Skid Steer Problems (Leaking Cylinder Seal & Busted Hydraulic Line)

On Tuesday, I started to notice the right bucket cylinder on the skid steer began to leak excessively.  It was leaking so much I could not continue and it needed to be fixed.  My dad and I worked together and fixed it Wednesday morning which kept me from using it except for about three hours in the evening.

Friday was my last day with the skid steer.  I'd done most of the clearing needed.  I decided to work around the deer stand some before doing finish work around the property.  I'd be working feverishly and the finish work would include smoothing tire tracks, piling up yaupon removed, and catching any yaupon that I missed during the week.

When finishing up clearing a little on the shooting lane at the deer stand, the left bucket cylinder line busted.  I had another one made at a place 35 minutes away only to find they made it with a wrong fitting.  I made the trip again to find they did not crimp it well and it leaked from the fitting.  My the time this was done, I'd lost all of the final day of using the skid steer.  Quite disappointed.

Antenna Install & Television

I received an ClearStream4 antenna for Christmas and with electricity now have reason to install it.  I tested it one morning while at the cabin and found that the hill we are on allows for really good reception when the antenna is simply mounted to the exterior of the cabin.

I picked up a small Samsung television the week before going to the cabin.  I hooked it up and checked reception and easily receive 30 different channels.  I expected to receive only four channels so I'm quite excited.  My wife and kids will enjoy time at the land much more with a TV to watch in the evenings.

Dealing With Old Fence Clearing Debris

Shortly after buying our property, I started to notice numerous piles of debris on the edges of the wooded area of the property.  My assumption is the debris was piled up when the paths and fence were created anything in the way was pushed into piles.  

My dad allowed me to use his skid steer for some work on the property this week.  One of the many items I planned was to work on eliminating a few of these piles of debris.  I worked through a few of the piles and made some early progress but it was not progressing as fast as expected.  

What is unique is that the piles don't consist of tree and dirt mixed.  The dirt is toward the fence side of the pile.  Beyond it is all of the trees which were removed.  I suppose they pushed the trees down and into a pile at the tree line.  They then leveled the ground and pushed excess dirt into the pile.  

I can't move all the wood as my entire property would essentially be a burn pile.  I can work on that later and use the skid steer to move the dirt piles to revel the wood.  The wood will decay faster this way and I can access it to burn later if needed.  

I cleared 14 of the areas and then decided I might want to count what is left as the process was taking too long.  I then took a map and drove around marking the various piles and found there were 23 left to remove.  

I cleared about eight more piles but continued to find more.  Yaupon brush has grown in front of and over most of the dirt piles which make it difficult to see them initially.  Sometimes I would find them as I removed some Yaupon but other times it is just visible with some careful looking.

At this point, I decided to stop and put the rest of my time with the skid steer in areas which my family and I would benefit from more and perhaps find time to deal with these piles later.

Clearing Fields with the Skid Steer

I spent roughly a day and a half of time with the skid steer on clearing some area of yaupon slightly downhill from the cabin.  

There is also evidence of the field being cleared in the past.  There are several piles of dirt and large rocks which were pushed together.  I focused on clearing the yaupon first but I'll need to address the piles as the yaupon will likely grow back and if I can't mow it then it can't be maintained.  

The goal is to create a two acre area downhill from the cabin which would add to the view and give us more area as the rest of the land is wooded.

Electrical Service - Trench, Conduit, & Final Connections

Today, I shared the rental of a trenching machine with my dad.  We used the machine to trench the 100 feet from the service pole to the circuit box on the cabin.  The trench was 14" deep at the shallowest point which placed my 2" conduit a full 12" under ground.

With the trench complete, I glued together 10 pieces of schedule 40 PVC.  The 10th piece needed to be cut slightly in order to fit perfectly in the trench.  Once cut, I glued a 90 degree bend on each side and dropped the conduit into the trench.

With the conduit somewhat in place, I ran the electrical cable through the conduit with a pull rope in case I need to run anything through the conduit later.  I then cut two lengths of conduit and glued them to the 90's to complete the connection to the circuit breaker box on the cabin and the opposite side on the service pole.  

While the electrical cable I ran included an 8 gauge ground wire, I installed an 8' grounding rod at the cabin similar to what I installed at the electrical pole.  

A few connections later and the pre-wired cabin was ready.  It is quite nice to have electricity in the cabin.  It opens up several opportunities that did not exist before.  The timing was perfect as I took the week off work to stay the rest of the week at the cabin.  

Pecan Grove - Planting Trees 2

Today, my son and I finished the job of planting the pecan trees. We planted the Nacono first.  The hole was quite easy to dig and was sandy loam soil without any rocks.  

We then planted the Waco variety a little deeper into the trees.  There is a small path to it which will need to be expanded some.  This area was also sandy loam with no rocks so it should be a good spot.

We saved the hole with rock at the bottom until last.  I was unable to dig up or break the rock so we moved 10 foot to one side and dug a new hole.  There was a large rock at the bottom of this hole also.  I believe I'm just hitting super compressed sand that has formed a layer of sandstone.  I was able to break through some of this with a breaker bar so I imagine the tree root should be able to as well.  The Oconee was planted in this spot.

The area I selected to plan the trees is very near my tank so I can get water there for them if needed.  There are very few decent trees in this area.  It is primarily cedar and youpon.  My plan was to plan the pecan trees in the area and slowly clear out other items as the pecan trees grow.

In the picture below, I have the Oconee in the foreground with the Cheyenne in the background.

Looking almost 180 degrees in the other direction, I have the Oconee in the foreground and the Pawnee in the background.

The following picture is not great but shows the location of each of the pecan trees I planted.  

Pecan Grove - Planting Trees 1

While I'm not a tremendous fan of pecans, I do enjoy eating some every now and then.  My grandfather, however, was crazy about pecans and would eat the all the time.  We would pick them up under some trees near a stream on some family property when I was really young.  I've been planning to plant a few pecan trees in memory of my granddad since he passed away last September.  Today, I started that project.

I placed an order with Womack nursery for four varieties of pecan trees.  The order arrived on Thursday evening but included five trees.  They did not have the Choctaw variety so they gave me a Waco and Oconee instead.  With those changes to the order, I now have a Cheyenne, Oconee, Pawnee, Waco, and Nacono.  

The Cheyenne, Oconee, Waco, and Pawnee are all protandrous (early pollen shedding).  The Nacono is the only protogynous (late pollen shedding).  I'd originally ordered a Choctaw to have a pair of late pollen shedding trees which bloomed at the same time.  
  

The trees arrived packed in moss type material and then wrapped with plastic to keep the roots moist.  I added a little water on a few occasions while working so they would not dry out. 

The following two charts show the pollen shed and receptivity for the various pecan varieties.  The top chart is from Texas A&M.  The second chart is from LSU.  They don't exactly match but that could be because of the different regions.  I'm not sure what to trust so the more varieties the better. 

The first tree I planted was the Cheyenne.  The soil is mostly sandy loam but at about three feet down it is rather compacted red sand.  I first thought the red sand was clay but it just breaks apart in your hands so it is definitely sand.

The next was the Pawnee.  The soil is mostly sandy loam but it has a fair amount of little rocks.  While it should not matter, I tried to avoid putting larger rocks back in the hole.  I then put in half a bag of Sta-Green Tree & Shrub soil.

I started on a third tree but once I dug about three foot deep, I hit a really large rock.  The rock covers the bottom of my two foot round hole.  Most of the rocks are sandstone but I could not break this one and was a bit too tired to dig it up so I left it for now.  

For lunch, I had another ribeye.  They are becoming a bit of a tradition.