And the BEST longbows!
Reclaiming overgrown land
- Thread starter jk96
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And the BEST longbows!
Larry Caldwell
Super Member
I took the lazy man's path and just pastured pigs and goats. The pigs turned all the snails, mushrooms, acorns, etc. into meat, and the goats cleared all the twigs head high. The goats took some serious fence building, but for pigs all you need is an electric nose wire a few inches off the ground. The pigs tore apart any rotten logs looking for grubs and rooted up anything that was not buried over a few inches deep. They did a huge amount of work, and I sold the meat. For the first few weeks they even quit coming to their corn. All I could hear was the sound of acorns and snail shells crunching.
Soldier415
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2016
- Messages
- 693
- Location
- Vermont
- Tractor
- 2001 Kubota L3010GST. 2005 Kubota L3430HSTC
Great thread. Look forward to seeing how it turns out
Not much progress lately. We have had just enough rain to keep the ground too wet to work. We did get our first hard rain last night. From yesterday morning until now we have just over 2". It was enough to top the temp dam I built to check water flow through the valley. I'm hoping next week I can get started again.
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Gary Fowler
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2008
- Messages
- 11,998
- Location
- Bismarck Arkansas
- Tractor
- 2009 Kubota RTV 900, 2009 Kubota B26 TLB & 2010 model LS P7010
With the steep sides of that ravine, you will need a massive dam in order to back up enough water to be significant. Nothing beats a nice pond or long lake for relaxation though so it will be worth the effort. You may want to consult with your county extension service about damming that ravine prior to doing it AND to maybe get some advice on how large the dam needs to be to hold back the several feet of water that you will need in order to have something more than a narrow creek.
I had one of the most reputable pond builders in the area come out last week and take a look. Basically said it was one of the most ideal locations he's seen in the area the way the land lays and how the ravine fingers out in a few different directions. We can do a fishing pond for $20k or a recreation lake with a massive dam that would approach 6 figures. After the land is cleared enough to get a better visual he said he would come out and survey and place some markers to give us an idea of the shoreline if doing something on the larger side of the scale. My instinct is to hold off for 2-3 years on the doing anything. I've got a new business venture in the works. If things pan out the way we think it will I could hopefully afford to do something bigger than a fishing pond a few years down the road.
tractorshopper
Veteran Member
Awesome. I love these types of threads. This is my favorite tractoring. Creating your own view and using your property how you like.
deezler
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2012
- Messages
- 3,889
- Location
- Southeast MI
- Tractor
- Cub Cadet 7305, Kioti CK3510seh TLB
Nice. With how quickly you made a 5' dam, why not build it up yourself? Just a little logging and more dirt work and you'll already have that fishing pond!
By the way, sorry to snoop your flicker, but this flag you made is beautiful. How did you cut the stars, hand chisel?
Flag5 by Jeremy Kovac, on Flickr
By the way, sorry to snoop your flicker, but this flag you made is beautiful. How did you cut the stars, hand chisel?
Flag5 by Jeremy Kovac, on FlickrHi Deezler. I think it would probably be a waste without some bigger equipment to work the dam correctly and dig down enough to get a good mix of clay so it would hold. Not much progress to report lately. I've got about 3 weeks worth of heavy work ahead of me before I can find some more time to play.
Thanks for the compliments on the flag. The stars were done with hammer and wood chisel. Here's a pic of the 2nd one I made. It's a bit smaller than the one you linked to.
Flag4
Thanks for the compliments on the flag. The stars were done with hammer and wood chisel. Here's a pic of the 2nd one I made. It's a bit smaller than the one you linked to.
Flag4
deezler
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2012
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- 3,889
- Location
- Southeast MI
- Tractor
- Cub Cadet 7305, Kioti CK3510seh TLB
Very nice. How many hours do you have into each of those? Could easily sell for $500 a pop.
I would guess about 6-8 hours. Boards are oak from an old post and beam barn. My concrete contractor when building the house had the barn on his property and told me to take what I wanted before he torched it. Most was rotted away but I was able to salvage some nice beams and some heart pine. If I can find a pic Ill post the coffee table we had made from it. Just beautiful wood.
Right now Im starting on one more flag. Going to surprise the owner of the old barn with it as a thank you and a piece of history he can pass on.
