We hired a Forestry Mulcher to help widen our Eastern Upper Peninsula woodland trails and create new ones for better access to help manage our 43 acres. It was very difficult to safely get video shots of this machine on trails as you either needed to be in front or behind, neither, wise options. I found this out right quickly as you see in the video. Many shots are zoomed, or as in one sequence, from an elevated deer blind, "Pete's Blind" which still got some spray. I used big trees or any trees to my advantage while on the ground. :D
Forestry Mulcher at work at our Upper Peninsula Cabin. - YouTube (https://youtu.be/uIwgRp1eFPM)
Nice. Good operator. I'm a big fan of mulchers. Some of the best money I ever spent was on a mulcher.
When they set up those machines they put bullet proof glass on the cab for a reason. :o
New U.P. Woodland TRAILS! - YouTube (https://youtu.be/3_KghVaG4HQ)
The mulcher is coming back today. Hopefully Ill get some aerial footage of it at work. I practiced yesterday without issues, so hopefully no drone crash.
What we are doing today is going to dramatically change the view from the cabin. The pond is 410 ft from the back of the yard. All the brush between those 2 points is going to be removed. Lynda has always hated the tag alders. Were goona see the lay of this land for the first time!
Neat looking machine at work. Left you some real nice trails that look like you can maintain with the side by side and the tractor and bushhog. Once you get those 2 dogs trained to pick up and carry off the limbs that fall in the trail you will be all set for good. :)
That is impressive, first time I have seen one at work.
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I need one of those!
Before today, this view didn't exist.
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Looks great Jeff. You're turning that into a real showplace.
I love mulchers. Money well spent when you need to clean up a lot of dense growth. It's amazing what can be done in a day or two by a good operator with a decent machine.
You mentioned that you got more work for less money with this guy. Did he do it on an hourly basis or did he bid it at a fixed price bid? How many hours did it take? It looks like you had him basically cut trails. Did not see any large openings being mulched other than your turnaround.
I have done it both ways depending upon the job. Looks like for your project an hourly rate would have been best suited. I have no idea what the rates run up in your area. My contract states that the customer can not be within 300 ft of operations due to safety. I have had my mulcher throw material over 300 ft and break things in the past. Your operator appears to have had an HDT double carbide tooth setup and that works very nice for the type of work you had done.
Bottom-line a muicher is very environmentally friendly. It takes the vegetation and returns it to the soil via mulching it into various sized pieces or just turning it into an evenly sized fine mulch.
Glad you are happy with the job he did.
Man, you could open a campground now. Lynda must really love this. This is just gorgeous. I think the real treat will be next spring when the brown disappears and you jsut have to run the brush hog over it to keep it down. That has got to feel really good!
@pine (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24143) , The first guy that came out for an estimate quoted me $2000 to do the trail work I wanted at $200 an hour and said he'd do the pond after that in trade for advertising here. He never showed up. Dave, the guy that I eventually hired, did all the trail work AND the pond for $1000. He's a great and fluid operator. If you press him for an hourly rate, its also $200 an hour. He will tell you that with him you get way more bang for the buck and he aint lieing! Yesterday he came back for a beauty job. Creating a view the 410 feet to the pond, where if I can ever raise the money, he will come back and make an honest to goodness fish pond.
Im a bit overwhelmed with the change. 25 years of looking into brush, and just 1 hour after he leaves, I step out and there re 3 deer under the old apple tree that had been hidden in all that brush. I about cried. All the work yesterday was $700.
Guys, my hands are to crippled up to play my instruments anymore and they deserve to be played. 1911 gibson mandolin that was my dads and my 1957 gibson es125 hollow body guitar. If you know a musician looking for some vintage insruments, That is how id like to fund the rest of this if anyone is interested. My dad would be thrilled if I could.
I was able to get back in the cabin and get a quick clip of those deer.
First deer, just 1 hour after mulching brush - YouTube (https://youtu.be/FF5j7QHPo3o)
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Quote from: Old Greenhorn on August 25, 2021, 08:17:49 AM
Man, you could open a campground now. Lynda must really love this. This is just gorgeous. I think the real treat will be next spring when the brown disappears and you jsut have to run the brush hog over it to keep it down. That has got to feel really good!
Site of the next Pig roast? ???
If we did that it might not be a pigroast.
That is a nice job! 8)
You got the right man for the job, Jeff. What a hoot. 8)
My new view to the pond has been obscured all day, my view out to the infield presented me with a line of Turkeys at the far woodline! The word must be getting out! I grabbed a camera but I dont think I got them.
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Well that puts it in perspective! Looks great! 8)
Quote from: Jeff on August 27, 2021, 08:35:04 AM
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More than doubled the space. Now to thin the edges ?
It's looking great Jeff!!
Nice view. Did you need to get a Drone license to be able to use it for Youtube videos?
Its not been used in a youtube video, but I may make one. It just would not be eligible for any kind of monetization when I do. Thats okay. None of my videos get monetized anyhow. Ill make two maybe. One with drone footage and one without.
Its good to have a place to escape the world and all its noise. Well worth the effort. Nice work jeff.
smiley_thumbsup
@SwampDonkey (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1009)
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Great job. Now all that extra grooming every summer. ;D :D
All that is missing now is a butternut tree. ;D
You would a thunk he would of honed in on that...
:D :D Well who knows but the camera man? All I see is green leaves. :D
QuoteGuys, my hands are to crippled up to play my instruments anymore and they deserve to be played. 1911 gibson mandolin that was my dads and my 1957 gibson es125 hollow body guitar. If you know a musician looking for some vintage insruments, That is how id like to fund the rest of this if anyone is interested. My dad would be thrilled if I could.
I was fortunate to be able to check both these out at the Pig Roast a couple years ago, they definitely deserve a good home. (Jeff, please keep me posted on that beautiful pre-war Gibson mandolin. ;))
Nice progress on the land!
Its taken a bjunch of years for the nut to sprout and put a tap root down far enough to start taking off. This year they started to take off. 2 trees survive of the original 4 nuts planted.
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They look nice and healthy leaf-wise. 8)
Foodplot Sweetening - YouTube (https://youtu.be/-eN8SYWA9Ck)
Finally getting a better look via google earth of my work at the cabin. What once was so much brush, is beginning to be something special.
Quote from: Jeff on August 28, 2021, 09:45:49 AMIts taken a bjunch of years for the nut to sprout and put a tap root down far enough to start taking off. This year they started to take off. 2 trees survive of the original 4 nuts planted.
I planted some butternut in 2016 in the Arthur blow down area on my place. It had been aspen and ash in there. 2 years ago in my walk about video they was already over my head. I have a couple older ones that are not too far from making nuts. They don't need to be all that big. One I transplanted for my uncle was making nuts when it was only about a 3" stem.
I've been waiting for a update google picture at my place for 10 years.
My place looks a lot different now too.
It was updated about 10 years ago to show some places that I have cleared off.
What is very noticeable about your place Jeff, is that yours is the only food source improved property that is visible.
It was 2 years between seeing the aerial photo plane fly over and seeing my new house on Google Earth. I knew it was an aerial photo plane because they fly east-west back and forth. The photos overlap about a 30% coverage between one another and as much over the border because they capture the windmills on Mars Hill. I've got imagery from 2019, 21, and 22.