Piston
Elite Member
Hi Guys,
I have learned a whole lot so far spending a lot of time on the forum and posting anytime I have something useful to ad to a post (which is rare:laughing and now I have some questions about some land clearing. I have searched and found some great info but thought I would start my own thread to answer some more specific questions regarding my situation. Actually I may just be looking for your 'approval' to some ideas I have to make sure I'm on the right track. I've never taken on a project this big but have spent a lot of time taking trees down, getting them out of the woods, and using them on my mill, or as firewood. I enjoy the process very much and it is more of a hobby for me than anything.
My wife and I are in the process of getting about 20-30 acres of forested land in the Lakes Region of NH. It is family land and I have spent a lot of time on it in the past, just playing as a kid, hunting, hiking, camping, things like that. Sometimes just walking around the land for no other reason than a walk in the woods.
My goal is to clear about 5-10 acres and then thin the remaining acrerage.
I want to use most of the logs for either firewood or the sawmill. I don't want to skid the logs because the cleaner they stay the better off my blades are.
We will eventually build a timber framed cabin (small) as a vacation/weekend home.
I will have to put in a roughly 600-800' driveway. I'm not opposed to renting out some of the work such as the driveway or something similar, but that is a decision I'll need to think about more.
Equipment= I recently purchased an '02 Kubota L4610 (with the help of many of you) with the following implements....
brush hog
landscape rake
rear blade (no box blade yet but I'm hoping to come spring time)
farmi logging winch (however it hasn't been used in forever and needs maintenance but will be working)
I just ordered a 64" grapple for it from WR Long last week
getting the tires filled with rimguard in 2 weeks
Also, my father just bought a 1988 John deere 310 backhoe, 2wd, no extendahoe, regular front bucket (not 4 in 1) and 2 backhoe quick attach buckets, it is in extremely good shape for the year and is very reliable, he couldn't pass up the deal.
My neighbor has a 100hp skidsteer with a larger mulcher head on the front and he will give me a good hourly rate to clear land. I figure I'll use him for the initial clearing of taking down everything up to 4" or so.
As far as the land goes, I don't want to ruin it by taking a D8 in there or something and mowing down everything in its path. I want to be semi low impact but I'm not worried about minor ground disturbance.
It is a fairly mixed aged site, with some slopes of 10-15% and some level land as well. It is both hardwoods and softwoods, anywhere from 6"dbh to 20" dbh and a handful of larger trees dispersed through the land, which I will probably be leaving. Plus a lot of undergrowth/brush. There are some places where there are a LOT of rocks, some where they're aren't....there are a good amount of stone walls on the property.
My thoughts are to have my neighbor go up there and take down all the smaller stuff within the area I want cleared, plus maybe thin some between the larger trees and also the boundary. My only worry here is the rocks. Most of them are soccer ball sized and mostly in piles so he could avoid them, some are just below the surface, would this damage his equipment?
After he takes down the smaller stuff, I want to take down all the trees in the area I want cleared. I am thinking I will dig up the roots a bit, knock down the entire tree with the backhoe (which seems to work great from little experience I have doing it) and then limb the tree where it lays, cut it up into log length for the mill (or for later firewood bucking) then cut the stump off, move the stump to the pile with the grapple and pick up all the brush with the grapple, then move the logs with the grapple, this would keep everything off the ground and being dragged through the dirt.
I haven't thought about how to grade out all the holes left by the stumps yet, or finish work or anything, but that comes later.
I prefer to do this myself as a spring/summer/fall project. I dont' need it done overnight so if it takes extra time that is okay. I enjoy working in the woods and the smell of fresh sawn wood chips and fresh dirt:laughing:
I know it's a long post but I'm trying to give you all the info I can think of so you get a good idea of what I want to do. Thanks for any advice.
I have learned a whole lot so far spending a lot of time on the forum and posting anytime I have something useful to ad to a post (which is rare:laughing and now I have some questions about some land clearing. I have searched and found some great info but thought I would start my own thread to answer some more specific questions regarding my situation. Actually I may just be looking for your 'approval' to some ideas I have to make sure I'm on the right track. I've never taken on a project this big but have spent a lot of time taking trees down, getting them out of the woods, and using them on my mill, or as firewood. I enjoy the process very much and it is more of a hobby for me than anything.
My wife and I are in the process of getting about 20-30 acres of forested land in the Lakes Region of NH. It is family land and I have spent a lot of time on it in the past, just playing as a kid, hunting, hiking, camping, things like that. Sometimes just walking around the land for no other reason than a walk in the woods.
My goal is to clear about 5-10 acres and then thin the remaining acrerage.
I want to use most of the logs for either firewood or the sawmill. I don't want to skid the logs because the cleaner they stay the better off my blades are.
We will eventually build a timber framed cabin (small) as a vacation/weekend home.
I will have to put in a roughly 600-800' driveway. I'm not opposed to renting out some of the work such as the driveway or something similar, but that is a decision I'll need to think about more.
Equipment= I recently purchased an '02 Kubota L4610 (with the help of many of you) with the following implements....
brush hog
landscape rake
rear blade (no box blade yet but I'm hoping to come spring time)
farmi logging winch (however it hasn't been used in forever and needs maintenance but will be working)
I just ordered a 64" grapple for it from WR Long last week
getting the tires filled with rimguard in 2 weeks
Also, my father just bought a 1988 John deere 310 backhoe, 2wd, no extendahoe, regular front bucket (not 4 in 1) and 2 backhoe quick attach buckets, it is in extremely good shape for the year and is very reliable, he couldn't pass up the deal.
My neighbor has a 100hp skidsteer with a larger mulcher head on the front and he will give me a good hourly rate to clear land. I figure I'll use him for the initial clearing of taking down everything up to 4" or so.
As far as the land goes, I don't want to ruin it by taking a D8 in there or something and mowing down everything in its path. I want to be semi low impact but I'm not worried about minor ground disturbance.
It is a fairly mixed aged site, with some slopes of 10-15% and some level land as well. It is both hardwoods and softwoods, anywhere from 6"dbh to 20" dbh and a handful of larger trees dispersed through the land, which I will probably be leaving. Plus a lot of undergrowth/brush. There are some places where there are a LOT of rocks, some where they're aren't....there are a good amount of stone walls on the property.
My thoughts are to have my neighbor go up there and take down all the smaller stuff within the area I want cleared, plus maybe thin some between the larger trees and also the boundary. My only worry here is the rocks. Most of them are soccer ball sized and mostly in piles so he could avoid them, some are just below the surface, would this damage his equipment?
After he takes down the smaller stuff, I want to take down all the trees in the area I want cleared. I am thinking I will dig up the roots a bit, knock down the entire tree with the backhoe (which seems to work great from little experience I have doing it) and then limb the tree where it lays, cut it up into log length for the mill (or for later firewood bucking) then cut the stump off, move the stump to the pile with the grapple and pick up all the brush with the grapple, then move the logs with the grapple, this would keep everything off the ground and being dragged through the dirt.
I haven't thought about how to grade out all the holes left by the stumps yet, or finish work or anything, but that comes later.
I prefer to do this myself as a spring/summer/fall project. I dont' need it done overnight so if it takes extra time that is okay. I enjoy working in the woods and the smell of fresh sawn wood chips and fresh dirt:laughing:
I know it's a long post but I'm trying to give you all the info I can think of so you get a good idea of what I want to do. Thanks for any advice.