BertB.
Active member
I have to apologize for not posting for such a long time its been a busy year. I finally pulled the pin on a piece of equipment over the winter I had much time to deliberate over what I wanted to do. I had gotten very close to buying a used Kubota L45 loader/backhoe last fall that had the much needed cab kit that Kubota would otherwise not supply on a factory machine. I guess in the end I chickened out but mostly for the reason that I didn't know if I could make payments on it over the long harsh winter that had started to look like we weren't going to get much snow so little chance of doing any snow removal work. So once some nice weather prevailed and I had started back at work I decided that I was going to buy something, financing a mini-excavator or a skid-steer for reasons unknown to me proved to be too difficult as all the financing companies and banks wanted 25% down, however if I bought a compact diesel tractor it classifies as agricultural and as long as you have good credit its no problem plus it can financed over a longer term than construction equipment much like a car I guess. So it didn't take long for that Kubota L45 backhoe to sell so I started looking locally and after much deliberation I bought a Kioti (South Korean) CK3510 hydrostatic compact diesel tractor. It's equipped with a loader, heated and cooled cab (Kubota would only offer this from the aftermarket), rototiller implement, rotary mower, box scraper, and a stump grinder. I've turned a few tricks with it since taking it home but it does take some time to get my name around and some people seem to think you need a skid-steer to level or grade dirt so I've been also been working to convince people otherwise with some degree of success. I still work for C.T. Construction doing much of the same work trenching, ditching, grading, and mulching etc. etc. There is some talk about buying a new machine as the Hitachi is getting a bit long in the tooth and some of the work that Clint bids on requires us to have a machine no older than ten years and has to be in the 20 tonne class the two brands in the front running are Volvo and Hitachi but he likely won't make any decisions on that till spring time. The fall here was very rainy and wet so I wasn't able to do some landscaping work that I had been lining up so that will have to wait till spring, but I did do a big stump grinding job for the town park committee where there were 30 stumps of various sizes and species to mulch up. The park committee is planning on doing some regrading and landscaping so this was the first step after the ground dries up in the spring there could be some more work.
My last bit of news is very sad after 8 years my mother passed away. She was 68 years old and her passing is hitting my dad pretty hard they've known each other since they were 6 years old....
My last bit of news is very sad after 8 years my mother passed away. She was 68 years old and her passing is hitting my dad pretty hard they've known each other since they were 6 years old....
