I moved some brush this morning using my neighbor’s UTV (utility task vehicles), also known as a SxS (side-by-side). He has repeatedly offered the use of this thing but I resisted. I don’t much like borrowing tools and I felt like I needed the exercise I get from dragging brush up and down our hill. But was pretty hot this morning and the hill gets steeper every time I climb it so I borrowed his UTV. I didn’t have all that much brush and I wasn’t moving it that far. I can see why people are fond of these things.
Tag Archives: brush pile
Chipper goes to the woods
Having determined how big a branch the new chipper can (and cannot) chew up, we’re ready to roll the chipper down the hill to start chipping. It took about 45 minutes to cut and stack these cedar trees but it would have taken much longer to drag them up or down the hill. This will be the first real-world test for the chipper.
I purchased a chipper shredder
My first brush with brush dates back to 2015 and I’ve cut and hauled (or had hauled) a lot of it since then. I’m constantly asked, “Why don’t you burn it?” Can you say forest fire? No thanks. There’s lots of video here of crews from Korte Tree Service chipping up my brush piles and while I knew they made small chippers for home use, I just never made the leap.
According to a whole bunch of YouTube videos, this one can chip branches up to 3 inches in diameter. That would take care of about 80% of my scrub cedar trees. The manual said run the engine for 3 hours to “break it in” and following that we shredded some hydrangea clippings.
The chipper is damned heavy but it rolls pretty easily so my plan is to take it down into the woods a way, closer to where I’ll be cutting, and chip those rascals up on-site. No more dragging up the hill, stacking, loading into the pickup and hauling off to a friends property who burns them for me.
Before taking the chipper into the woods, I ran a couple of scrub cedar trees through to see if it could eat a 3 inch tree. I’d say 2.5 inches is a big as it can handle. I also learned I need to trim the trunk of limbs.
The most surprising thing I’ve discovered is just how small the pile of chips is. Photo below is from two small trees.
This afternoon I’m heading into the woods to drop and stack a bunch of small cedar trees. Tomorrow I’ll roll the chipper as close to the pile as I can get it and start chipping.
Hiking trail
In the last few years I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the woods clearing brush and thinning scrub cedar trees. Just playing with the chainsaw as much as anything but the brush piles resulted in some paths so I’ve toyed with the idea of a walking trail.
With no shortage of rocks I decided to line the entrance and that work is just about done. Here’s a “before” look.
More brush pile porn
When you start clearing brush there are no good (close) places to put it so you just start a pile. Or several piles. As you make progress you quickly see you should have put the piles where they would be less visible but now it’s too late to move them. I got tired of looking at a couple of piles so it was time for the Big Chipper.
Clearing brush
Warmer days means more time spent in the woods. Clearing brush on a piece of our property that doesn’t appear to have been touched in… forever.
Spring will bring more ground cover and everything will look very different. And this isn’t what anyone would call “pretty” woods. Lots of scrub cedar and rocks. And more rocks. But the birds love it, and so do I.
Last brush pile?
Not really the “last” brush pile, but the last one with which I’ll burden my buddy George for a while. He’s been letting me dump my brush at his place where he burns it for me.
But I’ve worked my way far enough down our hill that it’s getting to be chore to drag the brush up to the road where I can load it into the truck. So it’s time to start making some new piles down the hill and back in the woods. I don’ like doing that but nobody (but me) is ever gonna see these so it’s the best solution.
Why not burn them? I know it can be done safely but not by me. I’d rather have the pile and the critters like them.
Clearing brush
I don’t think we can understand zen or explain it but from time to time we can experience zen. Clearing brush can sometimes do it for me.
Big Ass Brush Pile
Grapple Loader
We’ve had a bunch of brush piles on our property for the last five years. Home to many birds and critters no doubt. But a couple close to the house had become eye sores so I had the boys from Korte Tree Care come and adios them.
More adventurous types would burn these but the thought of setting our woods on fire is too much for me.