WWMD?
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Burn it?Quote:
Originally Posted by shroom
Beefy chipper > garden mulch
We have 5 acres and I have burned, chipped and hauled. My experience:
Chipping DYI - not worth it. We can rent a professional chipper that will take up to 8" but it is time consuming to process. You need to gather all the material and also make sure it is all laid out in the same direction to easily load into the chipper, if it is all in a random pile it takes forever to process. Also left with giant piles of chips.
Chipping Professional - worth it if you have a ton of material. We paid a logging company who came in w/ a large tracked chipper (12" capacity or so) with a winch and they could pull entire trees into the chipper from far away. Also, had a truck that hauled away the chips.
Burning - Still have to gather material into piles but it is relaxing to feed the fire, just takes forever, like all day and then you still have a pile of embers that smolder overnight which is somewhat stressful. Also, burn piles don't burn well w/ a ton of leaves and duff which is what I have now. Never burn if there is forecasted wind!
Hauling - this is my go to mode now. I used to have a 5X8 landscape trailer and would manually load/unload but just upgraded to a 5X8 dump trailer and it is money. The best part is I have a place 10 min away that will take a full trailer of debris for $10, they grind it up into various size material to resell. I can do 3 trailer loads in 3-4 hours vs. maybe burning 1.5 to 2 trailer loads in an 8 hour day; we can only have 2 burn piles going at one time.
I’d probably haul away (or chip) the bigger branches and broadcast burn the rest. Most of that smaller material looks like good fuel for a low intensity backing fire (light at the top of the hill). Scrap containment lines down to mineral soil. Scrap around stumps and downed logs down to mineral soil to exclude them from the burn. Consider pulling back material from living trees or scraping down to mineral soil around living plants. Depending on size of your “unit” and number of helpers, consider breaking it up into several units with containment lines. After the fire has moved through, gather the sticks (aka bones) that didn’t fully burn and make small piles in the burn unit and light them up. Do some research and look into local prescribed burn association groups that may have resources/information or can help. Be conservative in your decisions.
Is this an AZ thing? The ethanol-free 87 octane was 60 cent more per gallon over the ethanol-ed unleaded
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All good stuff. Especially getting help and working on smaller units of burn at one time.Quote:
Originally Posted by bodywhomper
Here’s the stuff presented to the public in BC. https://blog.gov.bc.ca/bcwildfire/op...TKX8NyXbmbFOak
I’m sure your local forestry service also has useful info on rec and mandatories in burning in your location.
appreciate the insights. FWIW I have about an acre that needs attention, most of it sloping as shown. i’ve stared at chippers for a year while I was slashing and chopping (was super overgrown/neglected) but it’s time to do some reading into local prescribed burn groups. thanks again for the thoughts.
A whole bunch of fuel mitigation on the road up to HBM all done by the FNQuote:
Originally Posted by bodywhomper
and don't tell the women about the size of my unit
Here’s the PBA resource for California: https://calpba.org/
This looks to be the similar resource for WA: http://waprescribedfire.org/
Ethanol free gas here in Maine at some gas stations in last couple of years, but it is 91 octane. Happy to pay the extra for the small engines.Quote:
Originally Posted by bodywhomper
^^^ This
I just buy av fuel at my local airport. It’s cheaper than the stuff in my photo and has no ethanol. Can’t get the non ethanol RUG in California as far as I know. Nice thing about that nonethanol RUG, is you can use it legally in carburetored vehicles. You’re not supposed to do that with av fuel (it’s leaded) unless it’s an airplane
Ya, 91 octane here in VT too. Because it comes from the same hose as the other flavors, I run a gallon or two into my car before I fill the gas can. That's been covered here before.Quote:
Originally Posted by cat in january
Pullin em out
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I've only ever seen 94 octane or so in CA sold as race fuel for the desert OHV crowd. 87 would have been nice for my carbed motos. New one is fuel injected so I can put regular 87 in it without issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by bodywhomper
I pretty much hate pulling t-stakes, had to do it a lot when I worked at the ski area. But it’s fairly easy when the ground’s soft, I guess. Just watch the handle, don’t stand with your face over it.Quote:
Originally Posted by bodywhomper
One of the small engine repair shops in town sells racing fuel in one gallon and 5 gallon jugs. I’m pretty sure it’s leaded and super expensive (over $10/gallon last time I was there in the summer). The same shop recommends buying AV Fuel at the local airport as a cheaper alternative for small engines.Quote:
Originally Posted by evdog
It’s not too tough to just pull right now, but our clay is a pita. This time of year, the t-stakes will pull out, but there’ll be an extra large chunk of clay attached. When the ground dries more, it’s super hard to pull em w/o some mechanical help. The t-stake tool with the farm jack has been a great combo for me, but gotta pay attention as you said!Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
We’re starting the process of relocating our veggie garden. The t-stake getting removed was part of the fencing of the old garden. The utility took out some trees as a result of their new “advanced vegetation management” policy, which opened up a new space for us for growing. We burned the area for the new garden a few weeks ago as step one to remove some blackberries and clear the ground. Some blackberry is already re-sprouting - GRRR!
