Building up a wall of soil is crucial on some of the sides of my new building. Due to the sloping hills around this property such a large structure has a high and low spot. We plan on addressing this by building a retaining wall. Using massive 6x6 posts cemented 5’ or so in the ground we plan on putting up rail road ties later and then finally dirt up behind those timbers to keep the soil from washing away.
Later on we plan on putting rain barrels up top of where the retaining wall is. And we can pump it over to the third acre area for all the fruits and veggies.
With a new machine acquired, a skidsteer drilling the holes for the posts and setting them up will be a little easier. This time I did not rent, but instead bought a new skidsteer. It is a Kabota SV65-2, its a high flow mid sized skid steer. With lots of attachments it can do just about anything. Its just a big pump, whatever we need to power we can using this skid steer.
Though some problems came up within the first day of usage, my bush grapple attachment was leaking hydraulic fluid. As I went to grab brush it would start spraying out of the upper fitting seen above that goes into the piston.
Animated GIF of leaking connector.
We disconnected the hose and brought it back to where we bought the attachments. They gave us a new one and spotted the issue with the fittings.. They had a hairline crack in them letting the high pressure fluid get through.
It was this fitting where the crack was found.
Using wrenches we got the new hose on, and luckily the issue was resolved and we could get to work.
The auger drill had no issues and worked flawlessly.
Watching the skid steer drill holes is amazing, something that would take me hours is done in less than a minute!
One by one we got them drilled, and cleared out the excess dirt the best we could.
Next was to pour concrete in the holes and make sure to level the posts the best we could.
We cut the poles to size so they were easier to work with.
Animated gif of cutting one of the poles.
Moving them into place with the skid steer helped a lot, each one of these posts is over 100 pounds.
Another very useful machine is my new UTV, it is a Kabota as well and it does great. It can carry over 1300 pounds. And this water barrel is around 400 pounds filled. It had no issues moving it and this made it very easy to make the concrete mixing water inside. We could bring it where ever we needed. And just opened the spout.
We even drilled into an ant hill, they did not like that. That spot with all the grass is where they were. It was cool seeing them pile into the hole after we drilled it.. lol
One by one we got the posts put in, we will let the concrete set and cover over the holes that we filled with cement.
Back in the shop, all the trash is collected and kept there until we are ready to take it to the local county trash collection site.
Once the concrete sets, it will be time to put in horizontal support beams. I found some rail road ties at my local Lowes and they shipped them to me. I will post an update as those come along. Projects like this feel to move so slowly. But due to the large scope I can see how that happens. Its just important to see the progress as it happens. Otherwise you may just miss it when its all done.
That auger will save so much time and effort..
It sure does, really have to have it.
I noticed, is it just you and him? That's been making this entire farm estate!
Grrrrrrr you have so many equipment and machinery.
Our rice farming tools is our buffalo for plowing and the rest is through our hands.
Workshop is the great outdoors.
Although with the steep mountainous and muddy jungles. Machinery would breakdown constantly and you need boats to transport between islands. Grrrrrrrrr
Surrender all you Food now!
That's my foreman, he lives on the farm with me and his wife. Since I am the one always taking pictures and videos I am rarely in them.. haha
Ah, I have seen people use horses for plowing. We have a lot of Mormons around and they use the non powered equipment.
Thanks man, yeah I hope it will hold up.
Hopefully you can rent equipment when you need it where you are. We did that before buying our own.
Renting and experiencing solid trustworthy equipment is always a must.
Putting it to the test before buying is a long lived tradition for us hard working folk.
Although im planning on becoming a artist. My primitive desire to start a farm is burning hot!
Perhaps one day, when i own a nice rice paddy field. Imma do some art landscape and show it to all of you.
*Within +20yrs. Grrrrrrrrrrr
We are a Kubota Family. My wife wants that Kub Utility ATV with a dump bed.
Pretty awesome workhorse you got there. I have never driven a skid steer. They look like a blast to operate?
I am really liking the brand, these machines are my first time owning Kubota but so far so good.
Thanks, its been pretty awesome. I rented one for a week before buying a new one to get the feel of them. Yeah its quite easy, just bring some ear protection as they are quite loud inside.
I can spend hours at a time in mine, just lose track of time doing work out in it.. I call it my little office away from home.. hah
I hope you have as good of luck with it as we have our Kubota. I think it is around 17-18 years old now. Bullet proof. I had to replace hydraulic lines. Seat And tires they wear out. But it still works great ! B7800 mid sized tractor. I could not live without one now...
I dug this 1/4 acre pond with that tractor.
Nice bud, that is some good work you got done with it.
I am amazed to see the number of machines that you have got and your energy level to do all these single handed.
I have acquired quite the collection of farm equipment in the last year. I think the excitement has helped us push ahead with these new machines.
Luckily I have help, four of us live on the farm. But its mostly my foreman and I doing the labor outside.
Out here crushin it and getting shiz done. Awesome work once again. Did you learn how to do all of this on your own?
Hell yeah man, mostly Youtube. And when I buy equipment they show me how to use it.
@tipu curate
Nice work 😊
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This is impressive ...
Thanks, big jobs with big tools.. haha
I like it :D
So many new toys! But look at the work you get done so fast. Love reading about the improvements on your place.
Hah yeah, lots of new equipment.. glad we are using it all.
Ah thanks, good to hear. Will write more updates as they come up.
What a breakthrough they made that day with the construction my friend @solominer, your working tools has made drilling the soil much easier, but I have just one question.
Is the soil clay?
It looks a bit like it although I may be wrong, well actually now I contradict myself and say it is not, because it looks too loose to be clay, congratulations on the good work.
They sure do, having these tools to use is real nice and surely does make quick work of many jobs.
Yes, where I live we have mostly clay on the top soil. If we dig down a few feet its more black. But the tops have a red clay appearance. Much of the Southeast US is like this, where I lived previously we had red clay as well.
thanks bud
Ok, did you find the end of the rainbow? If you did please release the leprechaun and send him my way. If he is too hard to catch, I can get a trap for him, lol https://www.thebestideasforkids.com/leprechaun-traps/
Hah we will keep digging until we find him. We have unearthed a few cool rocks, need to clean them up and show them off.. haha
Please do, I would love to see them.
Great updates man, I love how you're sharing with us how things are progressing. You've even added a gif which looks great. Everything is so much faster with your new machines.
Thanks bud, yeah had a few short videos that were perfect for animated GIFs. Made sense to add them to the post.
Sure is, jobs that took all day by hand are done within a few hours using these machines and I am very thankful for that.
WOW, I can only imagine the work it entails!!!
Yeah it seems to be never ending, but soon it will be done.