Clearing the Clearcut

Bill VA · Jul 25, 2015

The clear cut is done. I lost the battle to rid the land of stumps (not worth dividing the family over - it is what it is).

Now the path forward.

Hard work ahead - nothing new on this land. My great grandfather farmed these fields with horses - never owned a tractor. The first pic shows the rock piles, hand picked and piled. They are all over the place. Whatever the work ahead, I am mindful of the sweat of my great grandfather and think twice about complaining!

The 2nd few pics show the debris and magnitude of the fields.

Next up is clearing the debris from the clear cuts. Any ideas on this? Some kind of rake? Bull dozer or something simpler?

Last few pics are the stumps. Some are ground level, some 6ish inches high. Will have to go one by one and cut them near to ground just so a bush hog can go over them. I'm thinking chainsaw with some hardened chain of some sort. I realize this it tedious, but it's the only land we got, it is a one time deal and probably not as tedious as making one of these rock piles.

Not looking for should-a, would-a, could-a - things are what they are. Trying to make lemon aid out of lemons.

Any help, tips, tricks are much appreciated.

Thanks!
Bill

TimV · Jul 25, 2015

Bill: nowadays, it's pretty much the standard to do this with an excavator equipped with a thumb. Of course, if you don't have one, then you use whatever you do have, but you'll probably find that even renting or hiring a machine will be cheaper and faster than using small, substandard equipment, particularly if any of the stumps are sizeable. If the rock pile is any indication, you might not have trouble with big rocks, but if you do, now is the time to get those out as well--it's money well spent over the long haul.

37chief · Jul 25, 2015

That will keep you busy for a while. How many acres are you talking about? Stan

Janicholson · Jul 25, 2015

8 inch stump removal is best done with a bulldozer of mid size. a single tooth ripper/will get them up, and a brush rake will do the rest. If there are 10 stumps, doing it by hand will be possible in the same way the rock piles were created. There are no chains or bars that operate in soil. If the land is to be farmed, or just have the weeds kept down, they are going to be a nuisance for 5 or more years. Putting Stump X material on 200 stumps will be expensive and take only half the time of just rotting them naturally. I don't know the "family" issues with the stumps, but they are no issue only if the property is going to be replanted with tree populations. almost all other uses require removal if you re keeping the land in use, or for a mowed field/meadow. Grazing it might be the only thing to do if they remain. Jim

old popper · Jul 25, 2015

You have a lot done....but a lot of hard work to go.
Too bad you are so far away, I'd love to have a pickup load of those rocks.

rrlund · Jul 25, 2015

This is probably how your grandpa removed the stumps. That's how they took out the pine stumps around here.
My grand dad lost a finger in one. He had to shorten the chain and they did it sometimes by slipping a link back in to another one and putting a bolt or pin in it. He asked the other guys if anybody had a bolt. Somebody asked how big. He held up his finger and said "About that big" and slid it in to the chain. The horses lurched and it sheared his finger right off.

Billy NY · Jul 25, 2015

Hydraulic excavator for the stumps, not sure of your work area size but you can do quite a bit of work with one in a day. I cleared 30 acres of pasture of all the old boulders we had spread out in an afternoon with small one, they were spread out and I did other work with it besides. Dozer with a root rake, I've run D8K's with one of those on sites similar to yours, made short work of clearing debris before we stripped top soil with the scrapers, even one of this size is not meant for large stumps, it will push up smaller ones, but we usually stripped them all first anyway, maybe you can find something affordable with root rake, aside from stumps that will clean up the site quite a bit. Heavy multi-shank ripper on the back is a good choice to sever roots if you have a lot of that.

Geo-TH,In · Jul 25, 2015

I had a tree cut down in the winter. Put an ad on craigslist and people were happy to get the firewood. I cleaned up the mess with a 7 ft landscape rake attached to the front bucket. I was able to get down force on the bucket and pushed some large branches. Then used 4 ft forks and loaded branches on dump trailer. Took branches to my fire pit in the country and will turn them into potash next winter when there is snow on the ground and no chance of catching trees or grass on fire.

The tractor did most of the work.
I saved a lot of money cleaning up the mess.

