I've lived in the "country" for the last 30 years (about 40 miles West of Austin) having grown up in Hot/Humid/Flat Houston and escaped out of there 50 years ago.
My Dad kept me involved in Boy Scouts as a young man summer-camping near Wimberly, Tx at a place called "El Rancho Cima" and as I grew older also became a counselor there teaching aquatic merit badges and playing ranch-hand. It was a fantastic experience for a kid raised on pavement. I couldn't wait to find a way to live out here in the "Texas Hill Country".
I moved out here in '83 taking a job in Austin, but in '89 I moved out to ranch-country, finally able to live the way I always wanted as the result of cutting the chains of a marriage gone bad and becoming a single-Dad of an 8-yr old daughter who I wanted to raise in the country. It has turned out wonderfully, especially since I married my child-hood sweetheart daughter of my Dad's Best Friend whom I'd been raised with almost as a cousin.
God/Karma/Providence...whatever you believe in...has really shed some blessings on me.
...which brings me to the point: Finally reaching retirement and finding myself "comfortable" at least, if not wealthy,...I have recently purchased a Kubota M4700DT tractor to mow my grass runway with (I'm a retired general-aviation pilot) and the "orange fever" has infected me.
So... as I have become a wee-bit lazier... I have searched and found a used 2015 Kubota RTV-X900-G which an American Airlines mechanic purchased for his anticipated land-purchase that fell-thru. He subsequently developed health issues and decided to sell it, and although priced a bit on the "high side" … I became convinced it was a worthwhile endeavor.
I paid him $11,500 for it last month (April '19) because he said he'd spent a lot on it and needed his money back. (Warn 4500-S winch, LED lightbar, new ATV-tires, second-battery with dual-charging mod, Rhino-bed-liner, Windshield, Canopy) and it had only 250 hrs on it, and an extremely clean machine to look at, with no evidence of abuse. We met midway between us in Wacko-Texas (Waco) at my bank and I transferred the money to him and we parted. It was pouring down rain so I didn't get a chance to actually test-drive it or even to look it over as I should have... especially considering I'm an aviation maintenance "egs-spurt" (according to some of my peers... I teach an aircraft maintenance seminar every summer during a classic airplane convention and host a maintenance website-discussion-forums)… I.E.,.. I didn't follow my own advice to others regarding "pre-buy inspections" of previously-owned equipment.
I have found some issues... I've been able to address them here on my own (THANK YOU GUYS for this forum which has helped me IMMENSELY). Most have been things like discovering mis-adjusted relief-cable on the transmission and electrical wiring done incorrectly or sloppily on aftermarket add-
ons the airline mechanic's son did) and I've become very HAPPY, EXCITED, AND THRILLED (scripted quotes from Apollo 13 wives) over this little machine.
Yes, it's a little power-horse and it's a cute, rugged, comfortable and capable little machine that will serve me very well here on my private "little piece of the Promised Land" of Hill Country Texas!
I've even got a dog that adopted us after the neighboring rancher starved, beat, and kicked her until I found her one day creeping around stealing scraps of food from the deer, racoons, etc. we throw scraps out to off our back porch.
I blew kisses to her and coaxed her to come out from hiding and fed her. She didn't belong to us, but she lived under a rosemary bush in the front flower-bed for a year, but last winter when it got down to 17 degrees I couldn't stand it and let her into the house, where she surprised us when I pointed to the rug in front of the fireplace and she trotted over there, curled up and stayed all night long. She is an absolutely dependable INSIDE DOG..never made a mistake, and comes and bumps me with her nose to wake me up when she needs to go outside. She has become the owner of our hearts.
Now, 2 years later, she's over her shyness, and thinks everyone and everything is here just for HER ENJOYMENT.
What a sweet, gentle, and confident dog she has become. Never would have expected it out of the starving, beaten, shy, hopeless creature she was when we discovered her hiding under our back porch.
