tree removal

Clean up; west fence area trees

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

We had another cooler day today; after this it’s supposed to heat up again, so I took advantage of it to continue in the west yard trees.  I am so close to being finished here (I’ve decided not to do the rest of the fence line itself for now), I’m getting excited, because it means I can finally move on to the spruce grove perimeter. :-D  I’d like to get as much as I can done there, before I have to stop for the year.

The first thing I did was finally take down the two dead trees by the smaller willow. (The before and after pictures are taken from opposite directions)

The one that was about midway between the two willows was a bit of a job.  It was tall enough, and leaning enough, that it was well into the branches of the big willow.  Which means that, after I cut the trunk, the base just swung over to the big willow, and there it hung.  It did not want to come down!

The wood from these trees is going to be kept for the fire pit.

The tall stumps are being left until we get a full size chainsaw.

On to the next area…

There’s not a lot of visible difference here, since I worked in this area yesterday.  I took down the dead half of the maple trees.  After that, most of what I did was take down dead branches from above, except from the one mostly dead spruce that will be taken down entirely.

Next areas; the last of those rows of spruces!

Also, I found a third little tamarack hiding in them.

It really looked like a spindly, dead spruce.  I honestly probably should have taken it out, but I really want to keep the tamarack. I also should probably have thinned the spruces out more, too, because of how close together they are, but they look strong and healthy enough to make it.  So for now, they will stay.  Next year, perhaps, we can transplant the tamarack, instead.

After this, I finally got to working among the beeches.

The before picture, I’d taken yesterday.  If you look along the beeches, you can see a single trunk, slightly out of line.

It turned out not to be a trunk at all.  It was a branch that had fallen straight, and was standing there, held up by the other branches!  You can even see the broken bit it had come from.

I’ve been finding quite a lot of dead branches held up by others.  One I pulled down earlier and moved out today, filled the wheelbarrow all on its own!

In the northernmost row, I found another Colorado Blue spruce, with an elm tree growing right next to it.  Well.  Two elms, really, right up against each other.

The spruce was planted deliberately; the elm would not have been.  Because of how big a Colorado Blue can potentially get, I took out the elm and some small maples near it as well.  I probably should have taken out the maple to the right of the foreground in the after photo too, but it seems to be doing okay.  We’ll see how the spruce survives.

Here’s another view of the rows.

20180814.cleanup.westyardtrees.rows.after

By this point, I didn’t really have the energy to keep breaking down the cut pieces and hauling them out of the yard, or dragging out entire trees.  I opened the gate at this end, so I wouldn’t be weaving through trees to the gate by the fire pit, then around the pile.  Instead, I was pushing my way through really tall grass, and wearing down a path.  As I was taking down bigger and bigger dead branches, and thinning out more trees, I just started piling it all in the space that had been plowed.  I will drag it out another day.

The row of trees closest to the beeches appears to be all crab apple trees.  Most have no apples, and the one that does, has almost none on it.  This is not a good place to plant fruit trees. :-/

Moving along the rows…

This area is not complete, though I might not do much more than this, this year.  The elms in the north row needed to be thinned out; one was right up against another, and it turned out to be dead.  The larger maple to the right in the photo will also be thinned down.  The side branches would have been suckers that never got pruned back when they should have.  The main trunk in the middle is suffering for it.  I wasn’t able to get all the dead branches out of it, and won’t be able to reach a lot of them until the side trunks are cleared out.

Once that is done, it will allow more light to reach the apple trees, too.

Speaking of which…

This is where I was working when I stopped to take a phone call.  Which was well timed.  I was at the point of telling myself it was really time to stop for the day, but I kept doing just a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit…  and before I knew it, an hour had passed. :-D

I don’t know that I’ll be able to work in here again over the next few days, but when I do get back to it, I will continue thinning the crab apple trees out.  There is a big one at the end, with large branches reaching towards the power pole.  That part of it is covered with apples (it looks like another of the ornamental apples trees, they are so tiny), but only where the morning sun touches those leaning branches.  The rest of the tree is struggling, with few leaves and many dead branches.  It’s all just too crowded in there, with elm and maple tangled around each other in the canopy, blocking the light for most of the day.

The eastern end of this area of trees is where they are growing under the power line, and where the arborist will be trimming some of them back.  They can do the tall stuff.  I will do the short stuff! :-)

When I came out after my phone call to get the last after pictures, I got a couple of others of interest.

