Bush hoggiN' time is here or coming soon.

The post by Noland is a classic and needs to be reposted from time to time. It has been a while since I have seen it posted and since we are getting close to that time - I started today - I thought it was a good time to post it. ENjoy!

Posted by John (NL) on January 31, 2000 at 01:53:19 from (212.61.2.110):

If you"re new at this, sooner or later you"re going to try cutting grass or weeds or blackberry bushes or trees or whatever with a brush hog or finnish mower. I could tell you to be careful, but the following story posted by Nolan last year says it better than anyone else I"ve heard tell about it.

Posted by Nolan on March 31, 1999 at 06:48:25:

The weekend is but a memory. The scrapes and cuts are healing, though I still look like I tried to have sxx with an angry blender. And I"m getting to where I can walk without those stiff muscle jerks and grunts.

I never bushhoged before in my life, and you all didn"t warn me enough about it! Shesh. I had a raspberry cane come whipping across my face slicing my eyelid. I had a tree manage to jam not only my brakes but my clutch as well. And that was in the first few minutes. Then things got really entertaining.

The bruises on my legs and back where the hog would occassionally throw things at me are turning a very pretty yellow.

It"s truly exciting when you enter into that big rose bush only to have it wrap itself around the pto shaft and beat you senseless with it"s thorny carcass.

Or that tree that tied itself around the tractor"s wheel and clunked me on the skull with it"s root ball instead of going into the hog where it could be thrown at me in smaller pieces.

And lets not forget that exciting feeling as you turn on the slope only to have the hog catch on something and try to pull the tractor over on its side.

I survived. The place looks *much* better. We"re ready for the orchard plants to arrive. And I sure did learn a whole lot!

I"m a pretty wild fella in many peoples opinion. But even I will have to suggest to novices of bush hogging, take it easy! The job"s a whole lot hairier then I imagined.

(Originally posted by Nolan - Hope you don"t mind my re-posting it, but it makes such an impression)

So, all you new commers, make sure you use an ORC and check out the article called Choosing, Mounting and Using a Bush Hog Type Mower in the General Tractor Information section of the Article Archives listed under Research and Info on the left side of this page. It should be required reading for anyone using a bush hog.

Be Careful,

John

"Want a Coke?"
"Sure!"
"What kind you want?"
"Dr. Pepper?"
"Don't have any. How 'bout an Orange Crush?"
"OK."

I've never owned an OCR, but I do not recommend that to others.

Now to my point...

I was bushogging behind the house one day, around a very old apple tree, and I would come up to it, and turn right quick, and spin the bush hog up under the limbs and get the grass under them.

About the second round a hornet hit me in the temple and dang near knocked me slap off the tractor, it would have knocked me off I think if I hadn't has my toes hooked under the clutch and brake pedals on that 8N.

I found out later there was a big hornets nest on one of the limbs.

I had 10 minutes of the worst pain I could think of, bad enough to cry about, if I hadn't been so stunned..

After about 10 minutes it quit hurting, and never bothered me again.

Dunk, I can't believe it, A respected man of high intelligence as you and you have seen the necessity of spending $60.00 +/- for the purchase and installation of an override clutch. I wouldn't dream of using a mower without one. Maybe ye ain't as smart as I thought ye was (grin), just lucky, but it may run out some day. Please buy ye one.

I have at least 2 Gurdian Angels, and I know that for a fact.

I know what my N will do and what it won't.

And not many folks have ever pushed the limits I have pushed.

The worst scare I ever had was when I got hung up in the PTO.

It only broke my wrist, and I sheered a 5/16 bolt.

I had a piece of pipe over it with a 5/16 bolt thru it running a hydro pump for a wood splitter.

A mean, about a 12 year old boy at the time.

We were camping.

We had to pack up and go home.

He was pitifull!!

I was going under a Bois D'Ark tree and the thorns snagged my best straw workin' hat off my head - I turned around just in time to see it dissapear under the mower :-( Then I was coming around a corner and my front wheel rolled up on a hidden landscape timber and rolled me right into a tree on the turned wheel. Luckily, no damage.

Anyway - I got about 20 acres mowed and it looks GREAT. I even got some time to burn an old brush pile that was about 16' high and about 40' diameter. We have been under a burn ban due to the draught here in Texas, so the brush piles have been getting big.

Now, I am chilling with a cold beer waiting on the coals in the grill to get ready - life is good!

Have a great weekend,
Dan

I guess the worst thing that ever happened was when I was shredding our little fifty-acre home place near Cypress, Texas (long since paved over and lost in a sea of urbanization). I was working over one little overgrown pasture that was isolated in a clump of trees.

Unknowingly, I passed over a ground bee nest, hidden in the dewberry vines. Then, I drove around the pasture and came back over it a SECOND time.

They were waiting for me.

I killed the tractor as soon as I recovered from the first shock; but I was unable to wait for it to come to a stop, so I jumped off SIDEWAYS and ran off as quick as I could.

Before I could get away, they stung me eleven times IIRC; I do remember having seven stings on the head or face.

If you've ever driven a two-cylinder Deere, you know that big old flywheel will drive the tractor some distance with the ignition off, even with a shredder hooked up and the PTO in gear (come to think of it, the shredder blade and heavy gearing on that tough old Rotocycle probably added MORE momentum).

This is especially true if the motor has some wear, which the motor on the Deere certainly did (it had spent its first twenty years as the only tractor on a 90 acre cotton farm on a bluff overlooking Rosebud, Texas).

This, coupled with the delay shutting off the ignition resulting from my surprise, meant that when Dad went back to get the tractor, it was a good thirty feet away from the nest and the ground bees were ignoring it again. So, Dad didn't get stung once. Nic!

Yes, I finished shredding the next day. With one eye swollen shut.

I've got other stories about those bees, but they are too far off topic, even for me!