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Last broadcast burn until the fall. We got the last “wilder” spot of on our property to burn that won’t take a chunk of time processing logs or debris prior to ignition.
The Calfire’s new online broadcast burn permit process is very simple. From opening the webpage, to completing the form and a basic burn plan, to the brief interview with a Calfire chief, I had a (LE-7) permit in about 3 hrs. The chief told me that most of their staff do small one- or two-people broadcast burns on their properties for fuels reduction and ecosystem stuff just like we’ve been doing. The affirmation felt good.
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Permits are suspended on Monday. It’s too bad. At my place, grasses are still very green and not carrying ground fire well.
Now it’s back to gathering slash, weed whacking, and processing felled trees.
^ Nice.
Surface fuels finally dried. Mid-morning break from the desk
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We’re thinking of upgrading our string trimmers.
We have a low end echo gas trimmer. As we improve our property (less than 2ac), we’re getting more grasses growing. Long periods of time using that string trimmer is rough on my back and makes my hands buzzing/numb for hours afterwards. We’re considering an upgrade: something with bicycle bars and harness, plus something powerful enough for a blade attachment that can be sharpened to deal with tree sprouts (instead of using a chainsaw and loppers).
Looking as used trimmers in a large area around me on various online sources, I don’t see any of the higher powered trimmers.
What’s up with the battery powered string trimmers that meet this need? Brand differences? Currently, I do not see us needing to replace/upgrade any of our other small engine hand tools except maybe a pole saw….
I use a Milwaukee string trimmer, and have the 10” bar pole saw attachment. I like them but they aren’t cheap, especially for a kit like you’re looking for. I’m vested in the Milwaukee system, so I’ve been buying as needed. Got a number of M18 batteries for a number of tools.
But the string trimmer + motor is about $200 retail, the pole saw attachment is about $170, and the disc cutter attachment (they call it Reciprocator) is $400!!! I don’t know if the cheaper edger attachment would work for you on sprouted trees. Then there are the batteries…you’ll probably need one or maybe two 8ah (or 12ah) batteries for two acres. I’ll let you look up the price there.
I can’t tell you if they’ll work for your back, but they don’t give my mediocre back any trouble, and they’re quiet.
I just bought a Stihl FS131 bicycle handle with the upgraded deluxe dual harness. This thing is worth the $$$. It is replacing a standard handle Stihl FS90. I can cut for hours with the 131 and little to no fatigue. I am using it on 6 acres.
Also, if you are doing a bunch of trimming, swap out the head for one of these speed loading heads; super fast to reload line. Just buy one and thank me later. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I got to use this for a few hours last weekend doing trailwork and was pretty happy with it for grasses and weaker brush. Anything above 1/4" thickness and woody stems it started to have trouble with, which was a bit surprising. The harness held most of the weight but I did find some hand numbness after a couple hours steady use. Not sure bicycle handles would help with that. In this case with the steep upslope and dropoff below the trail bed I was having to lift the head up and down a lot manually which was also tiring. On flatter ground I could have relied more on the harness to support it.
It's a Stihl KM 131R with the triple metal blade. And its the combi model that you can swap out with a pole saw, and the main arm is detachable so it packs down to half length for transport.
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Thanks for to the inputs. I’m not invested in any of the battery systems yet. And I’m intrigued with the systems that can be used for pole saw and string trimmer. I didn’t know that was a thing. I think the back and fatigue issue for me is mainly after working after the firsts tank of fuel and because I’m working on uneven terrain. Knowing myself I’ll probably slow roll any purchase decision.
Ryobi now has an 18V One+ bicycle handle string trimmer/brush trimmer combo listed online. I bought their purely residential trimmer edger combo and swear by the trimmer. I've not used my gas trimmer once since I got the Ryobi.Quote:
Originally Posted by bodywhomper
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I wasn’t aware that ryobi had trimmers using their 18v batteries. I only thought it was using their 40v series. I have several 18v ryobi small hand tools. I’d need more batteries for our current need, which is growing (heh!) every year, but at the same time, changing batteries does give a nice quick break from work. I usually use refueling of my power tools as the chance for a break. Things to think about.
