jcliburn
Gold Member
So I've had a chance to use my new grapple a couple of times now. What a work saver!
One of my boys and I have started clearing an area overtaken by heavy vines overtopping trees that were permanently bowed by a freak snowstorm in 2008 (8 inches of snow! Heavy by our standards here in south Mississippi. See the below snow pics from '08.).
Back to current day, I burnt a large brush pile yesterday, the remnants of which can be seen as the pile of ashes in the first two pics. The grapple made short work of piling the debris we cut/uprooted a couple of weeks ago. In the background you can see the type of foliage we started with, and what we're still faced with.
Any ground that doesn't have a coating of fallen leaves on it is the area we've cleaned up so far, and was nearly impenetrable by humans when we started. It's a triangular area about 80 feet on a side.
I pulled up most of the trees with a chain hooked to the drawbar of my Kubota MX5100. The vines are a bugger because the root network is so dense, but box blade rippers have helped dislodge that mess. The diameter of some of these vine stems is well north of an inch at ground level. They are EVIL.
I'm taking out every privet, bowed tree, and vine-from-h3ll by the roots. We'll leave behind an appropriately spaced collection of pines, oaks, sweetgums, hickories, beeches, and anything else that looks decent. Otherwise, out it comes. We'll probably seed with a rye/bermuda mixture that's popular in these parts to keep the hillside from eroding.
We're making progress!
Jay
One of my boys and I have started clearing an area overtaken by heavy vines overtopping trees that were permanently bowed by a freak snowstorm in 2008 (8 inches of snow! Heavy by our standards here in south Mississippi. See the below snow pics from '08.).
Back to current day, I burnt a large brush pile yesterday, the remnants of which can be seen as the pile of ashes in the first two pics. The grapple made short work of piling the debris we cut/uprooted a couple of weeks ago. In the background you can see the type of foliage we started with, and what we're still faced with.
Any ground that doesn't have a coating of fallen leaves on it is the area we've cleaned up so far, and was nearly impenetrable by humans when we started. It's a triangular area about 80 feet on a side.I pulled up most of the trees with a chain hooked to the drawbar of my Kubota MX5100. The vines are a bugger because the root network is so dense, but box blade rippers have helped dislodge that mess. The diameter of some of these vine stems is well north of an inch at ground level. They are EVIL.
I'm taking out every privet, bowed tree, and vine-from-h3ll by the roots. We'll leave behind an appropriately spaced collection of pines, oaks, sweetgums, hickories, beeches, and anything else that looks decent. Otherwise, out it comes. We'll probably seed with a rye/bermuda mixture that's popular in these parts to keep the hillside from eroding.
We're making progress!
Jay
