It's January, so what's everyone doing with their machine right now?

What's everyone doing with their machine right now? The weather is not that bad and you are still using it for business constantly? It's in your heated shop and you are doing yearly maintenance? It's outside next to the barn under a foot of snow? Your using it on your property doing what? Be sure to state what part of the country your in! Me, I have three mini excavators. Still using them for my business, but business is slow for now over the holidays. I'm doing winter maintenance on a lot of equipment and installing a new engine in one. The excavators are under cover in a shed and ready for work. I'm in Seattle WA.

Just down the road near Tacoma, Peter. Welding gunnebo hooks on the buckets tomorrow, preparing to do a nasty job in clay later this week.
Weather not that bad? I see 2 inches of rain in my forecast for the next 5 days.

I'm over in Kent Covington. What kind of job is in Clay? We are getting calls for drainage work.

commercial plumbing dig. Nasty sticky clay.

I'm in the North East, pretty mild actually, besides the foot of snow we got 2 1/2 weeks ago, but that's all gone now. I have jobs lined up as long as the frost doesn't go into the ground too deep or the ground gets snow covered. It certainly isn't as rushed as it typically is which is nice. When it does get to miserable to work I pull the machines in and get em ready for spring, there's ALWAYS things that need attention.

Near Tacoma, most of my gear is home. Still running one crew full time. I need to finsh up several projects but low on dry/covered work space. Really thinking=dreaming about a 30x70 shop.

In Minnesota the weather has been decent probably one of our latest seasons crushing and hauling till mid december Everything sits outside under the snow the big stuff where ever it was working graders and trucks have snowplows on ready for work

We don't get the snow much here in Seattle at the lower levels. But I have experiences with sticky wet clay dirt undercarriage freezing up at night, and then the tracks won't move in the morning. What do you do in Minnesota to keep the tracks from freezing?

Its just a matter of shoveling out the tracks when you park snow is way easier than mud and the times I have froze up the CTL with snow it was not to bad to break the ice free with a hammer

John C. said:

The used to be a log yard for export. That market went away and now it's an import storage yard for stuff that doesn't come in a can. Lots of different colors and sizes of iron in there all the time.

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roadrunner81 said:

Near Tacoma, most of my gear is home. Still running one crew full time. I need to finsh up several projects but low on dry/covered work space. Really thinking=dreaming about a 30x70 shop.View attachment 231296

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Would go bigger, Big as can afford to fit on your yard. I have a 30x48, is a sad bit too small ALL THE TIME. 50x80 or 60x80 is still small when filled but easier to deal with, also 20' eave height, 14' door height 16' wide.

Mini is parked in my quonset for repairs and maintenance, not nearly as nice as a shop but a million times better then out in the cold and snow of Alberta. Propane heater works pretty good, and it's got a concrete floor at least. A real shop would be so nice, but for the price of rent I could probably pay someone to do all my repairs. It's like $1500/month for a little 20x50. Thought about trying to build one on my acreage, but it's not zoned for commercial like that so think it would just be a disaster.

Been a really slow year so trying to get all the little nagging repairs done and make sure everything is 100% done for spring. I swear it's never ending though.

Roadrunner81 & DMiller,
I am chomping at the bit to build a pole barn. I have several estimates from a couple of years ago, but have not prepped the land as of yet. I am working towards it, mind you, however, I am not yet there. I have almost all of the trees down (about 50), and have removed many, however, many are still laying on the ground. Prior to the frost I removed a bunch of the stumps, but tractor problems and rain brought it to a halt. The tractor is ready to go now but the ground is frozen and it keeps snowing, so I am facing the reality that I am done till late spring. Early spring brings the thaw and lots of mud.

Anyhow, the building that I priced out was 40x60 with 16' eves and a 14' tall door. I also specked scissor trusses and a heavy pitch for the extra room inside. I plan to add a loft later. This shop complete with doors windows high strength concrete floor and insulation was quoted at around $45k like 3 years ago. I hate to see what it will be now with the prices in the covid economy. Anyhow, I want to go bigger than I think I need, however, one needs to balance wants vs needs, and add in the budget aspect. I would love 60x80, but can I justify it, I do not know. I have the land for sure, it is the $$ that might hold me back. Realistically, I will not see it for another year, so I have time to think about it...and time to save! I will no doubt price it both 40x60 and 60x80.

While we're day dreaming about a new Large heated secure work space with all the tools and equipment to do everything possible, we should also note that there should be room to store the new Class A motorhome, the big boat and the small boat, and of course the cool vehicle ready to be restored. Right now I'm installing a new motor in my mini skidsteer in our two car garage. But hey it's a heated garage. Wife wants it out soon!

About 5 years ago I had Cleary Buildings put me up a 42' X108' X14'. Two 20' door openings, one on the end of the building and one on the side. The side access is excellent when getting certain equipment out and two walk doors. Got a great deal on it. I would recommend them for sure.

15 years prior to that I put up a 40X40 X 14 shop. Pole barn as well but this one is insulated and heated. 20' insulated roll up door and one walk door.

Got to have a shop, especially when you live in a crappy weather area.

My E42 is usually living in one bay of my 3 stall garage (28' deep, 32' wide) but I had to get a bucket hooked up last week to dig a hole to bury a dead antelope. Unfortunately the dogs found it first and both of them threw up most of their snack in our house. Then I had to dig a hole for the dogs.... just kidding. I closed off the gates to the pasture where we have the antelope, then I had to close up all of the holes the dogs found to enter that pasture.

My shop is 30' by 50' but filled with stuff - woodworking, metalworking, two post vehicle lift, etc. Barely room to get my truck on the lift.

I can't really complain, I have a 28'x42' attached heated garage so I can work on my CTL and pickups. I didn't have my mini when I built though so it doesn't fit as I only put 8' high doors in which i'm really kicking myself for. The 30'x40' quonset at the yard is decent though, and it only cost $1500, the concrete floor was free except for my labour.

It's one of the things I keep going back and forth on. Do I move to a real acreage like 5 acres or whatever where I can build a real shop and store all my equipment, or just keep the yard I got? A lot of guys got the acreage and it's nice in some ways, not so much in others.

When I had my garage built i specified 9' clearance for the raised doors so my E42 would clear.

Working like we always do through the winter.

My mini and ctl are sitting in the shop waiting for spring. Ctl gets used for plowing around the shop but mini is just hanging out. Both are serviced, washed inside and out, waxed, etc.

Working cant hardly get a day off around here