On Sat, 01 Jun 2019 22:37:03 -0600, U.S. Janet B. <
J...@nospam.com>
I discovered that I didn't need a beast tiller for an established
garden that's been tilled previously for some fifty years. The 7 hP
Simplicity made me work up a sweat and pulled me around. I can see a
heavy duty tiller if it's raw ground and even then rather than pay
$2,000 I'd rent a machine or hire someone for a couple hundred$
I sold the Simplicity for close to what I paid and bought the
Mantis... does a wonderful job with little effort and fits easily into
small spaces. It only weighs 20 pounds so is easy to carry with one
hand. Also hoses off quickly and needs very little storage space.
Soon as all the rain ceases and the soil dries we'll be using to till
in 2 yards of top soil and two yards of mushroom mix. The Mantis is
so easy to handle that my wife does it, she couldn't handle the 7 HP
Simplicity.
If I really wanted to do serious tilling I would have kept the 5' wide
tiller that attaches to my tractor's PTO. When first moving here I
had visions of planting crops in the 4 acre back field. But once
reality set in I realized what an undertaking that would be, way too
much for one person. So I sold that tiller to a neighbor who grows
pumpkins. I bought that tiller the same time I bought the tractors,
got it for a very good price as it was difficult for the dealer to
sell. Brand new I paid $500... two years later still in brand new
condition I sold it for $700. Before I could ask a price he offered
$700 so I said Sold!
Here are the pictures I took in 2007, not excellent pics but you can
see it in the corner of our barn, that red thing in front in front of
the yellow snow plow. That's a heavy duty 5' wide tiller, made in
Italy. The neighbor I sold it to is very pleased, tells me it works
great. However with unbroken land he still had to first plow and
remove larger rocks, rake out smaller rocks and then till. Naturally
he plows and rakes with a large tractor. He has a large property and
grows some ten acres of pumpkins. He's one of the mechanics at the
local golf course and does stump grinding as a side business. We have
some sstumps for him to grinds once the ground dries enough for him to
drive in. In Aggie country it seems everyone has a side business
along with their regular employment. Another neighbor who works at a
large machine shop also sells firewood and he maintains our tractors,
he charges less than half what the dealer in town charges and does a
far better job. One of his teenage sons, William, was in my wife's
classes, that's how we met them . William is a great worker, he
clears brush for us and will be wheel borrowing the topsoil into our
garden. He's definately not a slacker like many teens these days.
He's good with a chain saw and can drive any tractor. Only he has a
learning disability but my wife tutored him with math so he could
graduate. I have no doubt he will go far in lfe, only academia is not
his forte. He can do any kind of farm work and is excellenmt with
livestock... he cares for several city people's live stock who work in
NYC all week (restaureant owners) who are only here on weekends.
William manages all sorts of livestock from chickens to Black Angus
and everything in between, horses, llamas, everything. He's up before
sunrise every morning to feed and move them from field to field. And
William is a great welder, he recently repaired my mower's wheel
clevis, did a better job than the welder in town, even painted it.
He charged $20, last time one broke the dealer in town refused to weld
it, said it can't be welded and charged $119 for a new one, and I had
to wait 2 weeks for it to arrive while the grass kept growing. William
repaired it better than new and dropped it off the next day.
https://postimg.cc/gallery/30hckq6o4/