[dataway]

We took delivery today on the first phase of the property beautification equipment.
Noticed they were consecutive serial numbers which is cool. Have a couple of hours on them so for, not like it makes mowing real fun, but way better than the machines we were using.

We will be ordering the "Phase II" equipment next week.

[hgerhardt]

No air conditioned cab? And not even a sunshade? Ooof.
At least the vinyl seat isn't black.

[dataway]

The next two pieces of equipment both have cabs and AC/Heat/Radio etc. Unfortunately the tractor I use with the Bush Hog also has no cab and no shade. I mow under a lot of trees, trying to get them all trimmed up above the ROPS .. but there is a couple hundred of them

These guys will sit inside the shop building when not in use. So far not that bad, even on a 100 degree day ... most people around here mow in the early evening so sun is less of a problem.

I do have a Kubota tractor with a cab and a belly mower ... but no fun to mow with, rides rough, has a very tough deck and 4wd so I use it for first mowing in dangerous situations.

[roger1]

Holy smokes those are nice mowers! You went all out on those. Exmark is top of the line. Why 2 of them?

Btw, loved the video of the motorcycle ride. What a gorgeous property! Great quality video too.

[dataway]

Roger,
Well, had to get two of them so the wife could mow with me ... real reason is, mowing probably ten acres minimum with occasional mowing of 25 ... it would take one person way too long ... we get out there together and we can mow about four acres an hour currently, should be closer to 6 acres an hour when things are "tamed" a bit more.

I was out mowing the fields to day with a 5' Bush Hog ... about 19 acres, realized we are going to need a bigger field mower before it's all over ... probably something 8' feet wide. Probably more than my current farm tractor will handle, so for a while it will be the Bush Hog and the two Exmarks mowing everything. I've got a Kubota BX2200 in reserve with a 54" deck, and a Cub Cadet with a 54" ... but of course those take forever and are only suitable for around the house and buildings because of their slow speed.

Wife got a new GoPro Camera, she has this idea to start a YouTube channel.

[dataway]

In case anyone is interested in a similar purchase ... ExMark offers a 15% "fleet discount" when purchasing two of the Lazer Z mowers ... 15% is a substantial sum on two of these. In our case we also used our Ag sales tax exemption ... another 10% savings.

['ol Pinion head]

Beautiful spread!

Any plans for a big pond?

[Redpiston]

Get a group of goats to maintain the 25 acres. They will keep the fence line clean too.

[b-man]

Love the his and her mowers.

You have a great life.

[dataway]

OPH ... there is already a fairly big pond, about 1/3 acre, it's in the woods and I have to clear around it. Pretty nasty right now, I'm hoping I can find a source of running water for it, and built a bit of a spillway at the outlet to keep the surface skimmed off. Just the other day was out mowing and looking through an opening in the woods to the pond and saw a big Heron standing in the water ... so good chance it has at least minnows in it.

Friday we take delivery on the "Phase II" equipment, also His/Hers but a different machine for each of us. This equipment will be used to move probably 1000 yards of dirt, clear 1.5 miles of fence line that hasn't been cleared in over 20 years, and clear the brush out of the woods.

Should be calling in a bulldozer before long to prepare the site for the shop, creating level ground is NOT my strong point.

Trying to get every detail done in the next two years or so ... I don't want to be doing this kind of work the rest of my life.

[dataway]

New machines were delivered this morning. Have a couple of hours on them already, filling in erosion ditches. Waiting for a rotary brush cutter to come in for the excavator so I can start clearing the fence lines.

[dmorg1]

Nice fleet of equipment you are collecting

[dataway]

The prospect of servicing all the equipment is starting to weigh on me.

Yesterday I did an oil change on one of the Exmark mowers, was very surprised how easy it was, literally ten minutes and everything very easy to get to.

By the time the weekend is over all the currently mowable or Bush Hog'able acreage will be done. Around the end of August I'll disk up all the fields, broadcast seed them with tall fescue and then run a drag harrow over all of it and wait for the autumn grass growing season. If I let it grow I can harvest the hay, if I mow it, it's a lawn.

[dataway]

Doing a deep dive into the shop building now.

For those that said that Morton was stupid expensive, you are correct Plus, I'd have to pay about $10,000 to put up their crew locally to erect the building ... so that's a non-starter.

I liked Keystone out of central TN, but we are just out of their service area.

Looking at Reeds Metals (which was bought out) and Blue Steel Manufacturing out of Henderson TN.

We've settled on a 40 x 60 x 12, wood post frame, metal flat ceiling and interior walls, insulation, two 8x10 doors, one 10x10 door, two man doors, one window.

I want wood trusses ... since I want to hang a flat ceiling, and for the ease of hanging lighting, fans etc. Some of the metal building places will do wood trusses, but so far they try to talk you out of it ... understandable since they don't make the wood trusses.

12' height is to keep as low a profile to high winds as possible (this area of very west TN gets a ton of high winds), and I just don't want the shop to be too commercial looking, I don't want it to be the dominant feature of the property. I should be able to just get a vehicle high enough on a lift to get my 6'4" self under it. Will be close though. I don't plan on doing lots of major lift work, or lots of car work at all, just tires, oil changes, suspension work etc.

Excellent contractor for site prep only a mile or so down the road. We can take down any trees in the way, strip the top soil, spread gravel etc. ourselves.

Hope to get this building up before winter.

