Done mowing, and discing

People stopped calling for mowing, or discing. All the weeds should be cut down to fire dept requirements by this time of the year. Four months is just about all the work I want anyway. There is always a few who don't have the work done by myself or others. If the property owner doesn't have their weeds cut down,the city hires the work done, and the money is added to their tax bill. It costs about three times what I would charge.I don't make a lot, by the time I pay for Ins, repairs, and fuel, but it keeps a family tradition going. Dad started doing this inbetween farming back in the late 40's. He did only discing. Now I can do some of my own projects until next spring. Stan

Stan where are you located???

Here this time of the year is just the lull before the storm. The fall is our busiest time. With the harvest and the stake baling we will be running full bore from harvest start until the snow flies.

I live out here on the left coast, about 30 mi from San Diego, and 5 mi inland from the ocean. Everything is dry this time of the year, not green like I see from most of the pictures on here. Stan

Do you worry about sparks from the mower hitting rocks starting a fire when its dry? What type mowe do you run? I have a five foot John Deere brush cutter behind my Massey 135.Haven't started any fires with it.

37Chief
Was that Your A/C crawler in the
"Stuck and Troubled" pictures?
If it is, any pictures of getting it out?

Steve A W

I worry a lot about fires. Since I have been mowing I have started three fires. I was able to put them out before they got out of control. I carry a fire extinguisher now. When I hit a rock I stop and wait to see if smoke appears. I have a woods 6 ft mower, and a 71/2 ft flail mower. Stan

That was my tractor all right. I had to get another M, and my brother to pull it out. I should have waited a month or so, until the ground dried out to do this job. This wasen't this year it was a couple years ago. That year we had a lot more rain.Stan

I started 3 little fires brush hogging earlier in the month. I am almost sure they were caused by carbon pieces from the exhaust system on the old Ford 641Diesel. I had not worked the tractor very hard for a long time, and it was slobbering some. By the time I got 6 or 7 acres brush hogged, the exhaust was nicely cleaned out and dry.

I really didn"t think the grass was dry enough to catch fire, but obviously it was. When I see or smell smoke, I turn the machinery around and find where the fire has started. So far just running the brush hog over the little fires has put them out, probably by blowing them out or cooling them enough to make the burning stop. I suppose I should carry an extinguisher.

Years ago, soon after my Dad bought the same tractor, he was doing some Spring plowing and the tractor puked out hot carbon, which started a brush fire. No cell phone, and he couldn"t get it out by himself. Dad had to drive the tractor back to the house and call the fire department. By the time the fire was out, it had burned more than 10 acres of wooded pasture. But since it was Spring, and still pretty damp, no large trees were damaged at all, and the grass grew better in the burned area than it had in many years. My Dad was a whole lot more careful about where he started working the diesel hard after that.

Fires are scary!!!