Haha, have already decided this is gonna be my last tractor so no loaners on it because hopefully its gonna have to last a very long time.
Thought about the backhoe Mike but at an added 6K for what I do here its just not gonna be feasible. Figuring on putting enough down to get the payment in the $300 range and the backhoe would push it up $100 or more. It comes with the auger so I can punch holes for planting and looking into maybe setting up a well driller. We are on sand and water is about 100' deep so its feasible and would love to have a couple more wells, maybe an airlift or aereomotor pump windmill on one and a solar on another. Free water for the gardens would be awesome and help tons in greening up the whole property.
One of my first projects will be to dig 1' deep the length of the greenhouses. Will pour a concrete wall/curb on each side 4' apart then put a redwood path in lift out 2' sections. our beds in there leave a 6' walkway down the middle so this will still leave about a foot to each side where we keep a lot of potted plants.
At 4 feet wide and 60 feet long thats nearly 10 cubic yds of space under the walkway down the middle for holding horse manure worm beds, and thats in each greenhouse so we will have nearly 2 end dumps capacity there. Will be awesome for having loads of the most fertile compost easily available. I figure I can use the garden tractor and dump trailer, just drive through to where I am harvesting, pull up a section or two of the decking and shovel out as much as needed. Start harvesting at one end and work along filling in behind with new manure. I do something similar in a 10' round section of water tank cut down to 18" tall that is my current worm bed, its worked out well but not the kind of volume I want and in the greenhouses the worms will have better winter protection and higher humidity so easier to keep the bedding moist.
