I traded a hole for a lawn tractor.

[Magicman]

He told me this morning that in addition to a "Mop Pipe", he is having a blade built that will completely cover the teeth for digging across gas pipe lines.  Gas people do not like teeth.

[Jeff]

This is what mine looks like. Didn't matter digging the pond, in fact in that clay, it left structure.

[doc henderson]

We should affectionately refer to her as "Ol snaggle tooth!  

[Jeff]

Just the,way I got the old hoe. She probably deserves some new teeth, but anything tooth related after the last month scares the bejabbers outta me.

[Hilltop366]

A hole with a hoe for a whole lawn tractor...pretty good deal!

When trying to get a flat bottom with a toothed bucket when getting close to the correct depth I will put the bucket in so the flat part is almost level with the ground with the teeth pointing slightly down the as you move the dipper towards you you raise the boom and roll the bucket down to level all at the same time.

It takes a bit of practice to get the correct amount of movement of three things at the same time, I use to be ok at it but rarely use the backhoe enough to keep in practice.

[Wlmedley]

The first full time job I had was working at a Case dealership. Would have been 1975 and the newest 580 model was the 580B. I played with them every chance I got and eventually got pretty good at digging with one. A few times they let me take one out to demonstrate to a customer. At that time they had 5 levers and foot swing. I expect that they have wobble sticks now but I really liked the 5 lever set up. On the 580B you had to split the machine to replace the clutch and I got pretty good at that also. I was wanting a raise and I thought I would impress the boss one day and I did a clutch replacement in 4 hours. Pulled the machine in the shop at 8am and pulled it out at noon. Later that day I asked if it might be possible to get a raise.Boss said I was doing pretty good and he would discuss it with the company owner which was my uncle. Next day he said he got me a raise. I asked him how much and he said a nickel but don't tell anyone. I said "don't worry am just as ashamed of it as you are " 

[doc henderson]

a nickel raise in 1975, that was I got every few months loading trucks.  I was 15.  but we started at 70 cents an hour.

[Wlmedley]

I think I was making $3.00 a hour before I got my raise.  Never did get another one and in 1977 I quit and went to work for the company that I retired from and started out at $4.75 a hour. Which was a heck of a difference at that time. I remember around that time the coal miners were making $50 a day which I thought was a tremendous amount of money.