I pulled some vines for a few minutes on our walk, they were dead, I had cut them a while ago. Jake said not here to mess with vines, of course I pulled a few, after reminding him my vine piles are pulled with his tractor..
I cleaned vines off two large trees and several smaller ones, at first, I thought I had had it, thought to myself well, 'you wanted to die with your boots on, looks like your about to get your wish'. But after a couple minutes rest I felt better, then finished. This is what happens when you take a few days off, although I never felt that bad.
Got a lot of vines last couple days. But I'm really sore all over. Pulling from trees plus cutting them on ground really gets to the neck, back and upper legs. But it feels good to see the trees I save. Guess I am a tree hugger after all.
Some pictures I took yesterday of area I'm clearing with my loppers. I'll have those vines pulled out of the top of the trees in a week. Already have a good bit done last two days. The camera is not doing so good.
Some of the clearing I did a couple weeks ago from this patch of trees. Jake will be able to fence the area when I'm done. Only about 50'.
I was blessed with a lot of energy, but that can be a two-edged sword kind of thing. It can keep you hyped up and so keeping busy is necessary. So that is why I'm doing the vine 'therapy'. Plus I don't like to see trees taken over by vines that slowly kill them. So I'm killing 2 birds with one stone, saving trees and a kind of treatment for mental illness.
Only cut a few vines last week, not as many tyrees covered since I've got most of them cut off at the ground now, only a couple huge trees I need to get to before the vines kill them. I do have a big patch to remove in front that already killed the 2 trees before they spread to trees I already cleared. a little here and there plus working around storm damage brush. I hauled lots of that out and piled it up for Jake to drag off with tractor. 'Jake loves tractor work'. Jake doesn't like vine work at all, except clean up my brush but he will help with the huge ones with pole saw.
It seems like it you cut the vines at or near ground level, you should not need to actually pull them out of the tree because they will wither and eventually break apart and add mulch to the base of the trees for you, @Marie Mallery . I do not have as large of vines as you have , but when we lived where there were the kudzu, as long as I cut off the bottom the rest of the vine dried up and fell away from the tree.
Yvonne although the vine usually dies it's leaves still cover the tops of the trees and stops the tree from getting the sun it needs. Also, they take away the beauty of the trees canopy and trunks, replacing it with ugly brown dead leaves. Jake said , "I'm obsessed with killing the hell out of them". I cut some big vines today with large thorns on them, so I'm back at it.
Yesterday I really got to some major vine canopy's in trees. Jake helped with the really hard ones to pull down, mostly he just pulled off the piles with his tractor, which he likes better than using 30-year-old golf cart. It makes me feel good when I save more trees. Now that I got them thinned out I can get to the big oaks. Today I'll start on the big trees I couldn't get to for the thick vines.
I now have 3 little forests mostly cleared of vines now. Saved dozens of trees, some don't look so good, but they will recuperate and be beautiful one day. I'll put up a couple pictures in a bit. My camera is old, and I need a new one. Started the first one last week, yesterday pretty much finished except for some need to be pulled out of treetops. No tractors allowed, kills the roots and sapling's. So it is all done by hand tools and me pulling them out of tops, although Jake has to get the really hard ones. And his tractor is handy with the dead trees and brush. Started this one month or more ago,
Good for you, Marie! Those things will choke the life outta stuff. I have a spring-fed creek that runs along one side of my property, then dumps into a larger creek. This root has been erosion-exposed for so long it now has bark on it:
Rgw pile of vines and John is that a tree root? Amazing it is growing bark to protect the trunk. Our large fallen trees are feeding the wildlife, something is eating it. I love creeks reminds me of childhood home. I went through the woods today and saw lots of huge trees with huge vines on them that have grown increased in past 20 years since we've been so bust with everything mainly around the house not so deep into woods, but its not nearly as much as you,only 10acres considering we gave up some for frontage's.
Yeh, believe it or not, that' a tree root. My 2 neighbors (our age) use to draw water from that spring when they were kids. I go down there looking for arrowheads, but haven't found any. I go down there looking for arrowheads, but haven't found any.