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.

 

[jsborn]

Nice looking project . What Brand Chipper do you have and would you recommend it ? I am trying to decide on burning or chipping . I would rather chip but as with GM and Ford I haven't gotten my bailout and may have to just burn.
By the way my Grand kids would love to come help you if they could play in the mud too.

 

[Oldtrout]

Nice loking set up Lloyd, your chipper looks just like mine, they sure will eat a lot of brush,I fed mine a few 8 hour days and it was still hungry. I probably put 100 hours on the chipper this past season,other than the odd time the chute plugged, no problem. I have been dumping my chips in the compost pile,along with loam and seaweed I can't find anyone that will buy them , however we use the compost in our landscaping business,however would like to find a market for the chips. Any ideas?
How is the Kioti working out for you? My CK25 has done everything that we threw at it and no problems,but would love a cab especially after the last snow storm however during the summer I have to lower the roll bar to work under trees etc. I really can't justify the cost of larger tractor at this time,however if we have another good year I may have to take another drive to Kentville and make Mike smile. But in this economy I am a bit gun shy,I had a few customers cancel because of high Canadian dollar this past summer,oh well.
Well have to go put hoe on a guy just called wants an hours work done,probably turn into 8 hours...but I bill by the hour

Have a great day everyone....

Wayne

 

[Lloyd_E]

JS/OldTrout,

The chipper is wallenstein 42. I works great - glogs a bit but I think it is on my end.
We are limited to seasonal fires. I opted for the chipper it will keep me busy for a while plus potential business. I always look at cost recovery some how.

We worked out a few bugs with he kioti at first, but it is an amazing machine. I tend to baby it - it needs to last me a long time.

Re: chips I will be starting to do farm markets in the spring, so the plan is to sell compost and chips/mulch by the feed bag. It uses feed bags plus will bring in some cash. I will also advertise if they want larger loads I can fill their pick-up or trailer. I also have lots of landscape co. in my area so I am hoping to sell to them. You may want to up the anti by selling it as 'organic'.

Lloyd

 

[Treemonkey1000]

When I do a lot of chipping I try to separate the chips that are from evergreens into one pile. The fir and pine needles are a bit acidic for most garden plants. Roses and Rhodies like a higher acid content. Then the hardwoods and leaf tree chips I keep in a separate pile. The folks with horses like those kinds of chips for where the horses mush it up a lot. Some horses aren't very bright and will eat the chips with needles in them which gives them a bad stomach or gas I guess Hard to tell when them horses have more gas than normal though..
I have a little Vermeer 6" chipper with a 25 horse Gas engine. Would be nice to step up to the 9" which wouldn't clog as much on big branches with lot's of fluffy needles on them.