Sunday Fun

Well you have a gravel bank, your looking at crawlers, may as well buy a gravel plant screened material is worth a lot more than bank run!

Without looking at the machine or a hydraulic schematic I can't help you with the hydraulics. There has to be someplace to tie in though. Worst case scenario is run two lines from a remote to an additional valve body and go from there. You would just have to keep the remote active all the time. Nephew runs his log splitter that way. He just hooks a tarp strap on the remote handle to lock it in the on position.

Then the added valve takes on the functions for the splitter and the jib crane for lifting the big pieces.

Robert Mickley said:

Well you have a gravel bank, your looking at crawlers, may as well buy a gravel plant screened material is worth a lot more than bank run!

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No need to screen my gravel brother, right out of the bank its 2 inch minus. Yeah no joke. Its amazing gravel, for the size. Sounds and looks like washed gravel when you load it. The only problem is those good veins come and go so you chase them around. I have a feeling that is why my gravel pit area is chaotic as far as pit walls go. My Grandfather just chased the good stuff throughout the years, then I have continued in the same way. First digging here, then digging there and so on.

I should just log the area and doze it and do it right and start a fresh new pit wall and go down. Then once I hit the water table start drag lining. Its not a common practice here, but it is on done on a few pits.

Robert Mickley said:

Without looking at the machine or a hydraulic schematic I can't help you with the hydraulics. There has to be someplace to tie in though. Worst case scenario is run two lines from a remote to an additional valve body and go from there. You would just have to keep the remote active all the time. Nephew runs his log splitter that way. He just hooks a tarp strap on the remote handle to lock it in the on position.

Then the added valve takes on the functions for the splitter and the jib crane for lifting the big pieces.

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Our old wood splitter was like that. We did not have the jib crane (I long ago realized big trees are better off left in the woods to grow old, die and give sanctuary to wildlife. In fact I seldom cut firewood trees over 16 inches just to make it easier for those who are going to cut it up and split it, but that's just me.) As for your hydraulic system, our splitter ran the same way. It worked good for years and years, but with the Kubota we switched over to a PTO driven pump, with separate tank, circuit and the whole 9 years. It was complicated, but it works good. No better then the old one, no worse just different.

I doubt I will be building much anymore anyway. The company fell on hard times and decided since we only use stainless steel on boats, they were going to take their vast reserves of mild steel and sell them off. With steel prices what they are (this was unused structural mild steel) they made the right decision, but for those of us who fabbed up home projects, it was sad to see all that good steel leave. Oh well guess I will have to wear sunglasses when I fab up my stainless steel 4 way bucket!! (Just kidding of course)

Well you know this thread is starting to head the way of our last 100 post thread on gardening. I have yet to see Greg or MJ post on dozers, but all in due time I guess.

I wanted to let you know too that you planted a seed in my head regarding organic farming. Behind the scenes I have been doing a lot of research on Organic farming. Mostly because I found a major market for Organic Lamb. Anyway I came across a great organic resource called New Farm which is a forum under the Rodale Institute.

I was going to PM you, but since there are a lot of gardeners on here I thought it would be better to let everyone know that there is some great information on organic gardening. I am not talking about the forum as much as I am the organic versus conventional farming calculator. You plug in info based on your acreage, crops, labor rates and whatnot and it spits out accurate info on the profits of conventional versus organic farming. They also have a 15 hour, online course on organic farming which includes livestock, soil, tilled crops, etc. It even has all the paperwork so that you plug in your info and you can send it in to start the Organic Certification Process. You have to do your part too, but in a nutshell it gives you all the in for you need to switch to organic farming in one place. As I said a lot of good, wholesome info on organic crops and livestock.

I do not want to violate COC Rules so I will not post a link to another forum, but I will put one down for their homepage. For me, it's like it was created so a small farm like mine can make the switch as easily as possible. I think a lot of people on FWW can really get some good organic info from here too though.

New Farm

No need to screen my gravel brother, right out of the bank its 2 inch minus.

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Well thats fine and dandy for driveways and base material, But is your doing drain work you need washed #57 or # 47 material.

But yes 2 inch minus straight out of the bank is wonderful stuff.

I wanted to let you know too that you planted a seed in my head regarding organic farming.

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well then I need to fertilize and cultivate that seed. I'm not going to fool you going organic is not easy. For one thing you are going to spend more time in the field. Your going to learn the value of taking soil samples and getting good in depth reports back on that.

One of you hardest lessons to learn is how to feed the soil not the plant, if you feed the soil, the plants will be healthy.

The wifes cousin farms conventional, He was looking at a bag of my fertilizer the other day, it is 4-4-3. He commented that we must have to use a heck of a lot of it. He was surprised when I told him we we shoot for 275 to 325 pounds to the acre. I can't seem to get it across to him that our fertilizer is 100% available to the plant, where as conventional fertilizer is 15% available.

If your smart you work at developing your own markets.
Looking at the market prices over at New farm I see them quoting #2 yellow corn at around $11 a bushel. We are getting $18 to $22 for yellow corn, The blue corn we ship to the corn chip plant we are getting $28 a bushel for.
Fresh asparagus this year, we are getting $7 a pound for it. Last year I got $5 a pint for cherry tomatoes retail and sold out of 30 pints every week at the Pittsburgh market.

I will get you information in the next couple days for the soil lab my brother is using now. I hav enever seen such an in depth report