Last month, I decided to take down a small elm tree because it was growing directly under the power lines.  As I have been doing in many other places, I left a tall stump to go back to later.  You can see it here, next to the spruce tree I’d pruned the lower branches from.

20180717.cleanup.maplegrove.west.after5b

This is what it looks like, now.

20180814.stump.newgrowth

Maples and elms are very resilient trees.  You can cut them back like this, and they will start growing back!

I could leave it to grow, and just keep pruning it short so it will never reach the power lines.

I don’t know if that’s a good idea, though.

A decision I can make another time.  For now, I will leave it and see how it does.

Later, while visiting Beep Beep and her kittens by the old garden shed, I saw something I’ve been finding in a number of places around the yard.

20180814.mystery.holes

A whole bunch of holes, dug into the ground.

I’ve found some in the open area between rows of trees behind the storage house.  Now that I’ve cleared up so much of the trees, I’m starting to find them there, too.  I am guessing it’s a small animal digging up insects or grubs?  Some of the holes are quite deep.

Anyone know what might be making these holes?

The Re-Farmer

Clean up; west fence line, moving north

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

It’s been a much cooler day today, so I took advantage of it and continued working along our west fence line.

In all, the before and after photos below represent about 2 1/2 hours work.  This includes pausing to take some video, and also pausing to drag away the branches and tree trunks I took down.

What a job!

Let’s start at that group of three maples, where I left off last time. Continue reading →

Clean up progress; west yard trees

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today, I went back to around the west side of the maple grove to continue cleaning up.  This time, however, I focused on the area nearest the fire pit and gate.  This area seemed to have been mostly spruces, though only a few have survived.

Let’s look at the before pictures.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.1before

This spruce tree is right behind one of our piles of wood for the fire pit.  It’s doing rather well, though as with most spruces, the lowest branches on the trunk were dead and hidden by the ones above.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.2before

Right at the wood pile is an elm tree that we thought was dead, but after we finally got some decent rain, suddenly shot out some green.  It is still mostly dead, but we’ll be leaving it for now.

Most of the spruces behind it are completely dead.  Only two are still alive, plus one scrawny little thing that I’m hoping will survive now that I’ve cleared away the dead stuff.

I went further under the trees for these next photos.

 

Going through here, looking at all the dead wood, all I could think of was “that’s a fire hazard, that’s a fire hazard, that’s a fire hazard…”

I started by pruning the spruce in the top photo and working my way in a bit, then went to taking down the two bigger dead spruces.  These ones have been making a mess of my nerves, every time we used the fire pit and a breeze blew towards them!

I took the bigger one down first, because it was easier to get at.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.1tree.down.1

When it finally started to drop, it got hung up on the trees on the other side of the gate.  The cut part also just stayed on the trunk.  I finally grabbed a piece of wood from the log pile and swung it like a baseball bat against the trunk.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.1tree.down.2

It still just dropped straight down, being held up by the other trees.

I finally got it to fall, though!

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.1tree.down.3

After this, I cut the tree up into small sections so I could move it and work on the next one.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.2tree.down.1

Which also got stuck and needed whacking.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.2tree.down.2

It, too, was being held up by the trees on the other side of the gate.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.2tree.down.3

My older daughter happened to come out to ask me something, so she got to do the whacking…

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.2tree.down.4

And also got it down from the other trees.

After this, I took down the two smaller dead spruces.

Then I realized I had completely blocked the gate, so the smaller stuff I would have taken to the pile outside the yard with a wheel barrow had to wait.

Here are the after pictures.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.1after

In the foreground is the spruce from the top photo.  As I cleaned up after taking down the dead spruces, including cutting back some spreading lilac and caragana, I kept finding more and more dead stuff, buried under dead leaves and grass, and especially along the fence line.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.6after

I’m leaving the stumps of the trees I took down for now.  You can see the pruned trunks of the two remaining spruces here; the skinnier one has just a few live branches at the top.  There are still dead branches I want to prune away, but for those, I’ll need the extended pruner, so it will wait for now.

There’s still lots to clear out of here but, at this point, the heat was becoming and issue and I was getting ready to head inside.

20180730.cleanup.firepitarea.trees.down.after

The remains of the 4 dead spruces I took down, plus some of the larger dead pieces I dragged out while cleaning up.  Lots of dead caragana and lilac hidden among the living.  It seemed every time I thought I was done, I kept finding more and more to pull out!

