Thanks Dak. As long as I'm not being pressured by deadlines, which I'm not at this point, I enjoy doing some of this stuff myself. Taking this wall apart has turned into quite a chore! I had forgotten just how much ballast stone was put behind it, and since it continually collapses on top of the lower blocks, I'm having to scoop it up and put it in a pile away from the construction site. At least I'm able to reclaim some of the stone that way. Under all that back-fill are the big rocks that covered the slope below the garage foundation. Those are adding their own fun to the job: when I hit one with the loader it almost loosens my fillings!
The DW and I moved another 50 or so blocks today. I do all the lifting, she helps cleaning them up for stacking. I can fit five of the wall blocks and one cap stone in the bucket, and can lift them about 2 feet off the ground. The work is slowing down as the wall gets higher because I have to move so much more back-fill.
My little tractor is a JD 455 that I bought new in 1999. It has a Yanmar 23 HP 3-cylinder Diesel engine. It was the smallest tractor JD made at the time that could handle a loader. It's not 4WD, but it does have a locking transaxle. I've had it bogged down in the mud a few times, but I've never had to get it pulled out by something else.
It has about 850 hours on it now, all with me in the seat. It has about 700 lbs. of ballast weights on the rear to counter-balance the loader. It's got a nice low center of gravity, and it's very maneuverable. Perfect for operating on my slope and around the trees.
It's class is sub-compact, or Cat-0. It's got a 3-point hitch that can handle Cat-1 ground-engaging implements as long as they aren't too big. When it's not doing front-end loader chores, it mows the grass. It's also got power steering, cruise control, and a tilt steering wheel. No, I'm not kidding!
Here's what we accomplished today.
I'm going to try adding a video my wife took of me working today. I've moved it to Youtube so it plays better now.
Video Link:):)
