[AT] Osages to maples
Mike M
meulenms at gmx.com
Wed Nov 6 19:33:20 PST 2019
Dean, I have to agree about the dozer, I have a guy that will come out
for $100 per hour, minimum of 4 hours, and he works hard during those 4
hours, and is not a clock watcher. When he looks at the job and tells me
it should take 3 or 4 hours and it ends up being 6, he doesn't charge
extra, that's just the way he is. That's why I don't shop him at all, I
just call him and ask him when he can fit me in. It doesn't hurt that I
pay him cash on the spot :-)
The question I had was all those little scrub bushes that leave little
stubs about 3" above the ground . How to you get rid of those, so the
grass can fill in and it doesn't wreck your mower? Or are those just
vines hanging off the trees?
Regards,
Mike M
On 11/6/2019 8:57 PM, Dean Vinson wrote:
>
> I don’t have box elder here, at least that I’ve recognized, but
> there’s no shortage of honeysuckle. There’s a little bit of black
> cherry but I generally leave it alone since it’s a “nice” woods tree
> as opposed to the masses of honeysuckle and osage orange.
>
> Osage, in my experience at least, is in a class by itself. As Mike
> mentioned it makes outstanding firewood (if throwing sparks isn’t a
> problem). I think I read somewhere it has the highest BTU content per
> unit volume of any hardwood in the eastern half of the country. It
> also practically never rots so it makes excellent fenceposts, and I’ve
> given a little to a guy who wanted to make archery bows. But it makes
> you work darn hard for every last piece. The young trees are covered
> with wicked thorns; the old ones are twisted and sprawled out and
> interlocked with their neighbors. Mighty little of it is long enough,
> straight enough, and free enough of suckers and side branches to make
> for easy working even after the tree is on the ground.
>
> My general approach has been as Carl described, chainsaw and big burn
> piles. But with osage, you have to paint the outer edge of the cut
> stump with a herbicide or next year you’ll have the thorniest nastiest
> bush you can imagine, which will flatten your tractor tires when you
> bush hog it and then will grow back anyway. Taking a shovel and
> digging all around the stump helps me cut the stump at or below ground
> level while hopefully keeping the chainsaw out of the dirt, but adds
> to the work. The wood is so hard I’ve taken to only using carbide
> chains, since the regular ones just get worthless dull way too fast.
>
> The only roots I ever pull are the ones that have surfaced enough to
> be in my way or were right where I wanted to plant one of the new
> maples. I usually use the Super M, but the 620 and I think the Ford
> 3600 have had a few turns at it also. And I’m talking about one
> individual root, maybe 2” to 6” in diameter. I don’t think any of
> those tractors would pull out a complete osage tree or stump, if the
> tree were any bigger than about 2” diameter.
>
> For stumps that are too big for me to feasibly just cut off at ground
> level, I burn them out. Works better if I dig out around all sides
> first, but that is work with a capital W (see attached photo from this
> past March). Cut the tree, cut and haul off any firewood I want, dig
> around the stump, load up the stump with big logs, pile on the small
> stuff, fire it up. Sometimes I take the chainsaw and cut slots down
> into the stump, but that risks getting the chain in the dirt. Once
> in a while the stump will catch fire below ground and burn down like a
> seam of coal, and I’m always happy when that happens.
>
> All of the above makes no sense if time is important, and honestly I’m
> not sure I’d have tackled the big hedgerow if I’d really understood
> beforehand how much work it would be. Hiring somebody with a serious
> dozer would be the practical way to do it.
>
> Dean Vinson
>
> Saint Paris, Ohio
>
> *From:*AT [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] *On Behalf Of
> *Mike M
> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 6, 2019 6:35 PM
> *To:* at at lists.antique-tractor.com
> *Subject:* Re: [AT] Osages to maples
>
> I have tons of Box Elder, total crap trees, might try to cable them
> high and pull them out with my neighbors 4440, if mine won't do it.
