Reading your post makes me feel even more blessed. I recently had some dozer work done and the guy did nearly exactly what I asked him to do. In a couple areas he deviated, but that resulted in less work for me and more productivity from him. Basically, he did what I wanted and not what I told him.
It would sure suck to have the bad experience you had.
I have a 34
hp tractor and a medium duty (1100 pound) 5' brush cutter. It could only really deal with 2" hardwood or 3" soft wood. From my personal experience, you can't do jack squat productively with a 30hp tractor for clearing land with 4" and larger trees. Sure, you can do it, but it would be a full time job, would take years and destroy the machine.
I would talk to "cbturf" and determine when he is traveling from TN to NM and see if he can zip down and do the work for you. I don't know him, but from his posts he seems like a decent sort. I think there are some other mulchers that post here that are from TX. Post up in the "construction" forum and see what response you get.
Other than that, maybe you can find a place to rent you a mulcher and a CTL?
Do you really know surgeons that get less than $5000 a week - before paying for the building, equipment, support staff, license, insurance, utilities, etc? Cuz that's the better example when comparing a mulcher that has $100,000 to $250,000 in equipment that will drink 200 to 1000 gal of diesel in 40 hours.