I was just taking these last photos when my daughters came out to haul it all out of the yard for me.

They are so awesome!

Though it’s no where near done, the difference is still pretty amazing.

The Re-Farmer

Clean up, west maple grove, continues

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Such a lovely day today!

We had a gentle rainfall this morning, and when it cleared up, it stayed nice and cool.

Perfect weather for some manual labour!

So after a run into town this morning for a medical appointment for my husband, I spend the afternoon working on the next section of the west side of the maple grove.

Photo heavy post, ahead! :-D

Here are some before and after pictures, starting from the south side.  I took this from where I last finished off. (click on the images to see larger versions)

I decided to take out the little caraganas, since there are two large ones in the areas I’d cleaned up before.

I didn’t use the weed trimmer first, as I had last time, since it’s corded and there had been rain.  I suppose the electrical cords likely would have been fine, but trimming damp greenery just makes a mess that needs to be scraped off the trimmer guard, frequently.  That, and I didn’t mind leaving the flowers to bloom longer, though dragging trees or pushing a wheel barrow through them sort of negated that particular thought! :-D

In the background, you can see the dry, small-wood pile that we use for the fire pit.  Almost everything I took out today got hauled outside the yard, mostly by wheel barrow, so very little was added to that pile.

Mostly little things to clean out here.  I am finding quite a bit of these…

20180725.cleanup.maplegrove.west.stump

… very old stumps of either maple or elm (this one is maple) that have a whole lot of suckers around it.  When I find these, I choose one that looks the strongest, straightest and healthiest, then cut away the rest, plus any dead suckers that are around as well.  After this, I’ll just need to maintain around them, cutting back suckers and doing judicious pruning, and the remaining sucker should survive.  With proper care, ten or twenty years from now, they should be very big, strong trees. :-)

I didn’t need to do a lot in this section.  A bit of clearing away in one area, and finding plenty of dead branches buried in the tall grass.

I was able to do a fair bit of clean up on the nearer willow, which you can see somewhat better in these pictures.  The willow was as far west as I worked, today.  There are two big old willows in here, including one you can see way out at the very end of the row, at the fence line.  The nearer one, unfortunately, it showing a lot of rot.  It sounded quite hollow as I worked around it.  It has had sections at the bottom cut away and, at one point, I climbed up on them to reach a dead branch to trim away, only to have one part of it collapse under my foot, because it was so rotten.  I am actually not sure how it’s still standing, to be honest.  And yet, it looks quite green and healthy at the top!

Another area that needed very little work; I mostly used the pruning saw to take down dead branches higher up.  That and removing dead branches hidden in the grass.

Here, things started needing a lot more clean up.  The wheel barrow in the background is as far West as I worked.

There were some small, dead and dying spruce trees that I took out.

Removing these is a multi-stepped process.  As you can see in the before picture, there are a lot of dead branches on the lower trunks.  I would cut away these branches from the bottom 5 or so feet, then top the tree by cutting the trunk at about 4 1/2 feet.  After dragging the top out to the wood pile, I’d then cut the remaining trunk to between 1 and 2 feet.  I will go back to them later to cut them as level to the ground as I can.

After I had topped one dead spruce tree, I starting cutting the remaining trunk at about 2 feet from the ground.  The trunk, however, would vibrate so much, my saw blade would bounce right out of the cut.   So I grabbed it and gave it a yank, watching the ground as I did.  The tree looked like it could just be torn from the ground, so I set myself up and started pulling.

Things where going well, until there was a sudden crack; the next thing I knew, I was flat on my a$$, my hat flying one way, and my glasses another.

Crud.

I very carefully squirmed to my knees, making sure there was no chance of me accidentally crushing my glasses, and began looking for them.  The problem with this was, I needed my glasses to be able to see!

Thankfully, I eventually saw some metallic reflections next to the wheel barrow.  They were fine!  What a relief.  That last thing we would have needed is the expense of a new pair of glasses!

This is why I fell.

20180725.cleanup.maplegrove.west.break

That little tree had been dead for a good long time!

When looking through this section of spruces before, I had estimated that I would need to take out 2 out of every 3 spruces, just to get them spaced well enough to thrive.

