thoughts on tractors...

[meganwf]

We live on two acres in suburban Philadelphia with a state park behind us. Doing the small hobby farm thing with a huge garden and chickens for eggs and meat. I would like to eventually add some goats or sheep to keep the state park brambles from taking over. We have one acre of grass/playset/garden and another acre of brambles, overgrown meadow with some two-year-old fruit trees. Level ground is hard to find. We would like to use more of the meadow to make a palatable pasture for chickens (and others??), grow cutting flowers, and have more room for corn/squash.

So here is the question: all we own machine-wise is a small electric mower and some scythes. Cutting the grass takes at least two days. Should we sink $ into a tractor that will allow us to
-till/cultivate
-mow
-move an eggmobile around

or find someone else to occasionally do the job? My husband hates buying used equipment (of course I love it) and neither of us are mechanically minded at all. Any thoughts?

[Old Vet]

If neither of you are mechenily inclined then don't buy a tractor Just hire it done. Even if you bought a new tractor it will be used the first time you crank it up. I love to teach mechenics to people that are not mecheniclay inclined. Look at anything at all and the thing that you are looking at will either go in a cirlce or back and forth nothing else. If you are looking at things what you do is to look at one piece then figure out if it was to going around or back and forch and if you are looking at the part that might be causing trouble you can see what to do. That is it. There is nothing else. See it is simple the only thing is to break down just the part that is goving trouble and fix that one. If you look at a maching and it weems to go in all sorth of positions then you are not looking at one part. Once you do it is easy.

[PyroDon]

For two acres I'd be looking for an old JD 318 or cub used they are capable of towing a heavy load or plowing a garden and can be found in decent shape used fairly cheap .
Im talking a garden tractor not a full sized and not a glorified riding mower either .

[ericjeeper]

A good sturdy wheel barrel will do wonders.And a push mower and a weedeater with a straight shaft and a brush blade attached.
You already stated the land is not flat.So why take a risk of overturning a lawn tractor?

[Ross]

A decent garden tractor maybe but two acres is a nice garden/yard maybe a walk behind string trimmer to stay ahead of the grasses? 2 0r 3 Nigerian goats would help too. We had some they are affable if not biddable creatures.

[billooo2]

Depends how big of a hurry you are in.

I once had about an acre that I ran a couple strands of electric wire around the outside, and put some goats in there. By the next summer they had turned a mass of brambles and brush into a lawn.

The quickest and cheapest way would be to hire it bush hogged.....but then you still have all the debris to clean up, and the brush is not really killed. It will come back.

[Bearfootfarm]

I'd find a good small tractor, because youll find LOTS of uses for it.
The cost of paying someone else to do it will continue to rise, and you will have to do things at THEIR convenience.