As bored as me? Let's have a little fun. How would you tackle this scenario???

[Ken45101]

If you just want seat time, do as you please. BTDT. I did a lot of preliminary clearing so that we could plan the homesite but the contractor's bulldozer and excavator did it a lot more efficiently, including getting the stumps out and burying them.

Ken

 

[brin]

Looking at your pictures, you have very few large trees..If I were you I would consider hiring a Mulcher and mark off the areas you want ground down and let him bring his machines in a do the deed...you will be left with some nice wood chips..no clean up and you are done...Right here on TBN there are members who could do the job for you.

 

[JRobyn]

Having recently done exactly this, it is my opinion that LeadPoison has it all mostly right. Only three things I might add:

1) where the house slab/foundation is going to go, hire a good bulldozer guy to push the trees over. This takes out almost everything of the root ball so that there are not long-term settlement issues as root balls gradually decay. Although you may be able to do this yourself with the big backhoe, a guy with an appropriately-sized dozer can do it so much faster and with no wear an tear on your equipment. The guy that did ours cleared the home site, yard, septic field, and back driveway about 100 yds long, and pushed it all up in a very tight/neat burn pile in a little over one day.

2) Assuming that you will need septic, make sure you identify and clear a sufficient area for the drain field and that there is sufficient "perkable" soil! We had to alter our preferred house location a good bit to have it near a suitable area for the septic field. And had to hire local soil scientists to confirm all that before the county would grant a septic permit.

3) If you are out in the middle of nowhere like we are, determine a suitable position where you can get line-of-sight from a satelite dish to the satelite, and clear any trees that are in the way!

 

[Piston]

awghvdgas

Good plan! :laughing:

but do you have any wood there that would be appealing to a saw mill

I didn't mention that I do have a portable sawmill and intend to keep any of the Pines that are 'millable' size (10" or more for me). I will put them off to the side in a log pile in 16' lengths for my mill. Any of the hardwoods over 4" I will pile for firewood.

LeadPoison,
I like your plan, sounds like a good one. :thumbsup:


schmism,
That is a very well thought out plan and I like the idea of dropping the trees whole, and not leaving the stump.

Looking at your pictures, you have very few large trees..If I were you I would consider hiring a Mulcher and mark off the areas you want ground down and let him bring his machines in a do the deed...you will be left with some nice wood chips..no clean up and you are done...Right here on TBN there are members who could do the job for you.

This is an excellent idea. Anyone reading this do mulching in or near Central NH?

I was thinking of a mulcher last time I was up there, but it seemed to me like there wasn't too much brush that a mulcher would be able to keep busy on. I don't mean it couldn't handle it, but it wouldn't be able to mulch the larger trees, and I think they would probably get all the mulching I need done in an hour or two, so I dont know if it would be worth their time?

1) where the house slab/foundation is going to go, hire a good bulldozer guy to push the trees over. This takes out almost everything of the root ball so that there are not long-term settlement issues as root balls gradually decay. Although you may be able to do this yourself with the big backhoe, a guy with an appropriately-sized dozer can do it so much faster and with no wear an tear on your equipment. The guy that did ours cleared the home site, yard, septic field, and back driveway about 100 yds long, and pushed it all up in a very tight/neat burn pile in a little over one day.

2) Assuming that you will need septic, make sure you identify and clear a sufficient area for the drain field and that there is sufficient "perkable" soil! We had to alter our preferred house location a good bit to have it near a suitable area for the septic field. And had to hire local soil scientists to confirm all that before the county would grant a septic permit.

3) If you are out in the middle of nowhere like we are, determine a suitable position where you can get line-of-sight from a satelite dish to the satelite, and clear any trees that are in the way!

:thumbsup: Great advice.

 

[Piston]

Here is the plan I'm thinking of, but I welcome any and all advice and it's interesting to hear how you guys would do the job.

This is where I'm at so far,

I have had a thorough survey of the 2 acre area that shows contours every 5'. The surveyor has marked out the proposed driveway (although that is just based on where I told him I wanted it in general) and he drew in a proposed house site, with septic and well on the survey.

My general plan is to go into the woods with ribbon and tape (based on your rec recommendations) and mark all the dying, diseased, deformed, and heavy leaning trees to take out. I'll also take out as much brush as possible. Once I get a decent opening, I'll step back and look at the trees again, deciding which ones to keep.

Once I have that down, I'll go in with the backhoe and tractor, and knock the trees over with the backhoe, uprooting them in the process. There aren't any trees on the lot that I won't be able to knock over fairly easy with the hoe. Any really large trees I will leave, as they aren't in the nearby building area.

After dropping the tree I'll drag it to a 'landing' once we make one, then cut off the stump and limb the tree, cut it into 16' if it's usable (or shorter if needed) and move the sawlog to the log pile, then move the stump to the stump pile and rake up the brush with the grapple into a burn pile. I'll also pile the tops for burning.

Anyone else have other ideas on how they would personally tackle the situation?

Question about the burn pile, would you dig a large diameter pit, like say 2 or 3 feet deep, and pile the brush in there to burn? Or would you just pile it on top of the grade? I was thinking if it was a dug pit, maybe the brush would burn better since the 'walls' could reflect the heat back in, don't know if that is nonsense or not?

 

[LeadPoison]

Just burn the debris. Don't worry about a pit. You will have to push or throw the outside limbs and debris back over in to the fire though.

 

[Mark Page]

Trash the pines. If you have to drop any hardwoods they might be good for boards. Push the woods back so that your house gets some sunlight.
Buck the trees you drop into 8 foot lenghts and stack with graple for later use. Get a dozer in to smooth drive way so you can smooth stone later. Have dozer pull stumps and place in the woods. Allow more room around your house than you think you'll need. This is gonna' be a big job. Can you burn the slash?

 

[Piston]

Yes I can burn, as long as it isn't too dry out but that isn't typically a problem this time of year :laughing:

I want to add another question to this thread (you just made me think of it)

Hypothetically speaking If I could get one more attachment for my tractor to assist in what I'm doing, what do you think the most useful attachment would be?

I was originally thinking a used hydro feed chipper, but now I'm not so sure?

 

[LeadPoison]

You have electricity out there yet? A PTO generator might be a good investment for power outages and electrical during the build process if you need it.

 

[schmism]

Hypothetically speaking If I could get one more attachment for my tractor to assist in what I'm doing, what do you think the most useful attachment would be?

3pt tiller. Good for gradeing, makeing gardens and planting grass.

pallet forks for the hoe or the tractor. Its nice to be able to move pallets of construction materials around.

3pt wood spliter to split up the wood you drop for your fireplace