20180725.cleanup.maplegrove.west.crowded.row

I hoped that taking out the dead and dying trees would be enough to take care of that spacing I wanted, though they were all looking pretty dead.

I was mostly right.

As I began taking down some spruces and pruning the dead branches of the ones I hoped would survive, I worked my way over to where I figured I should take down another spruce, only to realize…

20180725.cleanup.maplegrove.west.crowded.row.tamarack

…it wasn’t a spruce at all.

It was a sad little tamarack, hidden in between the dead and dying spruces.

Spacing wise, it was right where I should be removing a tree, so I could salvage the spruces.  There was a second tamarack a couple of trees over, and that’s it.

None of them look all that healthy, to be honest.

I decided to keep the tamaracks and took out the spruce, instead.

Which turned out to be a good thing.

After topping off the spruce I had originally intended to keep, I discovered it was so weak, I was able to tear it out of the ground.

I didn’t work beyond the second tamarack.  I think there’s a different type of spruce in there.  There are some Colorado blues in there, but one of them has almost silvery needles.  There are so few living branches on it, though, it’s hard to tell if it’s a different type, or if it’s just dying.  When I get to that section, I’ll take a closer look and figure it out.

The birch trees are as far North as I’m working in this section.  Aside from picking up fallen branches from them, I didn’t do anything with the birch, yet.  From what I can see so far, they aren’t going to need much.

Here, I had some interesting finds.  While pruning the lower branches of some spruces, there were a few times where I would decide that some particular branches were high enough and strong enough to leave, but on top of them were dead branches, fallen from nearby trees!

My pruning saw has a really well designed hook at its very end that is perfect for grabbing these and pulling them down.  Some, however, had been dangling there for so long, when I tried to pull them down, they would just shatter into pieces!

Now, I think I’m going to have a hot soak in the tub.  My shoulders are a bit achy for some reason.  ;-)

The Re-Farmer

After and after-after shots

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

This afternoon, I went back to the area in the maple grove I worked on last.  Rather than working my way farther down the rows of trees, I focused on taking down dead and dying trees, pruning away lower branches, and so on.

So here are the after pictures from before, and the after-after pictures from today. :-D (click on them for larger images)

When I took pictures last time, I had worked closer to ground level, so you can’t really see as much of what I cleared away higher up.  There’s a nice, straight spruce tree in the middle that had a lot of dead branches that I pruned away.  In this section, that tree saw the most work.

I pruned as many branches as I could reach.  One tree has a large dead and rotting branch that will have to wait until I’ve got a full size chain saw.

Aside from pruning, this area had a small, dead spruce tree taken out, too.

I did nothing with the big dead spruce tree in front (with the rock at its base), though some of the lower branches were a bit in the way.

This area is where I started to need to do a lot more picking and choosing.

The maple that’s under the power lines came down.  I left the stump tall for when I have a full size chain saw.  If I were to just leave it, it would probably start growing new branches.  Maples are resilient that way.

More small trees had to come down.  I’m trying to salvage some of those spruces, but the more I look at the one on the right of the photo – the healthiest looking one out there – the more I realize I will probably need to take it down completely.  It’s just too close to the power line.  It’s not a problem now, but it can potentially grow another 20 ft or more, and it’s already just a few feet shorter than the height of the line.

I think I will leave it for now and ask the arborists when they come out.

Lots to clean up in this area.  I got to one tree that was clearly planted deliberately; the sticks that had been put in the ground to mark and protect it when it was planted were still there.  When I got to it, however, I discovered that the only green leaves on it were from those vines!  Once I pulled those free, I could see the tree was quite dead.  In other areas, I took down a dying spruce that had been planted in the row, but growing out of its base were two self-sown maples.  I ended up taking out one of them.  We shall see how the other one survives.  In other areas, I was pruning branches from a couple of elms so close together, I couldn’t fit between the trunks, but they seem to be doing fine, so I’m not going to thin them down.  Unlike the dead spruce that was also right next to them.  The spruce was planted.  I think the elms sowed themselves.

As I was working, I noticed I was getting pretty close to the birch trees I’d noticed when I was surveying the area a while back.  I had shown the pictures I took to my mother and she was happy to see them.  She had transplanted them from saplings she dug up while visiting her grandparents’ homestead up north, years ago.

I also found some apple trees further in.  A strange place to plant them.  The one closes to the power pole gets enough light that it is now producing apples, but these ones are practically in the dark.  It will be good when I finally go through that area to thin and prune.  Hopefully, they will be able to do better, next year, because of it. :-)

Not back for a couple of hours.

