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Ford 9N, 2N & 8N Discussion Forum
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OT? Mowing the ditch

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Eric ATL

08-13-2004 12:38:44




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I've got 500 ft of gravel road front. Pretty nasty ditch. I Wish the county would pipe the runoff, or let me do it, as I would gain another 15'x500' of lower maintanance front yard. Anyway, The weeds are plenty overgrown at the ditch. What do you all do in this situation? Weed wacker can't touch this stuff. Doesn't seem like a big enough job to justify a sickle bar mower, maybe it is? Can't bushhog it unless I back the hog over the ditch with limit chains on about 110 times. That idea scares the hell out of me anyway. Looking for your experienced advice.

Another note: Has anyone here gotten or tried to get old telephone poles to cut and use to build a pole barn? As always, thank you all. Eric

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TIMW(PA)

08-13-2004 21:26:32




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Eric ATL, 08-13-2004 12:38:44  
I used to straddle my ditch with my six foot finnishing mower, but you need to be able to have a way in and out..I went between two driveways for example. You have to be very careful though make sure the banks are solid or you'll be stuck in a hurry



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Geo

08-13-2004 20:02:18




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Eric ATL, 08-13-2004 12:38:44  
A company called Swisher makes a pull behind mower with an adjustable tongue that can be offset to either side. It has a 10 hp motor that runs it. My friend pulls his with an old sears garden tractor. It"s not a brush hog but it takes down grass and weeds.



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Adam Paul

08-13-2004 19:10:32




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Eric ATL, 08-13-2004 12:38:44  
Eric, I know exactly the type of gullies you have!!! Do you have a box blade??? I"m actually about to do this at my property. I"m going to just box blade the whole thing up with the rippers down, starting at the very center of the ditch working my way outwards, and spend the rest of the afternoon with a shovel and rake. Then throw all my pasture clippings on top of the whole stretch with some new grass seed... Henry county is not that bad with keeping things cut, but our gully just looks like an awful rut.
If you don"t have a box blade, I"ll lend you mine.
Adam

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Eric ATL

08-13-2004 19:42:35




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Adam Paul, 08-13-2004 19:10:32  
Thanks Adam, I do have a 6 ft box blade. The problem is that the ditch is real narrow and deep. Took me a minute to get what you"re saying. That might work. I could do a combination of pushing dirt in and pulling dirt out to end up with an acceptable, mowable grade. I"d like to end up with a smooth slope and that would do it. Thanks much. When my schedule lightens up in the next month or so we need to get together. We need to hook up at Inman at least. Eric

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Diverjeff

08-13-2004 18:54:43




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Eric ATL, 08-13-2004 12:38:44  
Hey,

One other consideration... The county should keep the ditch mowed since they probably have the equipment to do so. The city I work for uses a product similar to roundup to eliminate weeds and grass from ditches and along creekbeds. If you don't mind the grasses being dead, you might ask the county if they have any of this chemical and spray the area in question. The county may even give you the chemical. We purchase it in 55 gallon barrels. We mix 2oz. per gallon and it usually is effective for 60 days. Just an alternative.

Safety & blue skies,

DJ

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Rob

08-13-2004 19:26:16




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Diverjeff, 08-13-2004 18:54:43  
The county mows the road side and sprays the other side. They have to control noxious weeds like any other land owner, the weed law is state law. Some guys are ok with the grass growing on the private side of the ditch but I don't think anyone will put up with weeds, regardless of the grade. A strip of healthy grass and some woody cover there is good for the wildlife anyway.



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Rob

08-13-2004 14:32:34




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 Ditch needs work. in reply to Eric ATL, 08-13-2004 12:38:44  
Our county maintains the ditches. A guy can mow most any ditch, not the 150 back-and-forths but parallel to the ditch. You might be able to get the county to put a reasonable grade in there so you can mow. The county mows the road side a few times a year but lots of people keep it maintained more often.
If public works wouldn't go along I'd be visiting with my county commissioner. Course, if you've been on the commissioner about keepeing taxes low you will get that bounced right back at you and how there just aren't the resources to maintain bar ditches properly. And a nasty gouge is not a properly maintained bar ditch, for sure. Most likely, at one time it was properly graded by equipment not too unlike your N. Just look around at new road construction or rebuilds of old roads. They don't 'dig' a ditch, they grade a ditch.

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Bill(NC)

08-13-2004 14:00:15




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Eric ATL, 08-13-2004 12:38:44  
Around here, you can get old telephone poles from the power company. They give them away so you save them the problem of hauling them off.



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Ramon - the old man

08-13-2004 13:10:16




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Eric ATL, 08-13-2004 12:38:44  
An old 7 foot sickle bar is great for what you need to do. I had an extended deep cut railroad right of way for an very seldom used spur line that ran diagonally across some property I used to store machinery at my old dealership. I cut the edges both ways, depending on what was hooked up (or not sold) at any given time. The sickle bar cutter would droop down quite a bit as I would travel along the upper side of the bank. I also ran a 5 or 6 foot rotary cutter and backed to the edge and let the cutter go down until the PTO shaft would begin to rub on the cutter. Needless to say, I would use a double clutch tractor and not an N for this due to fear of going over the edge.

(Unfortunately, one time I had to pickup a tractor out of a creek that had done just that. It belonged to a long time customer of ours that was cutting along the creek bank and he travelled over an undercut due to an earlier storm. End result was tractor overturning and the elderly farmer being pinned in the creek and dying. PLEASE be careful while cutting and travelling along banks.)

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Stumpy

08-13-2004 14:12:18




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Ramon - the old man, 08-13-2004 13:10:16  
Good point Ramone. I have to mow along one of those ditches this weekend. I"ll walk it first, haven"t been out to that field since spring. This might be alot of work, but my idea is to build a rig with a regular push mower frame that will hang off the side of the tractor from the hitch. it will run off its own motor(3.5 hp) and reach over the ditch. A small mower like that weighs almost nothing so tractor balance should not be an issue. However, be safe and set up a remote kill for it. Also use truck mud flaps to shield yourself, like souNdguy did, from the flying debris. If I get it built soon I"ll post pics. Now that I think of it, this should work well to mow along fence lines and stone walls,

Stumpy

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Eric ATL

08-13-2004 15:22:45




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Stumpy, 08-13-2004 14:12:18  
Now I don't feel so crazy. I had thought about garbage picking two or three push mowers (here in suburbia they throw them out if they get a squeaky wheel) weld them together and attach them to some square pipe stock and hang them off the 3 point. Guess that was not such a crazy idea. Eric



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gahorn

08-14-2004 09:07:02




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 Re: OT? Mowing the ditch in reply to Eric ATL, 08-13-2004 15:22:45  
STAY SCARED!! One of our type club members was a retired, life-long professional farmer who had spent a career on tractors. Knew all about 'em. Knew all about their dangers.
His wife went out to bring him lunch and found him beneath his upside-down tractor. It was very ugly and is the last vision Lorraine will have of her treasured 55 years with him.
Tell your county commissioner to either take care of that ditch or you'll be more interested next time someone else wants to be commissioner.

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