Thank you all for your help! Your humor! and your comments. George and Jamie... and Queenie! (now rules the place)
My Dad kept me involved in Boy Scouts as a young man summer-camping near Wimberly, Tx at a place called "El Rancho Cima" and as I grew older also became a counselor there teaching aquatic merit badges and playing ranch-hand. It was a fantastic experience for a kid raised on pavement. I couldn't wait to find a way to live out here in the "Texas Hill Country".
I moved out here in '83 taking a job in Austin, but in '89 I moved out to ranch-country, finally able to live the way I always wanted as the result of cutting the chains of a marriage gone bad and becoming a single-Dad of an 8-yr old daughter who I wanted to raise in the country. It has turned out wonderfully, especially since I married my child-hood sweetheart daughter of my Dad's Best Friend whom I'd been raised with almost as a cousin.
God/Karma/Providence...whatever you believe in...has really shed some blessings on me.
...which brings me to the point: Finally reaching retirement and finding myself "comfortable" at least, if not wealthy,...I have recently purchased a Kubota M4700DT tractor to mow my grass runway with (I'm a retired general-aviation pilot) and the "orange fever" has infected me.
So... as I have become a wee-bit lazier... I have searched and found a used 2015 Kubota RTV-X900-G which an American Airlines mechanic purchased for his anticipated land-purchase that fell-thru. He subsequently developed health issues and decided to sell it, and although priced a bit on the "high side" … I became convinced it was a worthwhile endeavor.
I paid him $11,500 for it last month (April '19) because he said he'd spent a lot on it and needed his money back. (Warn 4500-S winch, LED lightbar, new ATV-tires, second-battery with dual-charging mod, Rhino-bed-liner, Windshield, Canopy) and it had only 250 hrs on it, and an extremely clean machine to look at, with no evidence of abuse. We met midway between us in Wacko-Texas (Waco) at my bank and I transferred the money to him and we parted. It was pouring down rain so I didn't get a chance to actually test-drive it or even to look it over as I should have... especially considering I'm an aviation maintenance "egs-spurt" (according to some of my peers... I teach an aircraft maintenance seminar every summer during a classic airplane convention and host a maintenance website-discussion-forums)… I.E.,.. I didn't follow my own advice to others regarding "pre-buy inspections" of previously-owned equipment.
I have found some issues... I've been able to address them here on my own (THANK YOU GUYS for this forum which has helped me IMMENSELY). Most have been things like discovering mis-adjusted relief-cable on the transmission and electrical wiring done incorrectly or sloppily on aftermarket add-
ons the airline mechanic's son did) and I've become very HAPPY, EXCITED, AND THRILLED (scripted quotes from Apollo 13 wives) over this little machine.
Yes, it's a little power-horse and it's a cute, rugged, comfortable and capable little machine that will serve me very well here on my private "little piece of the Promised Land" of Hill Country Texas!
I've even got a dog that adopted us after the neighboring rancher starved, beat, and kicked her until I found her one day creeping around stealing scraps of food from the deer, racoons, etc. we throw scraps out to off our back porch.
I blew kisses to her and coaxed her to come out from hiding and fed her. She didn't belong to us, but she lived under a rosemary bush in the front flower-bed for a year, but last winter when it got down to 17 degrees I couldn't stand it and let her into the house, where she surprised us when I pointed to the rug in front of the fireplace and she trotted over there, curled up and stayed all night long. She is an absolutely dependable INSIDE DOG..never made a mistake, and comes and bumps me with her nose to wake me up when she needs to go outside. She has become the owner of our hearts.
Now, 2 years later, she's over her shyness, and thinks everyone and everything is here just for HER ENJOYMENT.
What a sweet, gentle, and confident dog she has become. Never would have expected it out of the starving, beaten, shy, hopeless creature she was when we discovered her hiding under our back porch.
Thank you all for your help! Your humor! and your comments. George and Jamie... and Queenie! (now rules the place)
Johnny-Come-Lately... but, HEY! I got here as fast as I could!
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