[Sirrotica]

I lived in Memphis for about 2 years, I can attest that that area does get high winds. Memphis is like the end of a tornado alley. Many times tornados would come across Arkansas, and either veer north, or south when they crossed the Mississippi river. Some of the locals say that the bluffs on the east river bank cause this.........

Likely your building will outlive most of us that frequent this forum. My current building that I'm installing my lift in has 10 ft walls, so I have about 5-6 trusses I'll have to modify for head room for truck cabs, etc. They will have to be of a scissor style modification to accomplish this. I wish the building was 12 ft, but it's what was here when I bought the house.

I have 4 acres that is mowed regularly, so I can identify with you wanting his and hers mowers, I'm currently looking for one more mower for the wife to give me a hand with the mowing. It takes me 3-3 1/2 hours to mow each time with a 52 inch Ariens zero turn. I'm actually looking for some type of used fairway mower because I have mostly flat areas that have minor obstructions to mow around.

Good luck with your new construction, I know first hand how contractors can screw up your plans when it comes to new construction. One of the most stressful times of my life was building a new home, and garage in 1992 in my hometown of Erie PA., but I survived it.......LOL

[sdbob]

I put 2 -8x16ft garage doors in mine.nice backing trailer in. Again I wasn't thinking ( more height more heating cost I thought)about 12 ft ceilings about lift and enclosed trailer I now have.

[Sirrotica]

I've always wanted garage doors at both ends of my buildings to promote cooling. Having only 1 door won't let you take advantage of any wind that can push cool air in, and exhaust the hot air that builds up in the top of the building. It can make a huge difference during the summer. You can of course use exhaust fans, but wind is free.

Here in Ohio we also have winds that can get up to 50-60 MPH frequently, for that reason I opt for a metal roof too. They last much longer, as well as are able to resist 100 mph winds much better than asphalt composition does in our area.It is initially more expensive, but is cheaper in the long run.

['ol Pinion head]

Have 3 commercial drive doors on my building. Over the years, studied a lot of what i thought worked well & what I didn't like in the layout of friends/suppliers/customers shops. Also absorbed a lot of what i didnt like working in leased spaces. Finally after a lot of consternation settled on a very close to as how could be constructed layout. Upon getting the official plans. I found an older fellow in 2017 that lives 3 miles away that has put up hundreds of steel buildings since the early 90's. Phenomenal guy & very fair. In site prep i had prev taken out 5 trees & did all the dirt work. Found a concrete contractor that did work for my pool builder buddy. Was out helping rake the sand, lay out rebar& tie wire. Took a bunch of measurement & marked exactly where the rebar was where my 2 post would be going.

In planning & scaling out my work zones & storage areas, knew I wanted a drive area down the middle of the shop so that during the Spring storm season, I could move a few things easily & quickly pull through & park my 20ft long truck & have room for a 24' enclosed car trailer behind it. Also desired to have 2 of my major work zones in the back of the building, no more than 25 ft from each other. Figured putting those major work zones somewhat close to each other would minimize making multiple dozens of trips during the day chasing down tools.


Ended using a steel building mfg company an hour away to supply their pkg of all the red iron, fasteners, & R panels. Specced the design out after speaking w my cousins husband Scott (commercial real estate monster building builder). Also priced out both turnkey contractor built polebarns & two different construction types of 60x40 steel buildings. Each time, cutting out the overhead, came out less $$$$$ for a better & bigger building. Ended up going with 14ft wall height in a free span bolt up red iron build. This allowed positioning of various pallet rack sections & building a mezzanine in the NE corner. Height wise, am right under 6'3" & have no issue banging my head up on the platform of the mazzanine. With stick built, I'd have been limited in ceiling height & would have to have had to soyrce specialty*type wood trusses to allow extra ceiling room where my lifts would be placed.

John, can relay much more, if you like. Would think, it all comes down to how much you plan on working on projects out of the building. To me, it's the ergonomics of how a shop is set up that makes it easier for us to keep going, knocking out projects. The last few days we've had the least humidity in months & it was an absolute joy working with two big doors open, no fans til middle of the afternoon.

[dataway]

In general I will have very few, if any, long term projects in the shop. One bay will house the GTO, about 20x40 of the building will be my workshop, welding, general mechanical work. The rest of the building will be parking for the earth moving equipment, mowers, tractors .. when and if they will fit. There will also be a largish run-in shed on the property that may end up storing the equipment.

The shop will be more than three times larger than what I am used to working in so I'm easy to please. Basically the only rules are ... GTO has to have a house, and I need a small welding/fabrication/tinkering/tool storage area (possibly with AC). The use of the rest will vary according to my needs at the time.

The idea of a drive through building deserves some thought, sure comes in handy when trailers are involved.

Right now the big problem I see is I planned the lift to be in front of the 10x10 door ... which might block bringing in the bigger construction equipment. You guys got me thinking ... I couldn't put anything on the lift that would require a 10' high door ... so why block that door with a lift? I could just put the lift in one of the regular car bays since the only thing it will be lifting would be things that would fit into a 8x10 door.

If it seems like I don't like overhead doors ... I admit, I have a paranoia about high winds, I like to feel very secure with my structures so I can sit inside and scoff at the wind. Everything I've ever built I've over engineered it to withstand wind. The fewer overhead doors, the stronger the building (in general).

And again, thanks for the input, I rarely read this thread without coming away with a better idea, or a correction to my plans.

Here's the plan so far.

[dataway]

Posted a very short video of a sunset under the big Sweetgum tree after a couple of hours of mowing ... featuring "Dash" the dog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWNuSCsnaDU