I hate weeds

Last month I had some guys come out and pull out all of the dead trees. That was great, but unfortunately, they left behind a lot of large branches and wood debris which I had to clear before I could use the brush cutter attachment on the tractor I rented for the week. This mean I had to trudge through 6’ tall grass and weeds, hauling behind my gorilla cart, pick up each branch I found, and haul it off into a pile out of the way. That took the better parts of two days. Once that was done, I was able to use the brush cutter to cut down the weeds. I made one pass at a higher setting so I could see if there was anything left behind, after which I took another pass at a low setting so I could get closer to the ground. The fun part was that the entire time I had birds swarming in to eat all of the bugs that were exposed by the cut grass. I think I made a few friends.

Unfortunately, that’s the extent of the good news. For reference, my farm is down a somewhat narrow dirt road, completely off the grid. When the Sunbelt Rentals guy dropped off the tractor, they sent him with a full-sized trailer, even though I had told them it was a narrow road. Instead of driving straight and making more turns to exit the area, he decided to back up onto the field, which is sugar sand, and then drive the way he came. Yeah, didn’t work. He got his semi stuck in my field, and I waited with him for 4 hours until a wrecker could come out and tow him free. But don’t worry, that’s not the only time I used tow services this trip.

I was able to get a lot of land cleared, about 2 acres. But I needed more weeds cut, and even though it had recently rained, I figured I was still safe. Wrong. I was only a few minutes into my work for the day when I got stuck in the mud. As part of the layout of a citrus grove, they create raised rows for the trees, and depressions in between rows for the machinery to go up and down. What this did is left a ditch that allowed me to get stuck, and with the brush cutter attached at the rear and with soft mud/sand, I wasn’t going anywhere. Ended up having to get a tow guy to come out and tow the tractor out of the middle of the field.

Oh, I also learned it’s probably a good idea to wear a mask when cutting weeds with the tractor if you don’t want to get lung cancer.

Sunbelt Rentals Truck stuck in the sand

Tractor stuck in the mud, not going anywhere today