Ideas? Taming Land In Town

2044 Views 16 Replies 8 Participants Last post by rockford, Sep 18, 2015

keith204

Discussion Starter · Aug 5, 2015

I'm buying 2 lots adjacent to the 2 I own, and would like your critiques on my daunting project.

Objectives:

Remove brush and vines from around trees
Smooth land: So kids can run on it without tripping on unevenness

Tools/equipment I'll have handy:

Chainsaws, Pole ChainSaw
Tractor w/ front bucket (borrowed, I've used it less than 5 times)
Bush hog for tractor
Box blade for tractor
Riding lawn mower, Walk behind mower
Matches

My current rough plan:

Bush hog: lower onto brush around trees, trying to avoid thick stumps
Chainsaw: Cut down thicker stuff
Scoot stuff to a burn pile (& coordinate with town fire department)
Pull down upper vines where possible
Cut down unwanted trees
Bush hog land as low as possible, scalping if necessary
Box blade: Give it some aggressive forward lean, and drag it around the land several times to loosen the soil (clay like) and start smoothing it out
Roll using water-filled roller behind lawn tractor (possibly?)

There's one notable thorn bush with super long thorns w/ barbs on them.

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Thanks for the good advice.

Tudor - Without a tracked excavator, is there another option? Possibly, remove carefully & burn?

re: box blade usage: With clay-like soil w/ rocks in it, is it better for me to just go ahead and assume I need a big pile of fill dirt to spread over unevenness and box blade that? Or is a box blade good enough at tearing up land to smooth existing land out?

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keith204

Discussion Starter · #7 · Aug 11, 2015

CADplans said:
Your description of how you plan to use the tractor clearly shows that you are borrowing the tractor,,,:dunno:

Please be respectful of the tractor and plan on returning it in the same condition as borrowed.

Scalping the ground with a bush hog is something you save for a rented machine.

Then the rental store will charge you for damage when you return the equipment.

This is good to know. The person who volunteered their tractor to me actually recommended this for taking thorny bushes to the ground.

I guess, it would probably have a similar blade dulling effect of driving an axe into the ground...lots of times.

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keith204

Discussion Starter · #9 · Aug 12, 2015

Hey good news!

The city was out here today with a bulldozer with tracks, and they volunteered to dispose of the thorn trees for me.

So that's done.

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keith204

Discussion Starter · #11 · Sep 15, 2015

Better piece of news: We hired a neighbor with an excavator to take out the brush and about 6-8 trees and create 2 burn piles.

Now, things are relatively straightforward.

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keith204

Discussion Starter · #14 · Sep 15, 2015

Yep. I'm working the box blade now. It's quite fun.

Just don't look at my post in the Case subforum. It will make this sound less fun. Moral of that story: when using a box blade, also be sure to watch in front of the tractor.

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keith204

Discussion Starter · #16 · Sep 17, 2015

rockford said:
I was hoping to read that you bought a goat. The love to eat vines, especially Poison Ivy.

That's what I keep hearing. But, I know zero people who have goats for this purpose. How much do goats cost? And, how do you keep them around trees and off the streets?

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