Advice on clearing two acres (video inside)

[zionview]

Much as you described a little of each left for me clean up. I would have preferred to hire a couple of men to come in and chainsaw it down and get the stumps out but I'm sure you know not that many young men want to work that hard. For me I think it was my only option as I'm unable to do much work physically.

Thanks for the reply. Not many young men in our area who want to work, either. The ones who do are always busy.

 

[texansfan]

Update.


Got three quotes.

1. Just knock everything down and leave where is, 1 day and $1500

2. Same as 1 but also push into burn piles then burn and bury in corner of property. 2 days and $2,200

3. Same as 2 but it will take 3-4 days and costs $3,500

All three quotes were from different companies.

I'm going to make myself and option 4 which is buy a $150 Stihl 170 and spend two full days Sun up to Sun down chopping these trees down then raking the remnants into burn piles myself.
Most of these trees are 3 to 6 inches in diameter so it should not take too long to bring them down.
Hard part will be raking all this stuff into piles.

Yes I will have stumps but I can deal with those later.
The stumps will be so small should be easy for me to burn them individually.

Thoughts?

 

[blueriver]

Option 2 ... Then it's done stumps and all

 

[zionview]

Update.


Got three quotes.

1. Just knock everything down and leave where is, 1 day and $1500

2. Same as 1 but also push into burn piles then burn and bury in corner of property. 2 days and $2,200

3. Same as 2 but it will take 3-4 days and costs $3,500

All three quotes were from different companies.

I'm going to make myself and option 4 which is buy a $150 Stihl 170 and spend two full days Sun up to Sun down chopping these trees down then raking the remnants into burn piles myself.
Most of these trees are 3 to 6 inches in diameter so it should not take too long to bring them down.
Hard part will be raking all this stuff into piles.

Yes I will have stumps but I can deal with those later.
The stumps will be so small should be easy for me to burn them individually.

Thoughts?

Is there any place you could rent a backhoe or skid steer for a day or so to help out? You're kind of racing the clock, with a load of seedlings coming.

 

[rustyshakelford]

Where is your place at? Those prices are high

Brett

 

[rustyshakelford]

Just looked at Harrison county. That's to far from me. I could rent a Dozer for a week and still be cheaper than your $1500 quote and be done in a day or spend two and get it piled and burned. Those prices are high. Don't look for a business. Find a guy that does Dozer work. Drive around and look for a place getting cleared. A lot of great operators aren't on the internet and get business word of mouth. Pound the pavement.

Brett

 

[texansfan]

Is there any place you could rent a backhoe or skid steer for a day or so to help out? You're kind of racing the clock, with a load of seedlings coming.

Yeah as in the original post I could rent a SVL90 skid steer with mulching attachment for $3,000 for a week and try my hand at things.

I honestly think I can just go through here in a 10hrs day with a Stihl and at least have all of the trees down.
We are only talking about maybe a couple hundred trees that most arent more than 4 inches wide and anything over 6 inches I am leaving standing (and not many of those are in this 2 acre area)

most of my time will be spent sawing the trees into more manageable chunks and pushing these chunks into burn piles

also, the many vine bushes I have will slow me down too
i can't use a chainsaw on those and they catch on my pants legs and sleeves which slow me down
it looks like this in areas: http://www.biomimicron.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/brambles-yet-to-be-cleared-23april09.jpg
but not that thick/dense

and the close up of those vines can look like this: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/namegal/msg051625119737.jpg

 

[texansfan]

Just looked at Harrison county. That's to far from me. I could rent a Dozer for a week and still be cheaper than your $1500 quote and be done in a day or spend two and get it piled and burned. Those prices are high. Don't look for a business. Find a guy that does Dozer work. Drive around and look for a place getting cleared. A lot of great operators aren't on the internet and get business word of mouth. Pound the pavement.

Brett

Funny thing is my neighbor gave the name of a guy.
I called him he said this work is too small for him.
So he gave me the names of three other guys that do this type of small work.
Dozer guys.
It was these 3 dozer guys that gave me these prices.
I've never driven a dozer before but looking at the land and what needs to be done I"m sure I could do all of this work in one day given the equipment doesn't break down on me or it doesn't rain.

I'm about to do it by hand in a day (or two) so I know a dozer can do it in a single day
I've seen youtube videos of lil dozers pushing over lil trees like mine in about 5-10 seconds
maybe i have a few hundred trees that need to be pushed over
few hours of work maybe?
then spend the rest of the time just pushing all these downed trees into a pile int he corner of these two acres

am i underestimating this job too much?
I'm not looking for pasture land
just knock down all trees and leave no stubs
you can leave a hole/divit where the tree was just fine

 

[rustyshakelford]

If I was in a better spot I'd rent one and show you how to run it at my place near Montgomery. I hate to see a guy get screwed over. You could rent a mini ex with a thumb. They are easy to pick up and would be better than a saw. Mulcher would be a terrible idea for someone to try and wing.

Brett

 

[texansfan]

If I was in a better spot I'd rent one and show you how to run it at my place near Montgomery. I hate to see a guy get screwed over. You could rent a mini ex with a thumb. They are easy to pick up and would be better than a saw. Mulcher would be a terrible idea for someone to try and wing.

Brett

Sunbelt wants $1,500 to rent a Case 650 for a week. (or $395 per day plus tax, plus insurance, plus delivery)

Delivery ($120 each way), taxes and insurances. The whole kit and kaboodle.
I will try to find a young guy with nothing else to do since it is around Christmas and offer $1,000 for the day and hope he takes it.
I'm not trying to lowball but I know bigger outifts have bigger overhead (insurances, taxes, etc) as they have much more machinery (and employees) sitting around.
But a young guy with a used dozer sittin on the side of his house might want to make some nice "weekend money" for a day's work on a Thursday.