My branches piles are getting huge. :-/

Next time, I will finally start working further West down the rows.

The Re-Farmer

An Afternoon’s Work

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Yesterday afternoon, I got some progress done in the maple grove.  I don’t expect to do more later today, as it’s supposed to get quite hot again.  We shall see.

At this point, I’m just slowly working my way Westward from the garden path I recently cleared out.  I had already gone through here and taken out the fallen branches that I could find.  Well.  At least the bigger ones.  I’m always finding more, hidden under the tall grass!

Here are some before and after pictures. :-)  (click on them for larger images)

This is the area directly North of the trees I’d been working on a little while ago.  Quite a bit of dead brushes that I couldn’t tell what they were.  Some seemed to have either very long thorns, or very pointy twigs!  Those pretty much pulled out of the ground, they’ve been dead for so long.

Just past the elm tree on the right of the photo was this…

20180717.cleanup.maplegrove.west.mossy.maple

I really liked it when I found it; that moss covered stump of an old maple looks to nice.

Most of what was around it was dead or dying, with little bitty new growth coming up and making it look more alive than it really was!  I did keep the two strongest ones, which you can see in the after photo above.

Lots to clean up, here!

I would have loved to keep the two maples in front (you can see their remains in the after photo), but they were right under the power lines.  Maples can get so huge, there was just no way it was worth leaving them.  Better to take them down when they’re small then when they’re big.

I had gone in with the weed trimmer, first, just enough to clear away the grass so I could see any hidden branches.  Even though I’d cleared a lot out already, there was quite a lot left to take out, even before I could start cutting and pruning.

The spruce tree with the rock at the base is dead, and is the one we will be getting the arborists to take down when they clear the power lines.  It isn’t at the line, but is tall enough that if it falls, it could land right on it.

You can’t see it in the after pictures, but I was able to clear a smaller dead spruce behind the big one.

I didn’t think to take a before picture that included the power pole.  I hadn’t expected to clear anything that far.

The maple tree in the foreground is going to have to come down.  I hate to do it, as it’s a nice, healthy tree, but it’s also right under the power lines.

I also cleared some small elm and maple from by the power pole for the same reason.  I cut away the bottom branches of the spruce near the pole, but am considering if it’s worth the risk of keeping.  It’s not directly under the power lines, but when it reaches its full height, it would be a falling risk.  I think I’ll wait until we are ready to get the arborist in and ask them.

20180717.cleanup.maplegrove.west.spruce.down

Some of the dead spruces could just be torn out of the ground, like this one!

I cut back the lower dead branches on a couple of little spruces, but some of them have only a few living branches barely above my head.  As I work my way down, I’m going to have to pick and choose which to keep and which to take down.  Once there’s more space between them, while also clearing away more from the trees near them, I’m hoping the survivors will have enough sun and space to fill out and grow stronger.

Oh, and those vines!!  They are everywhere!

Unfortunately, I may have done something to my new little chain saw!  After a while, it start to “scream” and get easily jammed.  I took it into the sun room (where I keep the packaging, and the tools that came with it), opened up the side and started cleaning out the blade oil soaked sawdust that was jammed around the blade.

Then the blade and chain fell off.  I was hoping to avoid that.

No worries.  I’ll just pop it back on, right?

Suddenly, I couldn’t remember if the blade had landed upside down, or right side up!  I took out the instruction booklet and read it over.  According to the diagram, the logo should be facing me as I put it on; except the logo is already warn off.  The print on the other side is still very visible, but that isn’t anywhere on the diagram.

If I look at the image elsewhere, however, the logo is on the other side of the chainsaw.

Now, I know I put it on facing the right way.  My head knows that.  But I can’t help but keep double checking.  Finally, I was done, brought it back to where I was working, tried to cut my first branch and…

It’s still screaming, and jams easily.

So I just stopped it and set it aside.  Then went back to using a hand saw.

Not going to take any chances!

Some of what is in here is going to have to wait for a full size chain saw, anyhow.

It’s going to look so good in here when I’m done!

The Re-Farmer

Clean Up: Maple Grove, evening progress

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I wrote up my last post while taking a hydration break from working in the maple grove.  By the time I was done, I found myself nodding off at the keyboard.  I figured lying down wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Three hours later… :-o

But, I’ve got it done as much as I can for now.

