Tractor is good for making a pasture, but I love the forest and the woods. We have a nice paddock or small pasture from equine Rosie and Tobacco, who we loved but had to find good homes for when Jake broke his back and had all that medal put in 2 steel rods, 6 nuts, bolts and 3 cages inside his spine. Which took him years to get use to. He still has pain from it. But the pain pill 'remedy' was worse than the injury. No pain meds since Jan.2019, thank God!
After we got the full blunt of Hurricane Helene, 'minus the ocean currents' 140mph winds we now have lots of hanging tree limbs and leaning trees to watch out for when cutting vines. You never know when under trees how little it can take to bring one down on you,' like the one from Helene that busted open Jakes head'. Yesterday we dealt with several tree limbs swinging on vines, we carefully brought down. Also now you can see the sky through the woods we never could see before. Storm really did a number on our trees as if they needed any more damage to go along with the vines killing them. Jake has photos on his thread 'Thinking Things Would Slow Down' page 34. Most people who move here or anywhere wooded clear out the forest and kill the trees so they can have acre's of grass planted to mow. I can understand pastures for livestock or ranch animals. But then I grew up running through the forest when I wasn't running the streets of Atlanta to theatres or big city parks. Those days came to a halt when I hit 13.
I feel very tired, but there is a tree I wanted to clear yesterday that is full of vines, Jake is helping me some now so since neither of us slept all week, maybe we can partial clear some at least. Or we can sit on porch and smoke damn cigarettes. We're back. Amazing what we got done in just over an hour, Jake said, 'you about done, you said just a few minutes'. He was just wanting a cigarette , I reminded him, being up all night he had plenty. The frontage is looking so different now.
Cut vines off 3 trees this afternoon, fairly large maybe a few decades old, so hope we got to them in time. Still, lots of small trees and fallen tree limbs to clear away so we can get to the vines. Jake was happy since it will be another trip on his tractor to pull the brush piles to the field.
Saving dogs, while vines kill trees. I will get back to them later today I hope, I'm not as energetic as I was a couple days ago.
Can you not pull the vines out with the tractor and not use the box blade? I really don't know exactly what you are dealing with there, but I use rope, cable, or sometimes chains and something to attach them and pull out small trees and bushes out with my little tractor. The winch I put on it is especially good for those things i can't get to due to the dense forest or uneven ground. Do you cut the vines at the bottom and somehow pull them off the trees by hand? If I can get a picture of the little compost fork I had made for my tractor, I will post it. It would certainly be helpful in moving the vines after they are cut but you have have to make it since I have not found them available commercially.
This is day three I haven't cut vines so after I warm up walking, I'll take Foxy, Leo and Getty with me to get them off large trees. Jake may or may not help me. Don, I use loppers to cut them top and ground level, then pull to see which ones I get out of tree. Some won't come loose but many do. The ones I cut hang till they loosen over time and sometimes Jake will help me pull them out. He can pull out some I can't of course. I'm still dealing with tree limbs from storm, watch for those high in trees that could fall on me when I pull on vine. Some I don't even get under at all. He just backs up to my pile, lets down the box blade with hooks and drags pile to the field. Mostly I do the vines or leave the really large ones for the pole saw or Jake to use loppers on that I don't have strength to cut. I take two-way radio in case I need him. He did cut some on frontage of property that were really thick and had already killed the trees they covered with box blade and hooks.
One of those little battery-powered, 6-inch chain saws might help you @Marie Mallery. My daughter-in-law has one and she loves it. It won't cut down trees, but it is murder on limbs and small bushes and such. link
We have one of those little chain saws, too, and Bobby uses it for a lot of things. He also has a battery-powered reciprocating saw, and that would work fine for small limbs and vines, too. He has a short blade on it that he uses for cutting down seedling bushes that come from the birds spreading seeds.
The reciprocating saw is handy when you are cutting in questionable areas as if you hit something like a wire or a nail, you just damage the blade. Replacing a blade is a lot easier and cheaper than replacing a chain, even a little one.
Several years ago, I had a small chain saw but it quit working yes a little chain saw may be good to have once we get over adopting dogs and buying tractor, thanks Don.
Been a few days now since I cut vines, maybe 5 days. But now that weather is cooled down I'll have more energy.I lose a little more energy everyday.