Clearing 1/2 Acre...You Want How Much???

[mx842]

Wow, I cant believe that someone honestly thought it would take more than a day to do a half an acre with 5 guys, especially with 5-6" trees. I know when i clear fence lines in the winter time I can cruise at about 3-400' per hour in a 30' wide fence row. It does really help to have a good loader operator to get it all out of the way to get to the next tree. either way I think you made the right choice to do it yourself. Hope your being safe and havin fun.

Yeah, a good saw man can make a lot of saw dust in a days time even if you don't have equipment to move the brush with. It's all about how you lay the trees down. If you start out right and clear off a spot where you can lay the trees down straight. Cut the tops in small enough pieces where you can handle them easy. Then cut the larger wood either in log lengths, if you have something that can pick up the whole log or fire wood length if you don't. The key is not to just go in and topple everything all in a tangled mess you need to cut a tree and lay it in the clean area cut it up then try to cut the next tree so that it lays beside the last one you cut then on and on until all the trees are on the ground. What you will have is all the trees laid down in a nice straight line where you can then deal with the brush first, get it out of the way, chip it, pile it up and burn it or lay it out on a trailer to haul it away. Regardless if you are going to have to handle it by hand the smaller the brush the easier it will be to deal with it.

If you have big equipment it really don't matter much because with the machines we have today they cut, grind, and mulch the trees as they go along so the trail behind them is nothing but twigs and mulch. Of-course they probably wouldn't bring in such a machine for just 1/2 ac because the move would be more than the job was worth besides those big machines wouldn't even get warmed up with just a 1/2 ac.:laughing:

Hey Kyle, do you have a progress report along with pics of the job site??

 

[JamesHW]

Since I have 80 acres, at least 15 or so I want to clear, I am following these threads closely and appreciate all the wisdom being dispensed :thumbsup:

In regards to stumps, my place has the remains of a number of 70 year old stump fences along the border of the old field. Since the property has zero stones on it, other than local bluestone used as foundation for the old house and river stones used to build up ramps to the old barn (destroyed some years ago by a a huge maple that split), stump fences were used. They wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea and probably looked ugly at first, oh say the first 40 years or so. Now what is left (that hasn't been dragged off by neighbors for their front yards) is quite picturesque (think old eroded driftwood).

 

[Kyle241]

Hey Kyle, do you have a progress report along with pics of the job site??

I'll try to take some pics today. I cut down almost all the trees and bucked-up the firewood. I then got side-tracked and started on my trail that cuts through a low area of my property and have been at that for the past couple weekends along with getting my garage ready for a concrete pad - nothing like doing multiple projects at once! All I have to do now is rent the chipper to get rid of all the brush and then hopefully I can get a good look at the stump situation.

 

[Mousefield]

Hi Kyle, thanks for keeping us updated. Will be interesting to see those pics.
Not a good day to take pics out our way, raining pretty hard.

 

[tractorshopper]

I hired this guy to remove brush and small or standing dead trees. Left the bigger live trees and all pines. He cleared about 1/2 acre in a day plus opened up a few new trails for me. Probably not the best if you want to til the area but perfect for me. It just pulverised everything he put it to.
I'd have to find the bill but under $3000 CDN for ten hours in my yard including transport.

Had my 7-1/2 acres cleared with a skid steer with this attachment almost 3 years ago. Took everything in it's path including large dead trees that needed to go. Ground everything into mulch at best and even tilled the ground somewhat. Seeded in Fescue and came up great where it used to be too tangled to even walk through. Didn't know what my property looked like 'til this came through. Really opened things up a lot. I was out of town, but the neighbors said this was done in 3 days.

