All in the family

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    I started out with a IH300 Utility with a loader and a back blade, then into trucks and a HD5G and a IH460 Utility . It got bigger and more things were added as well as larger jobs and sub-contracting jobs and hauling. In the off season I did snow plowing and equipment repair of my own and contract work as well as servicing class 8 road tractors.
After 30+ years of small jobs and doing driveways, septic systems, grading and digging basements and such as well as some land clearing and pads for pole barns and other such grading I hung it up a couple years back now as it cost me more for insurance and state licenses than I could make in a good month or two of work.  Now to even do a small grading job you have to install silt fence around project to control runoff, (funny you can plow a field or garden) but to clear the same area you need silt fencing or face a fine. 
 even if you are working in areas where all runoff would be contained on the property a grading plan is suppose to be presented. 
 Still doing some driving to deliver materials but have 3 tandems parked as no one wants to use them now - need at least a tri-axle or a quad axle now to work out with a broker.  

Edited by Coke-in-MN - 10 Apr 2013 at 11:19pm

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Coke-in-MN Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Access Joined: 12 Sep 2009 Location: Afton MN Points: 41221	Post Options Post Reply Quote Coke-in-MN Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: All in the family Posted: 10 Apr 2013 at 9:57pm
	I started out with a IH300 Utility with a loader and a back blade, then into trucks and a HD5G and a IH460 Utility . It got bigger and more things were added as well as larger jobs and sub-contracting jobs and hauling. In the off season I did snow plowing and equipment repair of my own and contract work as well as servicing class 8 road tractors. After 30+ years of small jobs and doing driveways, septic systems, grading and digging basements and such as well as some land clearing and pads for pole barns and other such grading I hung it up a couple years back now as it cost me more for insurance and state licenses than I could make in a good month or two of work. Now to even do a small grading job you have to install silt fence around project to control runoff, (funny you can plow a field or garden) but to clear the same area you need silt fencing or face a fine. even if you are working in areas where all runoff would be contained on the property a grading plan is suppose to be presented. Still doing some driving to deliver materials but have 3 tandems parked as no one wants to use them now - need at least a tri-axle or a quad axle now to work out with a broker. Edited by Coke-in-MN - 10 Apr 2013 at 11:19pm
	Faith isn't a jump in the dark. It is a walk in the light. Faith is not guessing; it is knowing something. "Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

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DMiller Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Access Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Location: Hermann, Mo Points: 29691	Post Options Post Reply Quote DMiller Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07 Apr 2013 at 8:06pm
	Local grade contractor had issues with a hugger trying to stop jobs years ago, a few years back the same tree hugger found a new outlook to life: money and began buying up land, houses, other odds and ends with Grandma's old money. The same tree hugger tried to hire the guy he pissed off years before to dig a foundation hole and to scrape a flat spot for a barn well that did not go over very well. Was speaking to the guy a few months ago as work slowed ever more for the winter, he gets a few terrace repair jobs in the country and a pond or two to clear sedimentation but he said most of the glory day work is gone, road jobs, big quarry starts, large contract subdivisions and so on, just day to day left overs anymore.

Mactractor Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Access Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Location: New Zealand Points: 652	Post Options Post Reply Quote Mactractor Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07 Apr 2013 at 2:52pm
	Smaller contractors are up against the same down here Trev, but worst of all is pressure environmentalists are putting on the authorities to stop us from turning a sod at all. I was told there is a good lesson to be learned fom letting those tree huggers have too much influence from the political situation in BC a while back. I guess New Zealanders are just very slow learners

Lazyts Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Orange Level Joined: 05 Feb 2012 Location: Manitoba Points: 627	Post Options Post Reply Quote Lazyts Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07 Apr 2013 at 10:13am
	Just thought I'd start a thread about the old guys, who saw so much change. My grandfather was a farmer- when he was a young man, they cleared land with horses. Later, his dad bought a Rumely oil pull tractor, and they used that to break land, with a big plow. Then he really moved up- got himself a Caterpillar 50 gas with Letourneau dozer- big power! Later, he had a 7M series D7, an HD5 and last of all he bought a 44A D6 with my dad and uncles. I think when he ran that D6B he must have really thought he had it easy. Both of my great uncles were in the construction business, one of them had 3 D7 tractors, a breaking plow and an elevating grader. He built county roads and cleared land. The other one had a bigger spread- a couple of HD16s, an HD11, an HD20 with a push block, TS200 and TS260 scrapers along with a Euclid pan, a Tournadozer, and other related equipment. He started out with an RD7, I think. Those old guys moved a lot of dirt. Back in the 60s there was much work to do and these smaller outfits did well. I think it is harder today- less work, tougher competition, maybe even cut-throat sometimes.