>
> Mike M
>
> On 11/6/2019 5:37 PM, Carl Gogol wrote:
>
> After bush hogging the smaller stuff I have cleared acres of scrub
> brush by chainsaw and big burn piles. Cutting the stumps level to
> the ground has been hard on chains, but leaves no holes in the
> ground. Works well for pasture.
>
> Grass perks right up after the shade is removed. Species
> encountered are Hawthorne, Honeysuckle, Black Cherry, ash and Box
> Elder. Some stumps are cut a second time a year or so later as
> they miraculously rise a few inches out of the ground. Quite a
> bit of work, but no dozer required.
>
> Carl
>
> Manlius,NY
>
> *From:*AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> <mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> *On Behalf Of *Mike M
> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 6, 2019 2:12 PM
> *To:* at at lists.antique-tractor.com
> <mailto:at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [AT] Osages to maples
>
> Wow Dean, that's impressive! I suspect the trees you left will
> really thrive now that they get their full sun and nutrients.
> Question for you, I have an area of property that i would like to
> clear. It's thick like a jungle just to the right of your M. How
> did you remove the roots? Did you cut the brush first, and then
> tackle the roots, or were you able to pull out clumps at a time.
>
> Thanks,
> Mike M
>
> On 11/6/2019 4:02 AM, Dean Vinson wrote:
>
> Hi Mike, sorry about that. Both of the photos I’d previously
> attached were looking generally southward but from different
> vantage points.
>
> Here’s a collage of Google aerial photos to hopefully help
> explain a little better. My earlier 2014 picture was taken
> from down near where the big walnut tree is, but the 2019
> picture was taken from way up close to the house (farther
> north than the osage bramble had ever been).
>
> Dean
>
> *From:*AT [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] *On
> Behalf Of *Mike M
> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 5, 2019 9:52 PM
> *To:* at at lists.antique-tractor.com
> <mailto:at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [AT] Osages to maples
>
> Hi Dean, could you clarify what direction we're looking in,
> were the two larger trees buried in the brambles? I'm terrible
> at deciphering directions. Where is the Farmall parked in
> comparison to the old and new picture?
>
> Thanks,
> Mike M
>
> On 11/5/2019 6:52 PM, Dean Vinson wrote:
>
> About five years ago I started clearing out an old osage
> orange hedgerow, maybe 150 yards long, that hadn’t been
> tended in many decades. Lots of time with the chainsaw,
> lots of bonfires, lots of work with the Super M dragging
> logs and pulling roots and hauling firewood, lots of work
> with the JD 620 and rear blade grading and smoothing.
> Yesterday I had a crew plant eight new red maple trees on
> the same line where the osage trees had been, and this
> afternoon I got the Super M out again to haul trashcans
> full of water back to them.
>
> The top half of the attached photo is the 2014 view,
> showing one of my first bonfires as I began clearing out
> the osage and honeysuckle and briars. My goal back then
> was just to clear out some breathing space around a nice
> mature walnut tree that I’d discovered earlier that year
> after noticing its top sticking up above the canopy of the
> older but shorter osage trees. It’s not visible in the
> photo but it’d be to the right of the bonfire. After a
> couple of years of occasional trimming and cleanup and
> thinning out, I set my sights on removing the hedgerow
> completely. (There’s also another one, but I’m just
> cleaning it up and will keep many of the big trees).
>
> The bottom half of the attached photo is the view from a
> few hours ago. The mass of trees and brambles from the
> top photo had been just to the left of the little gravel
> lane behind where the tractor is now sitting. The tall
> trees behind the tractor had all managed to survive
> despite being engulfed by the sprawling osages; the dark
> one in the middle is the big walnut I’d first started
> clearing out around five years earlier. Interesting
> that those trees all lean slightly away from where the
> osages had been. The new maples, hardly visible since
> they’re small, are dead on the centerline of the original
> hedgerow.
>
> Will be interesting to see how the new trees do over
> time. It’s been fun, sort of, plugging away at that
> scraggly old hedgerow over the years, and darn nice to
> have a couple old tractors to help.
>
> Dean Vinson
>
> Saint Paris, Ohio
>
>
>
>
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