Monday, January 24, 2011

Clearing a piece of overgrown pond shore


I would have loved to have spent a day on the tractor, but the job at hand took priority. A skid steer with a mulching head would have been the perfect tool if I had the cash. Free manual labor had to do this time. The original pond must have been rectangular with a dam around all 4 sides. On the north side, it is mostly removed with a big peninsula on the west as pictured below and a smaller one on the east. The smaller one would make a nice secluded campsite. We need room for a tent pad, fire ring, and sitting area. It is relatively flat and overgrown with small trees and lots of thorny vines. You can see how dense it is on the edges of the photo. The brush saw would not stay running for long, but once I started taking the chainsaw to things I realized most was to large for my brush saw anyways. I had about 3 1/2 hours to do some clearing after a quick walk around the place to check everything. One more day should do it on the clearing and then I can take a sharp mattock to any offending stubs and mow the vines. We had a delimna deciding what to do with the brush: burn or chip. Burning is easy and can help clear those vines when done right on top of the clearing. Chipping gives us mulch we can use on paths and the tent camping site. Once all of the cutting is finished, we are going to rent a chipper and make mulch. We might as well make sure there is a full days chipping if we have to rent one for a day. I plan on cutting the larger trunks into firewood for use at home and here. I have a few other topics of interest that warrant a seperate post that I will post in the next few days. They will be about beaver that is still there and starting an orchard in some clear areas at the north end of the property.

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