originally a trailer that towed behind the tractor but I didn't like having to pay so much attention to it when I was backing up to keep it from jackknifing.
I modified it so it now attaches to the back of the tractor with this 1 inch round bar.
This bar attachment is mounted on pillow block bearings so the vacuum motor and collection box can rock from side to side.




The round bar fits into the two holes on this bracket that is bolted to the back of the tractor.
This holds the vacuum straight in line with the tractor but lets the back of the box move up or down and rock from side to side.
Now I don't have to turn around and watch the vacuum box when I'm backing up because it stays inline behind the tractor and swings around on it's caster wheel.




I have the vacuum up on a work table right now because I need to change the caster wheels on it.
The ones I used are to small and to weak and I have already bent one of them sideways.
I'm going to put larger and stronger caster wheels on it.




So .... back to the front yard ... as you can see, the vacuum does a good job of picking up the mower clippings and leaves.




Looking to the east at the yard in between the house and the garage, you can see that the area where I had the two dead ash trees cut down is filling in nicely.




We have been only mowing about half of the back yard and Marie has always wanted to clean up the rest of it and mow all the way back to the edge of the ravine.
The weeds on the ruff area of the back yard grow to be three and four foot tall in the summer time.
We had talked about cleaning up and mowing that back area and we had planned on doing that this spring.
Even though Marie is no longer here to see it, I'm still going to clean it up and mow it for her.

Along with buying the yard vacuum last fall, I also bought this used pull behind Swisher mower unit.




Before last winter had set in, I hooked this up behind my R/T tractor and with the mower adjusted as high as it would go ( about 8 inches high ), I pulled it around the un mowed area of the back yard to ruff cut it all down.
Today I started picking up all of the twigs and dead branches in preparation for mowing this back area.






On the front yard and around the house, I use just the JD mower with the vacuum behind it.
Then I take the vacuum off and hook the swisher mower to it.
The JD mower is 56 inch cut and the Swisher mower is a 60 inch cut.
With the Swisher mower offset from the JD and allowing for the overhang between the cuts of the two mowers, I'm still cutting a 8-1/2 to 9 foot swath and it makes mowing the back yard a lot faster.








This is the first cut on the ruff area with the mowers set down to the same height as the rest of the yard.





This photo is taken looking straight back from the back porch.
This is the view that she wanted to see and it is the view you see thru the patio doors when you are sitting inside the house at the table.
It is also the view you will see if you are looking out the window above the counter where the kitchen sink is.
It will look really nice once I get it mowed enough times so the ruff area looks the same as the rest of the yard.

 
Nice way to honor her memory, Ray.

I like that the R/T got a spin around the yard. Everyone and their dog has a JD. There is only one R/T.

That little tractor gets used a lot more then I thought it would when I first built it.
It is the only tractor that I have that will pull my 700 pound roller around the yard.
I tried pulling it with the JD and just end up spinning the rear wheels most of the time.

Marie use to use it a lot too.

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Nice looking place Ray. I'm sure Marie enjoyed her self using the tractors and doing yard work. I was wondering about the JD GT245, when you have the Swisher hooked to the JD, does the tractor pull it good ? Does the tractor slide sideways any ? Just curious.

Noel
 
Nice looking place Ray. I'm sure Marie enjoyed her self using the tractors and doing yard work. I was wondering about the JD GT245, when you have the Swisher hooked to the JD, does the tractor pull it good ? Does the tractor slide sideways any ? Just curious.

Noel

I have about 80 pounds of weight on each rear wheel and it keeps the tractor from slipping.
That Swisher mower moves really easy and I pull it in and out of the garage by hand and hook and un-hook it from the tractor outside where there is more room.
 
There is a dirt mound in the ruff area out behind the barn / garage that has probably been there since 1974 when the pole barn was built and the mound of dirt is too rough to mow over.
There is also a bank about one foot high behind the barn at the edge of what we had been mowing already.
I want to take the dirt from that mound and use it to fill in along the bank area.
The dirt of the mound is really hard so before I can start to dig it up I need to brake it up some first.

I have parts for a small Agricat crawler up in the garage loft and one of the part is this ripper ( shown here upside down ).




Now it would be really nice if that crawler were all put together so I could just use it but it isn't.
So I clamped the ripper onto the forks of my lift truck and set a couple of blocks on it for added weight.




Then I used the lift truck to pull the ripper to brake up the dirt.




It has been almost 20 years since I last used my Lindeman crawler to actually dig dirt but I got it out today and went to work with it.
With me digging straight into the mound of dirt, you can get an idea of how high and steep it was.




I'm dumping the dirt along the bank so I can make it slope down to the area that I have just cleaned up and started mowing.




Once all the digging was finished, I brought out my old Ridemaster with the grader blade and used it to level off the area.




I still have to pick up the rocks and then I will be able to mow this area also ( once the weeds grow back over it ).




The area where I filled in still needs to be leveled off but I'll save that for another day.





I just spent a good hour washing all the dirt and mud back off the crawler.




.............. Now .... before you guys even start .... I know you are going to tell me that it would have been a lot easier, faster and more efficient if I had just rented a skid loader to do all this work.

And you are absolutely right.

This probably took me five times longer then if I had used a skid loader but I just spent a very pleasant afternoon playing in the dirt with my old crawler and the old Ridemaster and I enjoyed every minuet of it .... even having to wash the crawler afterward.
 
The thought of using a rental skid loader never entered my mind until you brought it up Ray! I was like a kid in a candy store reading about you using all these great machines to do your chores! Heck with the time it took, it was all quality time! Do you still have the Chevy flatbed too?

Thanks for the pics and story!

DAC
 
I would of used the old equipment...

However its an interesting thought that a little skid steer would do more work faster than the lindeman. At one point in history that machine was probably something people dreamed about to do dirt work. Sure would of beat digging out with a shovel into a wheelbarrow and shoving that around.
 
Thanks for sharing your day with us.
That looked like fun.
 
Hi JD, boy I enjoyed the stories great tribute to Maire, I would have used the equipment you did also wouldn't even have tought about a skid steer, I was really intrigued with the hitch you built for the vacuum wagon at first I could get it in my head how it would hook up but then the light came on I like it great idea you have a very nice place thanks for sharing
 
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