My F-I-L had a friend that said he could help clear it. I was just asking to borrow a small tractor and bush hog for a day. This farmer/equipment dealer extraordinairre met me at my property to take a look at it with me. He said he'd just do it for me, so I asked if they could bush hog some of the flat areas back so I could see more of what I had bought. Less than an acre had been in pasture, the rest was mature woods with a tangled thicket of a mess. I had never heard of this attachment or anything like it. I was suprised to see they did the whole property including all the steep stuff.:thumbsup: Amazing! I've been using my lawn mower on it to keep it under control since. I really really need a tractor and bush hog.:licking:

 

[mx842]

These days all my clearing gets done by hand, the old fashion way. You can pull over a big tree with a good heavy truck with 4 wheel drive. I know, I know there are better ways but I don't have a decent size tractor or bulldozer anymore. I have been looking at tractors but holy cow they are high. They want more for a Ford 3000 diesel now than they cost brand new. At one time I had 4 of them but I let all of them go when I sold my landscape business. Now I wish I had kept one of them.

I don't get in a big hurry and the ground where I am is good to work with so that makes it a little easier. Sometimes the smaller trees are harder to pull over than the big ones and you have to do a little digging around the stump before they will come up and not break off. Once you get the tree on the ground you just cut the top up and leave the log about 20' and then pull it in the opposite direction until it breaks ground again just to be sure all the roots are pulled free then the hard part comes where you have to bang away as much dirt as you can get off the stump. This not only fills in the hole it came out of but it makes it lighter so that you can deal with it better. Once you get as much dirt off the root system as you can you can go ahead and cut the log off and once that is done you hopefully will be able to hook a chain to it and flip it out of the hole. Once it is out of the hole you have it made you just keep flipping it to get as much dirt off it as possible as you carry it to where your burn pile is.

You can usually get 3 or 4 big stumps pretty close together where you can throw the brush on then and get a good bed of coals built up then throw the larger knotted up wood and anything else you can find in the pile. I have a 3/4" cable that is about 60' long with looped ends that I run around the pile after it has been burning for awhile and with a large clevis through one of the looped ends and around the cable to make a choker and this pulls the stumps closer together as they burn and once you hit that magic spot the stumps will burn each other up without having to put too much more wood on them. Just add a little here and there where needed to keep the progress going and after about 2 days all you will have left is a bunch of hot coals that you can use to start the process all over again.

I save the smaller stumps, say the ones with the wood at the base of 10" or smaller for filling in gaps between the really big ones. Once the dirt is gone from them they are pretty easy to roll around by hand. I just pull them to the pile with the truck and then roll them up on top of the big ones to save on the amount of wood needed to burn the whole pile.

It's hard work but that's all I have ever done and it keeps me out of trouble.:laughing:. I wouldn't want to clear a hundred ac this way but I don't know how many ac I have cleaned up this way an like I said its a slow process but you would be surprised at how much land you can clean up with just a chain saw, a good log chain and an old pickup truck. Oh, and you'll need a good ax and a good sharp brush ax for cutting roots off the root ball.

 

[Kyle241]

Well finally I got round to taking pictures, sorry everyone. I've been too busy with work (travel) and pouring my garage floor plus the weather was nasty the last week or so.

Looking from the backyard to the left

From the backyard to the centre of the area (yes, that's my new Kubota in there)

From the backyard to the right of the area

I have a big chipper reserved for next week to rid myself of most of the brush that is remaining. Most of the trees removed are 'ironwood' or Hop Hornbeam which is great for heating so I have bunch of firewood for next year. The chipper can handle up to 8" so it should be handle the majority of this stuff. My biggest problem right now are all the stones around the area. Not really sure other than picking them up and placing them in the loader bucket how I'm going to move them. I could look at getting a rock bucket but would not need it for long.

 

[jake98]

Wow, I cant believe that someone honestly thought it would take more than a day to do a half an acre with 5 guys, especially with 5-6" trees.

You have to figure at least 3 to drink all the beer.. 1 to talk on the phone, it adds up..

 

[slomow]

I have to agree, the skid steer with mulcher attachment is the way to go. For the most part in california we are charging 1000-2500 per acre.

 

[scoutcub]

Kyle - Beautiful property!
We're in the same boat.....we need tractors with grapples....:thumbsup: