The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Hay Dude]

Never a dull moment!

Seems that way. Feels like you show up for work and something always needs fixed. If there’s one thing I wish I could have, it would be more reliability in the equipment.
Don’t get me started on labor/help. We need more rednecks and high school grads who just want to work.

Do you get any time off for Christmas?
Good Luck!

Yes. I decided to take the next week-10 days and focus on my family and try to give thanks and be grateful. This is an important time of the year. The birth of Christ.

Thanks for the kind note. Good luck to you as well.

 

[Hay Dude]

Next project is a week of log chipping and log removal.
Probably looking at starting in early January once the holidays have passed.
In the meantime, minor repairs & upgrades at the shop, cleaning & repairing the baler, etc.

 

[sixdogs]

Not sure about others but I never had more good times than fixing equipment and things related to it. Maybe not all giggles when I'm stuck or things go wrong but it's hard to replace the feeling of a job well done, that you did yourself and are now finished.

Probably the best times were around the holidays when I wrapped something up in the barn, maybe a little late and went inside to warmth and Christmas and smiles and all the things that go with it. A hot wood stove made it even better and a blizzard outside is as good as it gets.

 

[Dryland Farmer]

I agree that fixing things can be enjoyable when I have a lot of time to do it but when it has to work today it kind of takes the fun out of it.

 

[Hay Dude]

I agree that fixing things can be enjoyable when I have a lot of time to do it but when it has to work today it kind of takes the fun out of it.

Or laying on your back in a field with ants, or my dirt floor shop thats colder than a ice cube.
I don’t want to come back reincarnated as a billionaire…..nope….I just want a luxury shop with a heated concrete floor, and please….make it 200 x 100.

 

[RayIN]

Back to clearing the fence…..
I got all the brush & saplings cut down & pulled away.
Today, I used the CX-15 to grind it all up. Worked great.

View attachment 1947246

Didn’t have to rent a chipper (Lord knows I need to buy one really BAD)

Below, here’s what it looked like after a slow steady pass.

View attachment 1947247

Below: Looking the other way. Lots more done.

View attachment 1947248

I left anything over 3” diameter in piles. Picked them up and put them in loader bucket. Dumped in woods. I’m damn near done!

Trying to figure out a way to rake up the chippings. They’re too heavy for the grass.
Did I mention I need a 9’ wide york rake?


And a chipper? And a skid loader? And a 4th tractor? And a tandem axle hay truck?

Around me the local landowners got a real deal from the utility company(REMC). REMC hired a tree-trimming company to clear the right-0f-way under power lines. They clear-cut the fence-rows, all that remains is nearly rotted fence posts and old wire.
Yes it cost a lot more than spraying. I think this was a knee-jerk reaction to complaints about past spraying.

 

[Hay Dude]

Around me the local landowners got a real deal from the utility company(REMC). REMC hired a tree-trimming company to clear the right-0f-way under power lines. They clear-cut the fence-rows, all that remains is nearly rotted fence posts and old wire.
Yes it cost a lot more than spraying. I think this was a knee-jerk reaction to complaints about past spraying.

Spraying is definitely attracting more attention since Roundup got negative press.

 

[two_bit_score]

Around me the local landowners got a real deal from the utility company(REMC). REMC hired a tree-trimming company to clear the right-0f-way under power lines. They clear-cut the fence-rows, all that remains is nearly rotted fence posts and old wire.
Yes it cost a lot more than spraying. I think this was a knee-jerk reaction to complaints about past spraying.

Maybe it will give property owners a change to get those fences repaired and back in shape.

 

[RayIN]

Maybe it will give property owners a change to get those fences repaired and back in shape.

I learned from my dad, don't allow fence rows to get overgrown, cut all tree sprouts ASAP. It slowly destroys the fence; and NEVER nail fencing to a tree. If a large tree is in the proposed fence-row use 2 construction nails to fasten a 2x4 to the tree, then attach the fencing to the 2x4.
Then, as the tree grows it pushes the 2x4 away instead of growing around the fencingThe double-headed construction nails allow them to be pulled anytime it's needed.

 

[Hay Dude]

I learned from my dad, don't allow fence rows to get overgrown, cut all tree sprouts ASAP. It slowly destroys the fence; and NEVER nail fencing to a tree. If a large tree is in the proposed fence-row use 2 construction nails to fasten a 2x4 to the tree, then attach the fencing to the 2x4.
Then, as the tree grows it pushes the 2x4 away instead of growing around the fencingThe double-headed construction nails allow them to be pulled anytime it's needed.

I need you to stop out and tell the property owners around here. My requests to them are ignored.
I have cut 3” diameter saplings tangled in fence lines more times than I care to remember.

 

[two_bit_score]

I learned from my dad, don't allow fence rows to get overgrown, cut all tree sprouts ASAP. It slowly destroys the fence; and NEVER nail fencing to a tree. If a large tree is in the proposed fence-row use 2 construction nails to fasten a 2x4 to the tree, then attach the fencing to the 2x4.
Then, as the tree grows it pushes the 2x4 away instead of growing around the fencingThe double-headed construction nails allow them to be pulled anytime it's needed.

That is an excellent recommendation. A lot of us could probably benefit from doing that.

 

[Hay Dude]

Sometimes I don’t know if I should just let my property owners keep going the way they are? Theres good money in clearing them!

 

[RayIN]

Sad that trespassers are always a problem all over the country.

Many years ago a farming family had trouble with a kid riding his dirt bike in their newly-planted fields. Jerry, one of the of the sons(about my age) went and talked to the kids father 2x but it did no good.
The next time the kid rode in one of their fields Jerry again went to the fathers house, this time he drove his big John Deere tractor over with the 3-bottom plows attached.
The father told Jerry his son could ride wherever he wanted and no one could stop him.
Jerry said, then I can farm wherever I want, got on his tractor, lowered the plows and drove across the fathers neatly-groomed front yard.
The kid never rode in Jerry's fields again.

 

[two_bit_score]

Sometimes I don’t know if I should just let my property owners keep going the way they are? Theres good money in clearing them!

Just offer them a regular maintence schedule.

 

[LHF2019]

NEVER nail fencing to a tree.

What's wrong with the tree growing in to the fence? That's how it has been here and what I can only imaging has been 100 years +- I can find the boundary of the property by the wire still hanging out of the trees.

Many years ago a farming family had trouble with a kid riding his dirt bike in their newly-planted fields. Jerry, one of the of the sons(about my age) went and talked to the kids father 2x but it did no good.
The next time the kid rode in one of their fields Jerry again went to the fathers house, this time he drove his big John Deere tractor over with the 3-bottom plows attached.
The father told Jerry his son could ride wherever he wanted and no one could stop him.
Jerry said, then I can farm wherever I want, got on his tractor, lowered the plows and drove across the fathers neatly-groomed front yard.
The kid never rode in Jerry's fields again.

My wife and I discuss this issue when customers drive in her yard when picking up hay especially when it's wet. How would they like it if we drove in their yard when it's wet. The example above is extreme and awesome.

 

[Hay Dude]

Just offer them a regular maintence schedule.

I can’t. That would make too much sense. lol

 

[RayIN]

What's wrong with the tree growing in to the fence? That's how it has been here and what I can only imaging has been 100 years +- I can find the boundary of the property by the wire still hanging out of the trees.


My wife and I discuss this issue when customers drive in her yard when picking up hay especially when it's wet. How would they like it if we drove in their yard when it's wet. The example above is extreme and awesome.

There are few reasons for not nailing wire fencing to a tree.
This accelerates rusting, which weakens the wire until it fails.
It is not good stewardship of your land, it makes the tree useless for making laminate or slabbing.
Most loggers will not harvest this tree.
Last but not least- I hate rebuilding fences.

 

[LHF2019]

This accelerates rusting, which weakens the wire until it fails.

I've never seen it fail next to a tree any sooner than at a fence post. Maybe different areas have different results

It is not good stewardship of your land, it makes the tree useless for making laminate or slabbing.
Most loggers will not harvest this tree.

Going back to my main point I see this as a good thing. Presents permanent boundaries. They are boundary trees and should not be cut in the first place.

Last but not least- I hate rebuilding fences.

It's interesting how things are are different else where. Nobody is wrong, just different methods. I could show you hundreds of trees with wire sticking out here on the farm from fences current to who knows when they were last used. 1920-1940's??

 

[LouNY]

There are few reasons for not nailing wire fencing to a tree.
This accelerates rusting, which weakens the wire until it fails.
It is not good stewardship of your land, it makes the tree useless for making laminate or slabbing.
Most loggers will not harvest this tree.
Last but not least- I hate rebuilding fences.

It's been done for decades may not be the "best" way to go, but it works. Most of those trees are in the stone wall that was likely the original bounds of the property. Also I have never see a fence line hedgerow tree that was anywheres close to being a laminate log candidate. To many knots and limbs. The wire seeded to last just as long in those trees as in the driven fence posts. That said we have switched to using 2xs on trees since we seldom run barbed wire fences now days they are all high tensile fences with the capability of being electrified and are so. Stapled to a tree it wouldn't work very well. Also when a limb or tree falls on a high tensile fence it often does not break the wire but just pulls and stretches it, when the tree or limb is removed a couple of clicks on the line ratchets will snug the fence right back up.

 

[EddieWalker]

When I got my horse, I underestimated how hungry they were, and how quickly they would eat everything in the pasture that I had fenced in for them. My solution was to build a "quick" electric fence around an open area with a lot more grass for them to eat.

Half of the fence was attached to trees. This turned out to be a huge mistake. I had no idea that trees hate fences, and that they intentionally drop branches on the fence. I think it's a game for the trees. They aim for the fence, and whichever treed takes out the most fence, it wins!!!!!