Matthew Storrs

5- but that was for the things I had done ?. Yep not much happening round there ‘ere parts.

Well I am a bit of a revolutionary! Just not so good at business!

My method is to increase for the jobs/customers I don’t really want and more or less keep prices the same for more desirable work, that way my diary gets booked up with quality rather than riff raff! Money is not everything to me though- I’d sooner enjoy my work for modest income vs headache high earners!

Pfft- a mere lowland dweller ?

Haha! I live in Princetown which is just about the pits weather wise. There’s a reason they stuck a prison here- the land wasn’t much good for anything else. ive coped/put up with it for 10 years, but then I grew up on one of the highest farms on Dartmoor- rain is just part of life up here- much like other upland areas- Wales etc. @Big J I totally understand where your coming from, endlessly trudging out into the gloom fighting mud mud mud. For me the only way I can work with it is to keep my out goings as low as I can and don’t employ anyone so I have a degree of flexibility working around the weather- I used to just go out in it day after day when I started my buisness, but now I’d sooner work the weekend if it means avoiding the wet, not that it helps ground conditions of course as that won’t dry until spring now. it all takes it’s toll on both body and mind, it’s pretty tiring battling against elements all the time. personally though, I would struggle to move to a agriculturally landlocked area like I consider the lowlands to be, I find field after field with nowhere to really walk except designated footpaths pretty depressing tbh- give me the wild Rainswept hills of Dartmoor any day.

But if I heard the news right, it’s not just the vaccine they’re sceptical about- it’s that even if we try and obtain natural immunity it seems you can still catch it months later as the antibodies diminish after a few months..

How are you finding your Kubota? Any issues yet?

I have heard this from several of the older generation (70+)- what kind of life are they ‘saving’ us for.. One customer of mine said trust me it’s not much fun when you get to this age! They don’t want to spend their last years in isolation and would sooner take the risk whilst taking sensible precautions where neccesary.

Exactly, self employed, every day is the same, I’m working today through choice, some day during next week il not bother- that’s the beauty of self employed, I think it would be different if you employed lads during the week and wanted them to do a sat/sun, I think it’s only fair to offer them an incentive to give up their weekend as they don’t have the choice to not do weekdays. There is also a difference if the client specifically wants it done in the weekend- personally I probably wouldnt charge extra as I don’t give a toss what day of the week it is.

Just use a small bucket. I’ve tried an auger in the past and it’s neither quicker and for some reason doesn’t seem to bring up enough soil for backfilling- a little bucket- one scoop and a nice little pile produced ready for tamping around the tree.

Is your Takeuchi on buttons for the auxiliary hydraulics? My TB125 is and no proportional control at all- something to find it a bit limiting as wanting to fit attachments such as tilting grader/thumb etc and it’s too erratic. I put inline flow control valves in to see if that would calm it down but the pump just dead ends as trying to push full fluid through a restricted space- I wonder if you have found a way to overcome this, it’s almost becoming a good enough reason to sell it so I can buy something with proportional control and 3rd/4th aux lines too, which is what I’m really after but my Tak owes me nowt and is in such good condition I’m hesitant to see it gone.

The sock was a joke- but actually just put one on and surprisingly easy to go about life with it on....

An old sock? ? sounds painful though

I’m fairly sure not I’m afraid. Tracking takes a lot of the hydraulic requirements thus leaving very little available for auxiliaries.

I don’t disagree with you at all-But I quite admire Connor for being so tenacious with a machine, it’s not a route I would go down myself as I’m not really a fan of wasting time and money fixing things- it would be interesting to know how much he has spent all in on parts never mind the labour? But even a shagged (to continue the analogy!) TB125 will fetch quite good money at the mo. All the machines I’ve ever had I’ve been happy changing tracks and a few bushes/sprockets here and there- as soon as it gets into major component failure things start getting expensive rapidly and the best place for it is eBay. That said my TB125 is a low houred minter and I’m half tempered to stick it on eBay for a ridiculous price and see if anyone bites!

Sounds good, how many hours is she on. The old TB125 I had was on 5000 hrs and had a very rough life being largely an ex hire machine and the slew was just starting to get rough at 4500 hrs. My newer one is on 2500 but it’s been a really well looked after machine as had it from 1000hrs and it was owner op before that, so will be interesting to see how many hours il get out of it before major works are required like your having.

How many mm play was in your king post to require the line boring- mine is starting to develop a me want to try and get it done before line boring is required...

It will be like new when done- keep t photos coming, funnily enough my undercarriage bit where the idler Slides in had splashed out only an inch or so, but my goodness that took some bending back- think it would be best to heat it up first- I used a Good sized bottle jack and it was pushing the whole machine sideways, and the damn thing still didn’t bend back!

That is impressive. First year growing tomatoes For me and it’s was going great, healthy plants fairly heavy crop and the. Bang the whole lot got blight, and in any case any fruits that haven’t yet rotted are refusing to ripen. But disheartening but will try a better compost next year- this years compost was from Lidl’s as was the only place I could find any at the time!

Well worth it if your doing all the work your self- the TB125 is a superb model IMO.

My sister is a teacher for a year 1 class outside Newcastle, 2 days back and her co worker gets tested positive so the whole class are all back home for 14 days! Primary school near me, 60 kids all sent home cos someone tested positive. so much so for back to school!

...And they won’t have brought their economy to its knees in the process.

Yes the machine is in single acting mode. There is likely a lever somewhere- (usually on route back to tank) where you can swap it to double acting

What about a tracked dumper Instead, that would be far more capable with it being on tracks and the load actually assisting traction rather than being a dead weight behind it...

Depends what you mean by heavy and what you mean by steep! my 85hp tractor on very good tyres used to manage up to 6 ton or so up a steepish field. But all depends on what kind ground you’re on and whether there Is stone to bite down to below the topsoil. I imagine a Kubota under 50hp (regardless of what the paper specs say) might be limited to only a ton or two behind it up a steep muddy hill.