Clearing Recently Purchased Land

[walker450]

Thanks for all of the kind comments folks!

I have a decent sized dirt pile that I made with the dozer that had lots of roots and sticks in it. It has sit for nearly two years now and just had weeds growing in it. I got two 3'x4'x8' big square bales from my friend and mixed them into the soil. My goal is to enrich this soil and use it for a garden next spring. I added a 40lb bag of nitrogen fertilizer while I was mixing it. I am not sure how much this will help but I had it sitting around anyways. I plan on adding more hay, leaves, and cow/horse manure and mixing it all in. Hopefully it composts nicely.

The little BX performed great, even without an implement on the back for weight. The bar you see hanging off the 3-point is a front bumper I built that I use when brush-hogging without the FEL on. It weights approximately 50 lbs (better than nothing!).

I made a time-lapse and included some video too.

 

[walker450]

 

[walker450]

My driveway crosses a creek. The culvert couldn't keep up when we had flash flooding earlier in the spring and ran over the road, cause the bank to fall away. I made a ramp down into the creek and started hauling the dirt back up to where it belonged. This was a fun project but I had to be extra careful and I sure to wear my seat belt. I still have some more shaping to do but at least now it isn't a straight drop off near the driveway.

 

[Xfaxman]

:thumbsup:

 

[EddieWalker]

Good looking job. Are you going to top it with gravel?

 

[walker450]

My plan is to put a thick layer of old hay on it for the winter. Hopefully I can get Bermuda to take hold next spring and then let it go natural. I know I'll lose some soil erosion. I only plan on hitting it a few times a season with the brush cutter just to keep trees and big bushes from growing up.

I am debating on cutting down the two trees at the edge of the dirt work in the pictures. They are both oaks with Canker (Texas A&M Forest Service). From what I read, once this gets on the trunks, the trees are going to die sooner or later. And of course, it's on the trunks really bad. If I take these trees out I'm going to lesson the entire slope.

I got rained out two days ago so I had to quit and leave it the way it is.

 

[dalroo]

I'm just getting caught up on your post. Great stuff by the way. I'm an Okie, and OSU grad living in Texas. We looked at several places in Oklahoma and couldn't find the right piece of property for us. We wanted to be SE and everytime we found something we liked, it had either already sold, or had some issue that was unappealing. By chance I was the other direction, in central Texas, on business and found exactly what we were seeking. Not real big, but good water, lots of projects, and lots of wildlife.

We're clearing as we go, but not cedar, mesquite. Ugh! I learned the hard way that you can't cut or mow mesquite without creating more problems. Even small mesquite trees require killing the root system or they will come back with a vengeance as bushes. I now use Remedy/diesel mix and spray an area, the go back a few weeks later and chop the dead tree off at ground level. It kills to the root, but with the tap roots going several feet into the ground, it will take time and lots of work to get them all out.

Again, great info and progress reports here - thanks for sharing.