Here are the before and after pictures of the two North rows.

I cleared out two of the tree spruces in the foreground of the second picture.  The two I took out had a few green sprigs here and there, but were otherwise dead.  I also cut off the dead branches from the one in the middle.  I am hoping that, now that it’s open and clear, it will survive.

The remaining spruces in that northernmost row are doing pretty good.  I trimmed the lowest branches, as well as the dead ones that I could reach with a hand saw.  The dead ones were mostly on the south side of the trees, where they had no light.  The other living spruce trees, I only took off what was in my way as I moved around.  I will finish cutting away the dead branches when my birthday gift comes in. :-)

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.raspberry.patch

This is the remains of a row of raspberry bushes.  I can see some dead canes from years past, but no fresh canes in this area.

To the right, you can also see a gooseberry bush I found.  I had cleared out a broadleaf tree that was between two spruces, and discovered the gooseberry under it!

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.big.gooseberry

Then there’s this gooseberry bush, in dire need of having the deadwood cut away.  It’s growing next to a chokecherry tree, which was also overgrown and in need of pruning at its base.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.gooseberry.chokecherry.cleared

It was amazing how cutting just one sucker at the bottom of the chokecherry tree cleared almost everything up!  A few downward hanging branches to clear away, and various saplings, burdock and stinging nettle to clear away at the base, and what a difference!  I even found some raspberry bushes with baby berries on them.

The gooseberry, on the other hand, has almost no sign of berries on it at all, and what little it does have are not looking good.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.appletree.before

This is the very end of the “raspberry” row, with an apple tree near the compost pile.  There’s even a lonely little asparagus fern growing in here!

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.appletree.after

I found more salvageable raspberry canes.  After cutting away some lower branches and saplings at the base of the apple tree (including maple and elm saplings), it was basically just weeding and removing old raspberry canes.  There are some plants in there I recognize as flowers my mother planted, so I tried to avoid taking those out.  Lots of creeping charlie and burdock in here.

At this point, I called it a night.  Which worked out perfectly, because that’s when I got a call from the second tree care company about coming over.  It was another father and sons team. :-)

When they got here, I showed them the areas I wanted work done on, plus the trees to come down.  He asked questions about how far back I wanted to cut things (basically, enough to not have to do this again for 5 years).  He wanted to know about the overhanging branches, which would normally be left if they are not touching the lines.  One of them is a very healthy maple tree, and cutting it back would mean removing pretty much half the tree.  When I pointed out it was from those overhanging branches that we got the burned branch from, and that it had happened before, causing a power outage, he understood why I didn’t want ANY overhanging branches at all.  They even measured the trunks of the trees that will be taken down, including the dead spruce.  They had to take into account being able to get their equipment in, too, and I told them about the three different gates that were available.  We also talked about cleanup.  He charges extra if they bring in a chipper, but I did say I wanted to keep the chips for mulch, and to keep the bigger wood, too.  He mentioned they don’t usually chip dead branches, because it dulls the cutting edges, but the stuff they’ll be cutting back will mostly be life branches.

He took a whole bunch of notes, and I will get the estimate emailed to me.

I told him about how we don’t own the land, and that I am getting estimates to talk to my mother and brother about before a decision is made, and that I’m hoping to get it done in the fall.  Or spring, if the cost is higher (which I suspect it will be, with these guys, but we shall see).  He was good with fall, mentioning after August is when they’d be available to do the work, so that works out.

And that’s it for the next while.  Tomorrow will be a trip to the city for my daughter, which should give my body time to rest.  Feeling pretty stiff and sore right now! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Clean Up: maple grove progress

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Today, I am continuing working on the East end of the maple grove, and have just stopped for a hydration break before finishing for the day.

I am thinking it would be a good idea to rent a wood chipper in the fall.  There is just SO much wood being cleaned and cleared away.

So this is what the area looked like on Saturday, after I cleared out the old garden path.

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.near.gardenpath.lookingeast

Apparently, the only photos I have taken from the other end don’t show the whole area.  Ah, well.

An interesting thing about my taking all these before and after pictures, as that I have a time record, too.  I don’t typically pay attention to what time I start or finish, but my phone’s camera is set to use the date and time in the file names.  This means I can say with confidence that I worked about 1 1/2 hours, starting just before noon, in this area.