Traditional Farmer · Jul 25, 2015

Get in the meat goat business,put a fence around that clear cut and the goats will keep down the trees from coming back and in about 5 years you'll have a good enough pasture to be able to add a few cows.The best part is you can sit on the porch and watch it all happen.Goats make you money while they clear the land.

GordoSD · Jul 25, 2015

Where are you? Can fill your truck several times here in SD.

Bill VA · Jul 26, 2015

Probably 20 acres

Bill VA · Jul 26, 2015

That is an interesting rig!

Bill VA · Jul 26, 2015

Thanks everyone for your comments - very helpful info.

I go back and forth - dive in, work my tail off and fix these fields and then I think - wait for the stumps just to rot down. Problem with waiting for the stumps to rot down, I'm not getting any younger - LOL!

Bill

Geo-TH,In · Jul 26, 2015

When people see what the little terramite can do are very impressed. The front bucket is rated at around 1800#. It can lift more than what it's rated at. I even made rear ballast to connect to the rear hoe to transfer weight off the front wheels. One time I lifted a 55 gallon barrel full of concrete with my front forks. You can't lift as much when you are in front of the bucket.

I love using the landscape rake on the front bucket. I can apply down force and see what I'm doing at the same time. Works better than on a 3 pt.

I like the terramite so much I bought a second one for my place in the country. I got tired of moving it 25 miles each way. I put more hours on the terramite in a year than I do on 2 riding movers, Farmall C with 72 inch mower and Jubilee with 72 inch mower.

old popper · Jul 26, 2015

I am in NW Iowa, Cherokee county, where are you in South Dakota?

showcrop · Jul 26, 2015

What is the intended use and when?

Hobo,NC · Jul 26, 2015

It will grow back (weeds) quicker than you think if you do not go after the stumps now... I brought a Grapple and cleared all the debris then hired a excavator... He put the stumps in a row and I moved them to my land fill down by the RR with the Grapple... I then used a York rake and got all that was left...

A man that can run a Excavator can do a ell of allot of work in a day... Most of what I cleared was pines he had to dig around them and snap them off 3/4 Ft (maybe deeper) in the ground a dozer would have had to work till ell froze over to get them BTDT ... Once they were out he put the dirt back in the hole I can not tell a stump was ever there..

Any thing that was not a pine one swipe and it was history...

Geo-TH,In · Jul 26, 2015

I've had many trees removed from yard. I refuse to pay for a stump grinder. So I used landscaping timbers and built a stump cover, a flower box around stump. In about 10 years, termites have eaten the stump and I have a sink hole where I once had a stump. So clean up your trash and cover stumps with dirt. That way you can run a mover over them and keep trees from returning.

Bill VA · Jul 27, 2015

Hay fields.

Traditional Farmer · Jul 27, 2015

If you hire the work done to turn that field into a hayfield by the time you have the work done,buy lime and fertilizer to make something grow there you will be a very old man before you actually break even by selling hay off that field.I don't know about your area in VA but I get all the hay land I want for free and bring the hay to my place to feed livestock then I'm getting their fertility and adding it to my place.I usually have so much extra hay I sometimes unroll the extra hay on thin spots in excess to encourage the cows and goats to stomp it in the ground,lay on it plus their manure will improve a piece of land quickly.All for the price of making the hay.

L.Fure · Jul 27, 2015

What are you planning to do with the land once it's cleaned up? The grass and goats idea sounds good to me.

donjr · Jul 28, 2015

Bill, I've been away for a few days, so you might not see this, but a friend of mine bought a lot of acreage out near Galax. He clear cut it over several years, a few hundred acres at a time and sold the lumber. He started with fifty acres and a saw, bought a mill, sold the lumber, then bought a D8 with a root hook later. There weren't any hi hoes at the time. He now has about 2500 acres and about 1500 is clear. He's running a pretty good sized herd of beef on it and has row crops in the better fields. He also now had four boys in the business. So, it's a building process- one step at a time. Ya jes gotta keep at it.....

Bill VA · Jul 28, 2015

Hay fields one of these days.

Bill VA · Jul 28, 2015

Thanks for the comment. We'll clean up these fields one way or the other - probably a little at a time too.

BTW - spent my share of time in Galax at the Old Fiddler's Convention

Clearing the Clearcut

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