Owners of compact utility tractors often suffer from the same affliction as motorcycle owners, well I do anyways, and that's the constant desire to look at farkles. I found one for my tractor in the form of a Heavy Hitch brand, bolt-on tooth bar. What's a tooth bar you ask? A tooth bar is an accessory that attaches to the front of the bucket to make digging easier. The buckets on the front of equipment, whether it's a skid-steer, or a tractor with a front end loader, or a piece of large construction equipment, come 2 ways, either with a plain straight edge, or with teeth.
My tractor, a John Deere 1025R, came with a front end loader attachment and a plain, 53" wide bucket. The straight cutting edge is fine for moving snow, scraping stuff off of concrete slabs, and digging loose material out of piles. But for digging up compacted ground it would be like using a wide, flat snow shovel in dirt instead of a narrow, curved and pointed one.
Everyone likes pictures so here they are...
This is the bucket as it originally came. Note the straight edge...
You can see another farkle I added, the bolt on hooks on top of the bucket... See, more of the same affliction as motorcycle owners!
Here's the bucket with the tooth bar bolted on...
Next, I'll be digging up some more flower beds for Nancy... And looking at more farkles... I've got my eye on a carry all frame and either a box blade or a land plane to keep the driveway in shape... It never ends, just like with motorcycles.
Oh, and just to make this post even more 'Mother Earth News' worthy, we made 7 jars of chokecherry jelly the other day. The garden is doing well. The tomatillos are going crazy and have tons of fruit, the peas are done and I think we've picked all the zucchini and given a lot of it away. I put up a little "free" sign and a table at the end of the driveway and put zucchini and some green beans on it. Everything's been taken shortly after being put out there! A few people even left us thank you notes! That makes us happy.