This thread came to an quick halt last year when work took over and hasn't let up since. I'm finally getting ready to start cleaning things up around here again. I've been looking for a track loader and finally found the unit I was looking for with the options I wanted, Case TR340. Number one option was high flow hydraulics. There are a lot of used ones on the market but very few with the high flow option which I wanted for running a heavy duty brush cutter. I found this one used about 4 hours from me and picked up last week. It's a 2016 model with 1,100 hours but seems to have had a pretty easy life so far. It also has a factory warranty on the machine until November of 2019 and all emissions related items until 2021 which takes some of the worry out of purchasing used. Just ordered the brush cutter today. Unfortunately it looks like about 3 weeks until they can get it built and delivered. I'll start updated pics and progress again once I get the cutter in and get started.
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nybirdman
Super Member
Nice machine and the proper tool for the job.I fought the brush for ten years with tractors and finally hired a SS with a FECON head.Best money I ever spent.Now we can maintain with the tractors.
Redlands Okie
Veteran Member
Nice looking equipment, have fun 
lt190b
Gold Member
This thread came to an quick halt last year when work took over and hasn't let up since. I'm finally getting ready to start cleaning things up around here again. I've been looking for a track loader and finally found the unit I was looking for with the options I wanted, Case TR340. Number one option was high flow hydraulics. There are a lot of used ones on the market but very few with the high flow option which I wanted for running a heavy duty brush cutter. I found this one used about 4 hours from me and picked up last week. It's a 2016 model with 1,100 hours but seems to have had a pretty easy life so far. It also has a factory warranty on the machine until November of 2019 and all emissions related items until 2021 which takes some of the worry out of purchasing used. Just ordered the brush cutter today. Unfortunately it looks like about 3 weeks until they can get it built and delivered. I'll start updated pics and progress again once I get the cutter in and get started.
What cutter did you order?
After a lot of looking and pricing I finally took my dealers recommendation and ordered a CID. It's the 78" Extreme high flow model and added the optional mulching teeth to the blade carrier disk. It's rated for 7" material. Most of what I plan to cut would be 5" tops. Anything larger I would most likely turn into firewood.
After the time spent last year clearing with my tractor I came to the conclusion that I was going to end up tearing up a very nice CUT trying to clear with it and my brushhog. So far I've only been able to get in about 2 hours of seat time on the CTL but I'm finding that I really like the ISO controls. You can switch between H pattern or ISO. I have a small amount of time with H pattern controls on a rental unit however the ISO controls are really nice. Left hand controls the movement of the machine and right hand is the loader control which is exactly the same as my Case tractor. The power is a amazing as well. It has an operating capacity of 3,400 lbs (50% of tip) so I was able to move some 1,500 lb pallets of stone my tractor was struggling with like they were empty pallets.
Still waiting on my cutter to arrive however I picked up a grapple for the loader and spent a little time cleaning up on of the tree lines near the house. There is no comparison in the power of the loader vs my tractor. I've found that I can push over 6" trees and pull them out of the ground roots and all easily with the grapple. 8" trees take a little more work breaking roots before pushing them over and pulling from the ground. Here's a few pics of the grapple and before/after of the first tree line I started working on.
Tree line before clearing. It was overgrown to the point that it was hard to walk through.
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Pics of new grapple
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Tree line after clearing
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Tree line before clearing. It was overgrown to the point that it was hard to walk through.
2018-09-21_10-58-11 Pics of new grapple
2018-09-21_10-56-49 2018-09-21_10-57-12 Tree line after clearing
2018-09-21_10-56-36 2018-09-21_10-56-20
oosik
Epic Contributor
I just realized something - this homestead has been in our family now for 80 years. I've lived on it for 36+ years. There is no such thing as overgrown property around here. All I have is field grass and Ponderosa pines. Field grass is always the same height and thickness and the big pines eventually die, fall down and rot away. No vines, no berries with their nasty thorns, no poison oak, ivy or sumac - nothing with big thorns. Just tan, dead grass - right now - and huge tall trees.
View attachment 572068 The view off the front porch - across the little lake and on to my property beyond.
View attachment 572068 The view off the front porch - across the little lake and on to my property beyond.
Nice looking property. Ours is full of bush honeysuckle which is an invasive plant. Also a lot of thorn plants, vines, etc. It thick to the point that a lot of areas are difficult to walk through. It going to take a lot of work getting it back in shape.
