Do any of you use a pump for fueling? The less expensive ones are battery powered and drop down into a fuel container. You just need to lift the container up onto the floorboard or seat or put it on a stool next to the tractor to minimize the lift height of the fuel. My Tera Pump lifts three feet and empties 5 gallons in two minutes.
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We actually put in an on-farm diesel tank. After the initial investment, it saves time and money and is very easy to use.
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I fill it up when it needs it, if i didnāt nothing would ever get done since DH is a OTR truck driver now and only home a couple of days a week, if that.
I donāt hook up the brush hog though. Itās really difficult, almost impossible for me to hook the darn thing up alone and by the time I get done Iām too exhausted to do anything anyway. We have a medium sized lawn tractor Iāve been using to mow the fields, we only have 5 acres so not too hard on it. I can do that and be done in the time it takes me to hook up that stupid brush hog.
eta itās the stupid pto thatās the problem, like so many others. I can do the arms and all that. Grrrrr.
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We had one of these at our last place (came with the property) and it was pretty spiffy. Bonus, too, that you can fill it with farm diesel, to save on the road taxes.
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Amen and second this. I hve a JD 5105 and fill my diesel cans only to about 4 gal. also because I have to stand on a small stepladder and hold the can to put the fuel in. Cap is on top of rear fender of the tractor. For the bush hog/shredder. I can take it off but canāt get it back on myself. So I never take it off unless the tractor is going in for service and the tractor guy will help me put it back on when it comes back.
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Can I hire you to help with my dry-stack walls? 
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Any company that can produce an electric tractor with attachments tailored for small horse farms that are easy for a woman to wrangle gets my business. I realize that this is a fantasy but I continue to dream.
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Lol, sure! Just once I finish clearing and fencing this new pasture 
I really enjoyed the stone wall project, tbh. I got idk about 100 feet built one summer of 3ā tall x 3ā wide wall. I just considered it my daily cross fit haha!
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Not electric but my little 1025r is a workhorse and Iām 120 lbs and can handle all the attachments myself. You have to be smart about positioning, but itās really easy compared to my neighbors 4 series tractor. That thing is a beast.
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Dry stack is hard (and expensive) to do well. My ranch has really old dry stack walls, many still standing, some Iāve had rebuilt, and others were fallen down before I got here. But yeahā¦Iāve still got at least 20 acres of ice-storm limbs and debris in 2 pastures to clean up from over a year ago. Canāt even get the shredder back in there until they are cut up and dragged out, burned orā¦somethingā¦
I find stone walls to be kind of like Tetris, fitting the pieces together. We donāt have any nice old ones on our property, but we abut some town owned land that had some really beautiful, impressive ones. Iām excited about what Iāve been able to build!
A storm dropping a shit ton of trees is what got me using a chain saw. I was perfectly happy letting my husband do that work, but when a tornado comes throughā¦you gotta do what you gotta do!
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We donāt use enough diesel to make this make sense.
Our neighbor who grows hay has one, in a pinch, we drive the tractor over there, fill it up and leave him the cash. But our regular method is 5 gallon cans.
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We also use five gallon cans now, for the same reason, but thereās no question that filling from an elevated tank is easier from a muscles perspective.
If five gallon cans were onerous, Iād consider using 2 - 2.5 gallon cans, which seem to be readily available.
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I have no problem lifting 4.5 gal to refill using a funnel. T o get the arms on the Brush hog I line up the best I can, and then use a long metal bar to shift the brush hog whichever way it needs to go to get the second arm on. The PTO is difficult and I usually enlist DH if he is available to hold it up while I get it attached. One thing that makes it a bit more difficult is our brush hog is old and isnāt a great fit on the Kubota.
Now the post hole digger, that is a royal pain to attach, and the PTO on it is more difficult as it was damaged once upon a time. I have it hanging from the ceiling by a ratchet strap now, which makes it easier to get the arms hooked up.
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Off topic, but I want to share this.
Many years ago, I had a very nasty landlord who was putting in some fencing with his brand spanking new JD tractor. He kept taking out shear pins, and he got pissed off about having to stop and replace them. I walked up, because he was stopped again, to see what was going on. He had decided to put in a cut nail instead of the shear pin. A few minutes later, there it was- that horrible screeching noise that the tractor makes when the PTO is ripped to shit. Remember to keep a good supply of shear pins around!
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No to both questions. Not because I physically canāt ( never tried) but because the men here prefer to do it. I can drive the tractors though.
Fine by me!
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I really appreciate everyoneās suggestions! I bought an easier fuel can a TSC this weekend, that can lie on its side and then you just push a button, so that helped. My prior ones had to balance just so on the edge, and the fuel cap is in a high and awkward place on out 70 HP Kubota. I also looked into a farm fuel tank once I add up how much diesel we actually use a year (I think itās probably about 300 gallons a year, but will verify). I am fascinated by the Patās hitch and may try that next. I thought the metal pole to jimmy around the brush hog was a good idea. And I just generally appreciate all the tips and commiseration!
Totally agree that someone needs to corner the market on farm implements for ladies that auto hitch, or require less strength/heighth/awkwardness. This weekend, my 19 year old nephew came over to help hitch, and while he was as frustrated as I was (and heās a strapping kidā6ā4", 235, body builderāplus heās an engineering major which seemed fitting), we were able to Facetime his dad/my brother, who was a bona fide farm kid and is a current patient instructor, and we finally got that darn PTO to couple. Got a bunch of mowing done, which was good before the weeds get aggressive and the burrs come out. We have about 80 acres to mow, although the horses do a good job at staying ahead of it. We only have to mow the fields about three times a summer but it was time.
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My kubota came with their version of a quick hitch. (Telescopic stabilizers and lower links.)
I do everything myself as well. Will add a couple things that I donāt think have been covered.
My bush hog is up on blocks on a flat surface. I lower the bush hog onto the blocks, only drops an inch or so to rest on blocks. Keeps it off the ground and in a good position for hooking up.
I switched to fluid film lubricant instead of grease. Pto shaft slides much better and the ball bearings that lock it in donāt get gunked up.
I use a bungee cord attached to the tractor and wrapped around pto shaft to hold the weight of the pto while I get it into position to couple. Remove bungee cord after itās attached.
I modified my 5 gallon diesel cans to be fast pouring. Basically, the kit came with a longer than what usually comes with fuel containers flexible spout and a vent. You add a vent to the top opposite side of the spout. The nozzle is long enough that you can place it in the gas tank without much tipping, you are able to place the nozzle in place and no fuel spills. Once you open the vent, it empties very quickly. My fuel tank is on top of the tractor and a pain to get to, so this was very helpful for me.
Finally, I will just join the others in recommending patās hitch.
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Me too for Patās. A real game changer IMO. I learned about Patās on a past thread. Attaching PTO implements is now just a thing, whereas before it was an āeventā that I dreaded. I also installed a little tool box on the rollover support and keep a can of WD40 there, and lube the PTO shaft frequently to keep things moving.
ETA: hereās a random video showing how it works. I installed them myself and Iām no mechanical guru.
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