There was a guy in Oregon who had a system to reclaim land from noxious growth. He had moveable pens and put goats in them first to clear everything off the surface, then followed with hogs to dig out the roots. He moved the pens back and forth over the land he wanted cleared until it was weed free. He was conquering some kind of thorny invasive thing whose name I don't recall. When he was done, he sold the livestock for meat and eventually sold the reclaimed land for a substantial profit as well. As far as the digestive systems go, that is why ruminants do as well as they do. The most remarkable things are the moose and caribou here. The moose sustain those huge bodies through subarctic winters even carrying pregnancy to term through the worst of it on just the tree limbs they can much above the snow. The caribou do the same on primarily lichens they get from beneath the snow cover, even in the coldest of ARCTIC winter months.
So I used my boom pole with the lever hoist setup to pull some of the small trees & stumps from the work we did with the skid loader. It's kinda slow work, but I let saplings and such take hold over the past 12 years, and didn't stay on top of it...so there's a bunch of small stuff that gets yanks one-at-a-time. And it's still faster (and neater) than trying to dig them out or pull them with my truck. I switched between the wrapped-chain method and hooking the skid tongs under the root systems to yank the stuff straight out of the ground. The areas I finished look real nice...no more scraggly stuff. I'm glad I decided to go out after the rain when the ground was loosened up. I have more to go, including a few more medium trees to fell and several trunks that are 4+ inches. I'll get the larger ones out with the backhoe...this boom pole & hoist rig has its limits. Some things cannot "just be plucked." I've not used my backhoe yet...I thought I'd get more use out of it than I have. If I dig them out rather than cut them off at ground level, I'll end up getting a truckload of topsoil to fill the divots.
@John Brunner have you tried something like this for your stumps and such. Harbor freight used to carry them at a much lower price, as did Northern Tool.
No, I've not. I just looked at H.F., Tractor Supply, Northern Tool and Lowes. None of them carry that anymore. But it's ringing bells, like I've seen it on tractor attachment sites. The problem is that there are a lot of things that my 32hp Kubota just doesn't have the azz to do, even in Low and 4WD. Pulling stuff like this is one of them, even when chained directly to the tractor and I try to drag it out. I was mulling over my slow-going this evening and had a couple of thoughts: 1-I am over-complicating the process by having that lever hoist involved. It does help with taking up the chain slack and with getting some of the stubborn stuff broken free (then finishing with the 3 pt hitch lift hydraulics), but it might not always be needed. I just might do faster by using the chain by itself without the complicating step. If I need the hoist I can always add it. The hoist has really helped in extracting the large felled and snapped-off trees, but I think it's an unneeded tool for much of what I'm doing now and it's slowing me down. Dunno what I [wasn't] thinking. 2- I'm at the point where I may use my truck instead of the tractor to pull the stubborn stuff out. 220hp + more torque is gonna git it done. When I lived in my prior home, I had an overgrowth of thick, tree-like euonymus shrubs that had been there since the 40s. I cut them down with a chain saw and pulled the stumps with my truck, easy-peasy. Maybe tomorrow I'll finish up the small stuff it makes sense to do with the tractor and that I know is within its capabilities, then use my truck for the rest. And it will sure be faster and cleaner than using the backhoe.
If you can get your truck to the stumps and trees, I reckon that is the way to go. You could also rig up a "real gin pole", or, like I said before, use a snatch block (or a pair of them) to double your pull if you have somewhere to attach it.
Speaking of tractor pulls... From the Craigslist ad: Really good competitive kids/youth class pulling tractor. Also really good at pulling with the big boys. Come on out to the pull to see the tractor, drive it and possible drive it yourself in competition. Drive it and test before purchase. Just look for this tractor and you will find me. HELMETS ARE REQUIRED IN YOUTH CLASS. Family orientated event, fun for all ages. No cursing or alcohol allowed on premises. Please review the club rules on their web site. Pretty slick, huh? They have a Youth Class. And an antique tractor class. It sounds like it's someone's farm. It's not too far from me, but the next pull through these guys isn't scheduled until August. Mapquest says 1 hour, probably closer to 45 minutes going "with traffic." I had no idea.
I once had a 16-hp cub tractor that would pull a lot, but had no hydraulics so wouldn't do much else. I plowed our watermelon patch in Georgia with it.
I worked for an International Harvester dealer in the mid 70s. We were in Northern Virginia and mostly catered to the folks with large lawns, back when large lawns existed (we carried no large ag equipment.) We sold lots of Cub Cadets--including their electric riding mowers--to folks in the "old money" areas like Great Falls. I don't recall seeing any that had hydraulics (one would think those folks would want to plow snow) or that had any pull-behind attachments (I don't recall us selling any), but I only worked there for one season.
Yes, it's a boom pole. But it's not yellow. The post hole digger is yellow. I believe the tongs are blue, to match the tractor.
All of those are real handy to have. That post hole digger is worth some money. I don't see an auger in the pic, but the thing looks brand-new. They routinely go for over $1,000 in my area. So, where did you get this stuff?
Look harder on the left. The auger is there. Just blends in with the junk on the shelf. I probably dug 6 holes with it. (Not very well.) The post hole digger was new and came with the new Ford tractor when I traded. The pole was inherited.
I see it now. Where's Waldo, huh? What went wrong with the hole digging? The main problem I had was the auger was too large a diameter for the posts (10" vs 4"), so there was some back-filling required. But it beat digging by hand. I laid out all the spots with landscape flags like this: Then I backed the tractor up, lined up the auger, and drilled right on top of them. I tied a rope or something to the auger to mark the depth. Once the hole was dug, I pulled the mangled flags out of the dirt, straightened them up, and used them again.
I just watch the vid. LOL!!!! That's pretty funny. When the woman at Tractor Supply told me she could grab/drag/drop without getting off of the tractor, that video is exactly what I envisioned...15 minutes of putzing (for God and country) versus 30 seconds of just hooking the thing up by hand. The comments in that vid actually put forth some good ideas on making that task easier.
That's beautiful. Perfectly straight up and down. That's my problem. First, it's hard (for me) to tell when it's lined up at the right spot, while sitting on the tractor. (Never thought of flags.) Move tractor to get it in the right position and it starts swinging back and forth. When I lower the thing it starts swinging again. More often than not, it hits the ground at an angle. Can't tell until you get started digging. Start over.