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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
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Simpler is better, except when complicated looks really cool. -
Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
I feel the pain from here. I bet it was a good party though.Lemme freshen up my cuppa coffee and tell you a tale of moving stuff that's as true as can be (I swear ) - It were 36 years ago , as I'm a pup of 76 winters, but I recall it like yesterday ! I was coming up on 40 years old, and had some days off scheduled. So, as I needed to landscape where there was little sun, I called a place, and had 8 tons of 'rainbow rock' (multi colored rounded stone slightly larger than pebbles )dropped in my driveway. I had just started to move it, a wheelbarrow at a time, when my wife came home from her job, and said " you have to move all this away now ! " She then tells me she set up a surprise 40th birthday party , and 30 to 40 people will be showing up that evening - so I had to wheelbarrow all of it off the driveway, shower, dress up , and suffer all the slaps on the back at making years, when all I really wanted to do was fall face first into bed. (Moral of the tale : always double check with wife first ! !
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RickComment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
Today went fairly well, well enough that I'm going to stop for the season and let it fill, hope that the stuff still in there will settle to the lowest point for some drag bucket miracle yet to emerge.
The stone boat did great service as a boat this time or, channeling Arthur Ransome, a splatcher. IE . I could stand on it and fly shovel goop over to the backhoe corner. The dark line looking like some sort of photoshop is the spade handle with the blade in about 18 in. Thats the clay bottom.
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Oh yes, much exhaustion, sweat and the odd extra pain, yet satisfaction at how its gone.
Part of the reason for stopping is the collateral damage because its so wet.. there are soggy /muddy tracks in places where once there was undisturbed green. So the grass gets to recover as well as me. Maybe it was the 4 wheel drift requiring remedial opposite lock that led me to think that maybe this was enough.
My neighbour is getting a new driveway and forecourt and says, did I want some fill o yes thankyou , so I dropped in this morning. The contractor asks , 'do I want him to drop it down to me?'
^%$# yes says sore man, please do.
I nominated a spot , the first load was delivered but the second busted through allowing me the absolute pleasure of towing him out with the swiss army knife.
My fault but no harm, no foul. What great guy, I trust him straight away , I'll get him to do a pad for me later.
20230607_154811.jpgLast edited by John B; 06-06-2023, 11:56 PM.Comment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
I see you used your best tow string John
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
Dyneema/ Spectra, Jay.. probably could lift that thing up by the nose. Its the go to guy for lifting or pulling stuff down etc.Comment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
Dyneema is good stuff- I use it for my two line stunt kites. But real men use chain. My drag chains run from a three ton high tensile number for small jobs to probably sixty ton in case I ever need to rescue a train The thing is, you hook up to something with a heavy clanking chain, your voice immediately drops an octave, your whiskers grow half an inch and darken and you start to drag one leg from the sheer weight of your manhood being hauled along for the ride. And then there's the shackles and D clamps! Be still my beating heart JayInOz
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
I see now what I've been doing wrong. I rigged two chains up out of the boats old anchor chain, hooks and all, but I just never bother because the coil of spectra sits there on hand.Dyneema is good stuff- I use it for my two line stunt kites. But real men use chain. My drag chains run from a three ton high tensile number for small jobs to probably sixty ton in case I ever need to rescue a train The thing is, you hook up to something with a heavy clanking chain, your voice immediately drops an octave, your whiskers grow half an inch and darken and you start to drag one leg from the sheer weight of your manhood being hauled along for the ride. And then there's the shackles and D clamps! Be still my beating heart JayInOzComment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
Great to learn why I'm such a manly man, as I generally use chain. Real men use chain & binders to tie down a load too - though ratchet straps sure are easier.Dyneema is good stuff- I use it for my two line stunt kites. But real men use chain. My drag chains run from a three ton high tensile number for small jobs to probably sixty ton in case I ever need to rescue a train The thing is, you hook up to something with a heavy clanking chain, your voice immediately drops an octave, your whiskers grow half an inch and darken and you start to drag one leg from the sheer weight of your manhood being hauled along for the ride. And then there's the shackles and D clamps! Be still my beating heart JayInOz"If it ain't broke, you're not trying." - Red GreenComment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
I use ropes but I think now I'm supposed to use ratchet straps- because so many people lost stuff because they couldn't tie a secure knot in a rope! Haven't lost a load yet.Comment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
Used rope for years, but have largely switched to ratchet straps because they are so much easier. Of course a heavy load like steel, tractors, etc. still get chain, but, as an example, I just hauled some planks on a rack & strapping 'em down with ratchet straps was really easy - plus the strap distributes the pressure better than rope so it doesn't dig in."If it ain't broke, you're not trying." - Red GreenComment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
What a giant mess I made. It'll be interesting to see how long this takes to settle, if it ever does.
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In other news , the dinghy rig comes out. I can sneak a boat in a couple of hours each side of high tide via mud track down to the mangroves.
This glass dinghy is a great family tender, 10 ft x about 4 ft something..edit scratch that .. 5 ft beam....they're a great shape for towing and general tender duties. A Delta.
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1 more hp and it would bona fide plane 1 up, I reckon...hull wave back about a boat length. Thats the 3 hp Tohatsu I despise, use it 'till I kill it.
20230611_124240.jpgLast edited by John B; 06-10-2023, 09:09 PM.Comment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
O thats funny, I searched for specs on the Delta to get the beam and what pops up front and centre..
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The whole John B family in a Delta , photo circa 2005 or 6 by Paul G , from his JW Pathfinder.
Just measured. 5 ft beam x 10 ft long , she's square.Last edited by John B; 06-10-2023, 09:10 PM.Comment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
great picSimpler is better, except when complicated looks really cool.Comment
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Re: Eat yer heart out, tractor man.....
Just re-sent it again to family, the one in the bow is 26 and about to go to Europe to speak as part of her PHD, un freakin believable. Got some smarts from her mother.
Forgot this while I was out in one of the water tractors same day as above. The boat is a favourite of mine , Cora , a 26 ft mullet boat. 1910, working boat genesis... kind of the equivalent here as a catboat from a hull form point of view. Catboats never took off here due to our conditions .
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And back on land something else a bit different. Imagine a guy with a chopstick pokes it in the ground and then moves his hand around to make this cone shaped hole.. Thats what a Kiwi ( bird ) does to get the worm. That weedmat stake is about 6 inches but the hole was deeper.
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Quite a few of these around the place at the moment and agood indicator of where they're ranging around at night. Their calls are so loud its often difficult to pinpoint direction at night...This means they've been in one of our backyard plantng areas..Last edited by John B; 06-13-2023, 04:51 PM.Comment
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