This is what I did in that 1 1/2 hours. :-)

I started by clearing away by the water tap.  For that one, I just had to take some video.

So… that post isn’t doing anything useful anymore. :-(

I cleared out a couple of dead spruces beside the tap, one of which was rotten enough that I just broke the trunk at ground level and pulled it out.  There were some elms growing out of an old trunk that was pretty big when someone finally cut it down.  That’s the one that has me wondering if the roots have caused any problems with the underground water pipe.

There was another dead spruce nearby that I took down.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.downed.spruce

I even got it to fall right on my pile! :-D

As I moved on and went to pull some stuff out of the grass by another dead tree, I stepped on something that sank under my foot.

Do you see it?

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.hiddenstuff

Neither could I.  Even after using the weed trimmer here, I see nothing.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.hiddenwire

It was some fence wire that was rolled up, but ended up flattened at some point. From the looks of the rusty old soup can I also found under it, it’s been here for quite a long time!

I moved the two tillers closer to the shed so I could clear where they were sitting.  That included moving two garbage cans (one of which was partially sheltering a tiller) and piece of aluminum that looks like it is part of ducting for a large building that used to shelter a push mower.  My brother took the mower to see if he could fix it.

When I went to take out some other fence wire in the area I found…

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.tree.wire

… a chokecherry tree and some vines growing through it.

Some of this is going to wait until my telescoping pole chainsaw arrives – I got a shipping notification in my email this morning. :-)  I also won’t be going back through this area with the weed trimmer until after I’ve cleaned it out more and cut trunks down to ground level.  I was finding too many rocks, branches, brick and pieces of wire.  I got the cheapest weed trimmer I could find, so I don’t want to wreck it!

At the Easternmost end of this area is a couple of dead spruces.  One of them had thick vines growing out the bottom of it that I had cut, but left hanging.

Today, I pulled them out.

The vines may have started at the base of one tree, but part way up, it spread to the other dead spruce tree (and is likely what killed both of them).

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.triffid.vines

Looks like some kind of triffid!!  Some of it broke off and is still in the tree, but this is most of it.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.triffid.trees

These are the two dead spruce threes it was attached to.  Funny.  They look MUCH emptier, now that the triffid vine is out.

Oh, my SIL told me about an app called Plant Snap that I downloaded and tested out.  These vines are Virginia Creeper.  It is related to grapes, but their berries are poisonous to humans (birds can eat them), and the sap can be an irritant.  Because they spread through rhizomes so aggressively, it looks like the only way to permanently get rid of them is with some Roundup.  Which I plan to use elsewhere, at some point, so that works out.  I’m told that spruces are impervious to Roundup, but clearly not to these vines!

This is what the area looks like now.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.progress.afternoon

Later today, I plan to work on that north row.  After that, this section will be pretty much done, other than what is waiting for a chain saw.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.afternoon.treepile

Here is the pile of what 1 1/2 hours of cleaning and clearing trees looks like, including the vines.

Yeah.  Wood chipper.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

Clean Up: Maple Grove, garden path

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

We had some much more pleasant temperatures today, so I headed out to do some work in the maple grove this evening.

After the tree care guy came to give us an estimate, I decided to focus first on clearing the old garden path.  Whether we hire these guys, or the company coming to give a quote on Monday, they will need to bring equipment in to access the trees they will be cutting clear from the power lines.  Good enough reason to start at the old garden path.

This is what it looked like before.

20180617.blocked.path

The deadwood on the ground here is partially cut, and it made up of several trees.  Elm and maple, from the looks of it.

20180523.cleared.lilac

This photo was taken back in May, and you can see where the path is supposed to be in the background.

I also worked my way along the north row of trees, bordering the garden, and heading towards the garden shed.  I started off by using the weed trimmer to take town the tall grass and weeds, so that I could at lease see the branches and trunks.

Then I started dragging stuff out.  This photo is of JUST the deadwood I pulled out of the grass.

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.gardenpath.deadwoodpile

Almost all of this is just from that blocked garden path!  Even after this, I kept finding more, as I walked back and forth and I would step on something.  I’d then go to pick up what I expected to be a small branch, often finding myself pulling out something 6-7 feet long, and completely buried in grass and leaves!

