Diggin it. YES I CAN!

[Resonator]

How far from "mod-run civil-i-zation" is your camp? ???

[barbender]

I would love it if you had the Pigroast at the cabin, but that's me being selfish. I could do the UP as a weekend trip😁 I do have shovels😉

[Jeff]

Mackinaw city/St ignace, soo st. Marie, are all an hour away. Cedarville has a days inn and a small motel, they are 20 miles away.  There are resorts on caribou lake, 2 miles away. There is a beautiful state campground about 10 minutes away on lake huron. 

[DbltreeBelgians]

I can dig it. My daughter and SIL have family in Wolverine and we frequent the area. That's not all that far from your cabin. We'd be there in a heartbeat if you decide to go that route. We've enjoyed all your videos of your place and would love to see it in person.

Brent

[Walnut Beast]

Another idea is to run some ads on trading your classic mustang for tractor backhoe or tracked Skidsteer. You never known. You might be surprised! 

[Jeff]

I'm in the process of getting it cleaned up. Problem is it aint running right, and I dont have a clue how to tune, or diagnose a hopped up hotrod engine of unknown build.

[Walnut Beast]

Just do the best you can and have it looking good! If it at least runs that's a big plus. I had a suburban ltz that wasn't running the best and a little smoke on startup and several things not working after sitting for several years. I polished it up inside and out with excellent pictures and stated in the ad that it runs and drives excellent but needed some lifter work and priced accordingly. The phone and texts rang off the hook!! I could have gotten 2 to 3 k more than what I was asking. Classic car shined up good pictures needs tlc after sitting 💰💰💰

[Jeff]

Maybe ill do a video telling everything I know

[SawyerTed]

40 years ago I needed a car.  What I had was a VW Super Beetle Convertible and I needed something I could travel in.  

I drove the VW to a Toyota dealer.  We didn't quite swap even but I got really good money for the trade.  

Maybe you can find an equipment dealer with a soft spot for Mustang hot rods.  

[Walnut Beast]

When you live in one place a long time, it's hard to leave. When I lost Ann. Some said sell and get a smaller place. This was raw land when Ann and I got it. We built everything here 40 years ago. I thought about it, even called a Realtor. Found out I could get crazy $$$$ for it. But, my hart sank thinking of leaving. No way I could leave. Looking around, I see Ann in the things she did over the years here.
In fact, all her stuff is still here in the house. 4 years now Dec 4 at 8.30 pm.
Maybe that's what Tammy is thinking, Having spent a lifetime to build what she wanted and not have the will to start over.
Starting over at 20 years old is easy, at 60+ is not.
Best of luck looking for a backhoe.

I feel for you! Sorry that you still don't have your best friend! But on the flip side it's new beginnings for many! The good memories will be with you wherever you go! My point is that so many people go to the grave and say what if or I was going to do that! Live life! Don't let it be you! 

[Walnut Beast]

Good thinking Ted! It starts with the burning desire and when you want something bad enough you will figure things out and be surprised how things all come together!!!

[Resonator]

Would be worth running the vin and door plate numbers to get a Marti report. They have a database of all the production #'s of mustangs, will show all options how/when it was originally built on the assembly line. Might add to the sale value just by having a copy.

[Jeff]

This mustang is a 71. Its clearly had a lot of history. It started life as a Red Grande. Not a mach, but someone put mack stuff on it. I think this was a young guys garage fixed up at some point It has good bones, and is a pretty nice looking car, but it aint a high dollar classic as far as im concerned.

[Southside]

But you ain't the one buying it so your concern about it not being high dollar aren't as important as the guy who thinks it IS high dollar.  :D

[Don P]

Maybe ill do a video telling everything I know

A person could really run with a straight line like that  ;D.
As we drive up and down the mountains in winter, and I imagine for you across the bridge, having quarters down in a warmer valley for the winter would be nice!

Buy it at the wore out price, it won't lose value.

[Southside]

All joking aside BIG, old, excavators can be bought cheap because it's not financially viable to move them for work all the time. 

[Jeff]

Well, that is true, but it is what it is. If I was going to keep it, Id buy a modern 302 crate engine and transmission, and it would be one nice car, with what I think is an old only fair home garage paint job.

If a big excavator wanted to live his life out on my place, hed be welcome:D

[Walnut Beast]

Better to think it's worth gold as opposed to peanuts. I somewhat drifted to think peanuts on the suburban because of the engine. And if I would have set my price higher by 3k I would have gotten it easy!! Might have been a few days instead of a couple hours with the guy having thousands in cash in hand! 

[Jeff]

I really would rather trade it, than try and sell and buy.

[Walnut Beast]

Get things ready and start the ads and kick back. I had a Willy's truck cab advertised years ago and nothing till a guy called that was driving down the interstate that was from Indiana and coming back from Utah with a truck, camper pulling a monster 100k built jeep on a small trailer. I give him directions and he got off the interstate came out in the country and unbelievably we put the cab on the front of the trailer by hand where there was barely enough room. Slapped each other on the back give me a wad of cash and away he went

[aigheadish]

Probably already understood but there is something to be said for renting a big piece of equipment for a week or two. Namely, not having to worry about maintenance.

That being said, about a year or two after buying our 6 acre property I rented a backhoe for a week after coming up with a decent list of projects, that sounds similar to yours. The week came and went and the amount of work completed was insane, but it cost me around 2300 bucks, I think. We continued with some projects but I quickly found that many of the projects I was interested in doing weren't going to be done with me and a shovel or ax, so I started considering a backhoe again. In a bittersweet moment my dad passed away, unexpectedly, and left my sister and I some money (thanks to my stepmom's excellent money management skills), and I could suddenly afford a backhoe. I spent about 24k on a 2004 model, that, so far, is running pretty well, bought about 3 years ago. The amount of work that can be done is insane.

This pile of dirt times 2, taken from my creek, in maybe 2-3 hours?



 

Renting can be a bummer because it's lovely to have the machine whenever you get a bug to go do something instead of being on a timeline, but with owning maintenance is a real concern and hose replacement is about as cheap as it gets and that's still in the neighborhood of 100 bucks for 2 feet of hose.

All that being said, if I could find a truck and trailer (I'd say 60-75% chance on both of those) I'd be willing to make the haul to a pigroast at the cabin and do some digging. 

You can find some older Ford 5000 backhoes that will get real work done and they aren't crazy expensive if you can do some wrenching. HeavyEquipmentForums will be happy to advise. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find a pretty straight trade also.

@Hilltop366 mentioned ruts with the backhoe, I'll second the cr@p out of that one... I have made a huge mess of my yard with ruts. To the point where I bought a tractor and blade with the intention of attempting to flatten them out as time goes on. A third of my time in the backhoe has likely been spent cleaning messes the backhoe has made. 

[Don P]

If you really want to impress the missus, bury the dozer in the front yard  ;D.

[Walnut Beast]

That should get you motivated to get those vehicles listed for trade/sell!!  

[Jeff]

Ive been gone all summer, with my shop being used by not me and it was a flippin mess. Took 3 days to sort my tools out. I hope to get on the mustang hard this next week. Ill need guidance for sure  I changed the plugs this week, and found one had thehex rouded off. Waiting for a bolt bite socket to try and get it out.

[47sawdust]

Easy on the knuckles, Jeff.