I know I have my own ranch to take care of. However, I made a commitment to help out my prim as he expands his ranch. Although, he is doing traditional practices at his ranch. I'll still help out when he needs my help, even if I'm focusing on Organic Ranching.
For two days, I was operating a 225 Excavator at the ranch. It's a really old machine with no preventive maintenance visibly seen on it. Since we are on an agriculture operation and not a construction site, I went ahead and operated the machine.
I call the machine,"Ole Beast". You can tell the hydraulic lines were not bled when they added new hydraulic fluid after they repaired the leak. That thing, violently vibrates, squeals, groans a lot when you operate the mast, boom, or bucket. It only likes to turn right unless you play with the pedals to get the tracks turning the right way.
We opted for using the excavator to clear than burn. Burning actually kills the nutrients in the ground, and the micro organisms close to the surface of the soil. We don't want to do that. Also, most of the boyz are in hurting from their youthful injuries. So getting around is a lot harder now than 5 or even 10 years ago. Since I was one of the most experienced HE operator, I decided to jump on the excavator and have some fun.
It's been years since I operated an excavator. I had fun, especially with the big Ole Beast. He's temperamental when he first gets started. But give him 15 minutes to warm up. His joints move a lot smoother than mine. Because of the air in the lines, I have to move the boom and mast slowly. Going fast causes violent jerking. So slow, I go.
Using Ole Beast is an advantage. It would have taken the 6 of us experienced boys months to clear that area of the ranch. With Ole Beast. Two weekends, maybe three. If I had more free time, I could knock it all out in 4 days, tops.
If you look at the pictures, I'm not digging the ground, except to pull out the big rocks that have punched through the surface. I'm mostly scraping the sakati (sword grass) using the tines/teeth of the bucket.
This weekend, I'm hoping to hit the first level of the cliff on the backside. The whole cleared area will be seeded with a special grass for the deer and goat herds.
