Tilling pics

[micah68kj]

Pics of some gardens I have tilled this spring. Just random shots.Been a decent year but you can tell the economy is really puttin' the hurt on people. The two Horses are my bread-N-butter machines. Almost identical 7 HP kohler powered 4 speeds. Really the only difference is that one has a throttle activated off switch and the other has the points button. Both run chains, ag tires, and bumpers. Can barely see my Pony in the last pic.
Joe

[MF283]

Always envious of your refurbed machines Joe

Out of curiosity, what or how do you charge on tilling a garden plot?

Ronnie

[micah68kj]

Refurbished machines??!! That's good Ronnie. I haven't touched these two to do anything a'tall. I bought them both as is. The one with the points switch "didn't run"..........New condenser, pull rope and away we go. I do change motor and trans oil in every one I get.
Prices?........Well, lots of variables. Nice, flat, non-rock, old garden plot that is real local I get 4-6c square'. Some old rocky, sloping, new plot that has weeds that haven't been cut and is 20 miles from my house.........well cost has gone as high as 17c/square'. I till as deep as the depth bar will adjust. Crisscross. Have repeat calls and usually get an additional tip.
Close up of my 2 regular tillers. I sold the real purty on that I repainted. I took the bumper from it and put it on my tiller that didn't have one. I neve know what I might literally "be up against when I go to a job. Don't want to run an engine through a barn or fence.
Joe

[mikeinri]

Nice!
How do you till the hard, rocky stuff all the way down?
Do you spend most of the time manually pulling rocks?
My back yard is basically forest that I've slowly cleared. Had so much trouble breaking the ground for the garden that I had loam trucked in. Still not happy about that expense.
Mike

[micah68kj]

Mike,
You look at those pics and you'll see the one young fella is chucking a rock over the fence and into the woods. The other gentleman (customer) is also picking up rocks. I just till s l o w l y and get it done. If I hit something big I'll either stop and dig it out or just tell the owner there is a rock and the soil will be a little shallow there. Last year I remember tilling a garden that went down about 6" and felt like I was trying to till a pool table. Nothing to be done. Just go on to the next one. I live in a VERY rocky area. I've heard it said if you want to start a potato patch around here the very first thing you want to do is lay in a good supply of blasting caps.
Joe

[PA318Guy]

Those tillers do a nice job!

[micah68kj]

Thank you sir.
The first garden (top pic) was done with my Pony. No charge for that one. Guy just had a kidney transplant the prior week. Figger'd he could use a break.
You see that one pic where the two tillers are real close. We're near getting done and the engines have a pretty dang good tilt to them. That's why I check the oil every time I till.
Joe

[mikeinri]

Originally Posted by micah68kj

Mike,
You look at those pics and you'll see the one young fella is chucking a rock over the fence and into the woods. The other gentleman (customer) is also picking up rocks. I just till s l o w l y and get it done. If I hit something big I'll either stop and dig it out or just tell the owner there is a rock and the soil will be a little shallow there. Last year I remember tilling a garden that went down about 6" and felt like I was trying to till a pool table. Nothing to be done. Just go on to the next one. I live in a VERY rocky area. I've heard it said if you want to start a potato patch around here the very first thing you want to do is lay in a good supply of blasting caps.
Joe

Most of my rocks are too big to pick up, LOL...

Blasting caps? Starting to feel better about spending the money on the loam. Tills like a dream!

Mike

[yellowcat]

Originally Posted by micah68kj

Refurbished machines??!! That's good Ronnie. I haven't touched these two to do anything a'tall. I bought them both as is. The one with the points switch "didn't run"..........New condenser, pull rope and away we go. I do change motor and trans oil in every one I get.
Prices?........Well, lots of variables. Nice, flat, non-rock, old garden plot that is real local I get 4-6c square'. Some old rocky, sloping, new plot that has weeds that haven't been cut and is 20 miles from my house.........well cost has gone as high as 17c/square'. I till as deep as the depth bar will adjust. Crisscross. Have repeat calls and usually get an additional tip.
Close up of my 2 regular tillers. I sold the real purty on that I repainted. I took the bumper from it and put it on my tiller that didn't have one. I neve know what I might literally "be up against when I go to a job. Don't want to run an engine through a barn or fence.
Joe

You charge 17cents a square foot to till a garden?

[micah68kj]

Oh my!! That was supposed to be 12c and that was a pretty extreme situation. I asked her if she didn't have a better spot but that's where she wanted it. I'm not kidding it was 50% shale fill. I spent 4 hours there. She was happy but I'm VERY glad she hasn't called back. It was a filled in swimming pool. Terrible job.
Joe
(Man I wish I could edit that post!)

[mikeinri]

How deep into the pool was the surface of the garden after you tilled and pulled out all of tthat shale?
Mike

[yellowcat]

Originally Posted by micah68kj

Oh my!! That was supposed to be 12c and that was a pretty extreme situation. I asked her if she didn't have a better spot but that's where she wanted it. I'm not kidding it was 50% shale fill. I spent 4 hours there. She was happy but I'm VERY glad she hasn't called back. It was a filled in swimming pool. Terrible job.
Joe
(Man I wish I could edit that post!)

So if you tilling at plot 30'x40' at 12 cents a sq ft..... 1200x.12 = $144. Your making good money friend. I use to till a few garden plots a few years ago and I can see I was charging way way too less. And the little I charged some cheap skate people still wanted to throw a fit I was charging to much. Like one garden I tilled up for an old lady was 40'x25'. I tilled it all up and even made furrows for her...charged only $35. I think some people just want you to work for free I guess.

[mikeinri]

Mine's 30x30, established, all loam. When my tiller was dead last year, I had a guy come out from CL, charged me $60 IIRC.
I was mainly upset because my tiller was dead and I was too busy to fix it before the garden needed to go in.
He did have a MTD tiller which I hadn't seen before, but seemed to work very well.
Mike

[micah68kj]

Yellowcat,
That was only ONE extreme case. I thought I had made that clear. I'm usually in the 4-7 cent range. As I said in one of my posts, I usually am given a tip. I remember the first year I was tilling I quoted a guy$60.00 to till his garden. Brand new, really nice dirt and NO rocks. 5 miles from home. Got done, loaded up my tiller and the guy hands me $75.00. I told him I said $60.00. He says I know. Keep it. You earned it.
Man, I was just puttin in time. It was a sweet job. I have yet to have anybody kick at my prices and they're usually really nice and kind. I dunno....
I always ask LOTS of questions beforhand when I get a new caller. I ask 'em to cut the grass as close as possible, ask about buried utilities and is it in a newer development? Etc. etc. I always give them the lowest and highest price and if they don't like it that's fine. They can go to the local rental company and rent a rear tine tiller for half a day for $58.00. That usually makes 'em stop and reconsider.
Joe

[micah68kj]

More pics. Got three more done today but forgot the camera on the biggest one. One of these is a regular customer and other one is the next door neighbor's little plot they wanted tilled. Very nice folks. The other one I did was about 20'X30' new plot.
Joe