After I cleaned out the stuff already on the ground, I started taking out the dead spruces on either side of the path, and cut back the other trees that I had pulled the deadwood out of.  They were mostly dead, already.  I also took out another small dead spruce tree that was near the big dead one that will be coming down when we get the lines cleared.  I almost left a young elm to grow, until I clued in to how close it was to the big dead spruce.  I looked up and, sure enough, the elm was directly below the power lines.

So that had to go.

Along with the dead stuff, I also cleaned up some suckers at the bases of other trees, or growing out of stumps.  Some of those suckers had been growing long enough to almost be trees all on their own.  For the trees I took down, I left fairly tall stumps to make it easier to see them until I can cut them at ground level.  A fair bit is being left until my birthday present arrives. :-D

I finished off with the weed trimmer again.

Here are the after pictures.

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.gardenpath.after

A couple of the stumps near the centre of the picture were already there, hidden by the suckers growing out of them.  The old garden path is now open!

The big dead spruce tree that will come down is the one with the big rock next to it.  There is also a young maple kind of by itself there right now, and I will be cutting that down when my birthday present gets here.  It’s directly under the power lines, too, and already grown tall enough to almost touch them!

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.near.gardenpath.after

This photo was taken from near the big dead spruce tree.  The main garden area is completely overgrown, but it was so roughly plowed, mowing is not an option.  It’s not a priority right now.

There are three spruces next to each other, just right of centre in the photo.  I am hoping the one in the middle can be salvaged.  The other two are too far gone.

On the garden side, starting from about where those spruces are (I think they are Colorado blues), is the old row a raspberries.  It’s completely choked out with crab grass and weeds, and overshadowed by mostly dead trees, with a very few canes trying to grow.  Another area that is not a priority right now.  When the time comes, we plan to have a raspberry patch with three different varieties, including one with gold coloured berries, that mature at different times.  That way, we will be harvesting berries from July through September. :-)

All in good time.

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.near.gardenpath.lookingeast

I plan to work my way down these two rows of trees, next.  Where the big rock is, is the garden tap.  It’s got a couple of dead trees by it, as well as a live one.  They will all come down to clear the tap, and the buried pipe that leads to the house.  I’m hoping the roots haven’t caused any problems.  I have yet to hook it up at the house end to test it out, since it’s barely accessible right now.

There are two old tillers that have been sitting there for years, one covered with a piece of tin, the other with an old rug.  They should still be salvageable, so I am hoping to be able to move them into a shed or maybe the barn, to get them out of the weather.

Once this area is done, I will turn my attention to the West side of the maple grove.  Lots of deadfall in there, too.

The really big job is going to be dealing with the trees to the North of the grove, that has been so densely planted with trees.

While doing this outside, I also will be working on packing up the old kitchen, so we can get that cleaned out and looking good again.  I want to get that done within the next week.  I’d like to be able to open the door and not worry about the cats getting int. :-)

Lots to do!  :-)

The Re-Farmer

Trees: first quote

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment
2018-06-30.goldfinch

Goldfinch on our platform feeder.

I called two companies to get quotes about clearing our power lines, and removing the two trees that are a risk of falling on our roof.  One called this morning and will be coming out on Monday.  The other came today, so I have one quote now.

There are a LOT of trees that will need to be cut back.  There are the first group of trees in the south yard, the ones in the maple grove to the north of the house, the ones by the second power pole in the main garden, and finally the ones at the fence line as the lines exit the property.  One of the dead spruce trees will be taken down completely, as it is a risk for falling onto the lines, plus the two maples at leaning over the roof will be taken down completely.  They will be bringing a chipper for clean up, and after talking to him about that, I’ve said that we will keep the chippings.  He said the size of the chips are appropriate for composting, so that’s perfect for what I’ve got in mind for various areas.

Altogether, the quote is $1500 (plus, I assume, taxes, to about $1700 total).  For the number of trees they’ll be working on, I find this very reasonable, and we would be able to come up with the funds to get it done in the fall, rather than have to wait until spring.  Though when he saw the maple with the rot in it, he was visibly surprised that tree is still up, and was saying it might be better to not wait until fall!  I told him it’s been like that for years, and yeah, I’m in agreement with him on that.  But we will do it when we have the money.

So that’s one down!

2018-06-30.nuthatch

Nuthatch on platform feeder.

After we get another quote on Monday, we will make a decision on which company to use and start setting aside funds.

I will be much relieved when this is finally done!

The Re-Farmer