WR Long grapple

[Greenie]

We own 21 acres in town - approximately 5 acres are white pine planted in the 1970's - made crooked by weevils. These trees die off (competition) and I've been struggling with what to do with the dead trees I remove. I burn the brush and softwood but was limited by larger dead pines and getting them to burn. The root grapple seems to be a solution as I can now build larger fires and place larger pieces atop the burning pile.
Very few of the pines are marketable - either as saw logs or hog fuel. Thankfully another 10 acres is mixed hardwood - enough to keep us in firewood indefinitely. 
New to me is a L4760 Kubota tractor fitted to my older Fransgard winch. It works well and gives me something not overly physical (I'm 72) to do in retirement. I can saw for 10 minutes or so and then sit as I take the material to the burn pile. 
After almost 50 years of a career in outdoor recreation (state parks) I get satisfaction keeping our little lot attractive and not too much of an impenetrable fire hazard. 

[thecfarm]

And that is why I got an OWB, to burn that dead pine.
I have about 150 acres of wood.
I have my eye on 2 places that have some EWP dead or dying.
And I know there are other places.
It all started with my father and me cutting logs on this land.
We only had a 40hp tractor and a Norse winch to get the logs out. We would push a dead pine out of the way one day and then the next day push it out of the way again. And there was a lot standing dead too.
If I don't thin it out Mother Nature will.

Have fun with that new to you tractor.

[beenthere]

Greenie
Also have 22 acres of forested land to "keep up" with for the last 60 years. Planted white pine, red pine and black walnut early on after purchasing. Planted red oak and spruce, and all doing well. The spruce grew too fast among the red oak, so have been in serious removal effort to make room for the oak. Now the oak need some thinning. 
To handle the 40-45' spruce trees, mostly just keep adding them to a brush pile, since I stopped making firewood to heat the house 3 years ago. At 86, I just do the maintenance on the land which has been removing 6-10 trees a year. Some blow-downs or broken tops that keep me busy.

A tool that was a big help to maintenance for me is the Turbo Saw. It will plane off a stump to ground level allowing the brush mower to mow over it easily and avoids a hole in the ground, using just my 32 hp tractor.