Tractor arrived!

Tractor arrived!  Late yesterday afternoon, Lawrence W. of the local Kubota dealership drove up with my new tractor and some of it's attachments.  I've got a couple more attachments on the way (a snow blade and a cart), but he delivered the tractor (a Kubota B26 with loader and backhoe), a Wallenstein chipper/shredder, and a set of pallet forks.

The B26 is an updated and more powerful version of my old B24, so much about this tractor is very familiar to me.  Kubota has made a lot of improvements in the 15 years since I bought my B24, though.  The controls are much improved, and much easier to use.  The key controls are all easily reached with the seat swiveled around backwards for backhoe work; I especially appreciate that.  The hydraulics are now very easy to make slow motions with – that took special skill with my old B24; now it's easy as pie. 

I put the new tractor and chipper/shredder to work today.  I started chipping up the huge pile of brush that I've been accumulating since last April.  I made it through about a third of the pile today (with only a half day's work).  I think I'll be able to knock out the rest tomorrow.  The Wallenstein chipper shredder is a very nice piece of machinery.  I bought it after reading dozens of reviews online, and I bought it from a place in Pennsylvania – no local dealers had it.  I have to say that it was quite a relief to see that the machine was every bit as good as those reviews said it was :)