Equation of the day

Tractor + Loader + Bucket ≠ Digging Machine

Or is that more of an inequation?  Anyway, chalk a couple of hours of the afternoon up to Learning Experiences.

I'd actually tried to do a little digging with the loader bucket before, and didn't get very far.  I figured maybe, if I scraped all the established pasture grass-and-whatnot off first, with the box blade, I'd be able to dig into the soil.

Nope.  Oh, I can scoop up a big bucketload of soil that's been scraped into a pile; that's no problem.  But digging into packed soil seems to be a non-starter, or maybe requires some technique with which I'm not familiar.  (OK, so maybe I should check YouTube.)

I suppose I could (now that the grass is largely out of the way) swap the box blade for the tiller, then use the tiller to loosen the top few inches of soil in the target area, turn around, and use the loader to move it to where I want it, rinse, repeat.  (Were this not a plague year, I'd rent a mini excavator for the project and try to learn to use that, but as things are that's just not on.)

And I kinda want to till a few areas back there anyway, then replant them with something more like lawn grass.  For walking paths and such.

Well, I didn't break anything trying.  And it looks like the threat of the UV tracer dye I ordered yesterday has caused the hydraulic fluid level to stop dropping, maybe.  We shall see.

Thursday morning update:  After looking at the Internets for a while, I adjusted my technique and started getting reasonable amounts of dirt scraped up.  I think I may still need to put the fangs on the box blade back to maximum bite and apply them once in a while to loosen stuff up, but there are signs of actual progress out there.  (I think the sort of buckets intended for digging have fangs of their own; what I have is a light-material bucket, meant for moving large volumes of loose compost and whatnot.)

Comments

[Rob]

You didn't break anything and you learned a bit! That would be a win in my world...

[Eric Wilner]

And! According to my Internet research, I was doing it almost right; just need a minor adjustment to my technique, plus some persistence.
I'd try again first thing in the morning, but the latest forecast shows rain pretty much all morning. So, afternoon maybe.