Clearing Alders

[Lloyd_E]

With the warm weather here I decided to start clearing 1.5 acres of alders to gain pasture. The pasture is water logged but passable. Will have to deal with ruts in late spring. This is the route I travel to the compost pile too.

The wettest area has the tractor up to its axles but in medium range 1st gear, and 4x4 it drives through without hesitation.

I am 90% finished the cutting, clearing and chipping. I can only work for severals hours a day - this is about a two week project.

Can't wait for spring - I will rake remaining small branches into piles and take out all the roots and add to burn piles. I will level the area and go over with box blade and teeth to take out any rocks.

Lloyd

 

[Egon]

Nice pictures Lloyd but when you gona get down to some real work and get everything dirty?

 

[ToadHill]

It wight serve you well to use those piles of chips to help fill in the road ruts.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Egon,

I missed the opportunity to show the tractor dirty... 45 minutes with a hose and it's clean -
for at least one day.

Toadhill, I am hoping to sell the chips as mulch nest year. I have at least another 3-4 acres to clear. I estimate 2-4 buckets loads for the 1.5 acres.

Lloyd

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Them alders are sucking up a lot of ground water for you. Are you going to bring in gravel fill for a road? You could find the low spot and make yourself a nice little pond. The chips would rot and decompose if you used them as fill material. Nice job so far though.

 

[Egon]

45 minutes with a hose and it's clean

For Shame!

 

[Lloyd_E]

Tree,

Normally this area is dry but we had 18" of snow and more rain plus 45-55F weather.
Once the alders are gone I am hoping this area will dry out. There is another (4 acres) pasture to the right of this section and it is fairly dry.

About 800' back through the alders is the low area and it is mostly marsh. I will probably dig a few drainage ditches in the spring to direct flow and yes a pond may be in the works too.

We are expecting more rain/snow in the next few days....

20+ years ago this was all pasture...

 

[Treemonkey1000]

That much snow would explain the current soggy state. Then thawing the ground out a bit doesn't help. A drainage ditch isn't a bad idea at all. I think Eddie Walker and a couple of others on this forum have plenty of pond experience. Hey I would wash up the tractor afterwards as well. Take care of that investment!

 

[LBrown59]

Attached Thumbnails

Yer makin a mess.

 

[Scooby074]

Crazy mild weather we been having in NS lately! Nice looking place there.