Here’s some nonchainsaw land maintenance stoke from 2 weekends ago.
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I give you credit for having the desire, dedication and energy to take care of a multi acre property. Maybe when retirement arrives, but at the moment I have little interest in spending more than the absolute minimum time on yard work.
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I have mixed feelings. I try to make it fun and make sure we do not dedicate too much time to it and not enough time to funner things. Burning my land is pretty cool. I’m glad we do not own more than we have. It came with heavy deferred maintenance and a Xmas crop that was planted 40 yrs before we bought the property but never harvested. I look forward to the time when we are mainly in maintenance mode.
I need to buy a snow blower for Tahoe. Is Honda worth twice the price of Arien’s? Looking at a 24” model.
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The thing is once you're retired you're not going to want to do that much work take it from meQuote:
Originally Posted by BC13
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Originally Posted by neufox47
I find the biggest difference is in the superior maneuverability of the Honda. The Honda is worth the extra $ especially if you have many turns to make each snowfall. Honda's biggest downfall (other than price) is sheer bolts break readily, but are very simple to replace w 1 wrench.
If you have a 200' driveway thats 10' wide ariens is fine, if you're continually making turns get the Honda. I make LOTS of turns so my 24" Honda is great for that. I'd go larger than 24" if storage space wasn't an issue or your area is wide, if possible. It's a purchase that could easily last 20 years. Battery start is a must.
My buddy is telling me Honda blowers are in short supply in Boise and the WRV so prices are over MSRP right now in places.
This is a track of my snowblowing that I made because my fitness trainer would laugh at me when I told her that snowblowing was exercise.
The extreme left is the long, narrow patio, the clump in the middle is the driveway, and the path on the right is me clearing the street(so the next pass by the city doesn't bury my driveway) and the fire hydrant access.
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i ran a Honda at treeline on the womens olympic DH course so that was a lot of snow, I was wearing crampons and the extra traction was nice, Honda reliability would probably be good for doing a lot of snow blowing but IME if you have a lot of driveway something with a blade is faster , the house on acreage with a big circular driveway I was caretaking took 2 hrs with a 24"er but only 20 min when buddy got a quad with blade and it was more fun
for most city sized lots 24" is enough, my house with a double driveway only takes 15min the 24" fits easier between cars and gates,
also I usually don't have to blow more than 1 foot of snow, if you are regularly dealing with 2 ft of snow maybe you need a bigger unit and/or honda or a blade ?
my craftsman is now 15 yrs old and its fine, I proactively changed the belts a few years in the summer as oposed to trying to do it at -15 which was smart cuz sourcing belts took a bit so I would have been screwed if I waited till it broke
You get a place up the hill? Congrats!!Quote:
Originally Posted by neufox47
Not specific to snowblowers, but my Honda generator continues to not disappoint. It’s at least 15 yrs old. In the past 9 yrs, I’ve put almost 700hrs on it. Over 600 of those hrs have been burned using av fuel because of ethanol. I feel like i put it away wet after every use. It’s running now and fired up w/o a problem. First use since last winter.
What’s interesting, is that many of my neighbors are retired. They use small engine tools and/or day laborers for a lot of the work they do. Most were public servants so they retired “early.”Quote:
Originally Posted by liv2ski
For stuff related to broadcast burning, my community has a prescribed burn association and an associated active gov agency (Resource Conservation District) that helps pool resources to help peeps with the labor involved and appropriate education. Last week, the RCD hosted a local high school club to put in control lines and burn units on an elderly (recently) widow’s property. Helps her out a lot(!) educates the kids in many ways, and reduces hazard in her neighborhood. The PBA/RCD will burn her units before next summer.
I bought a new non-chainsaw tool for land maintenance. JR tools is local. Our cheap mcleod is wearing out and it’ll take me a bit of work to make it better. This thing is built to last, much lighter than our McLeod, will have multiple uses on our little bit of land, and easy to replace broken/worn out parts.
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^ Those chingaderas are better than McLeods for moving duff and dirt, IMO anyway. Enjoy working your ass off. :tongue:
:D
Thanks. I basically need it to blow a path about 75’ long, but that path includes the shed from one side of the house. Which is often a 6-8’ berm after a good storm
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My dad was a really good fabricator and he made those ^^ things out of the steady source of scrap SS he had acess to he could make you anything out of SSQuote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
That’s a good skill.
JR has a small stash of 2nd’s/irregulars that are a little warp from the heat treatment process that he offers to walk-in’s.