Upcoming Family Project:

[1693TA]

We have in the family a 30 acre wooded plot that with exception of 2.6 acres is really unusable except for hunting, and ATV riding. My son and I have been dropping trees for the past couple of years off and on to start opening up the back half of acreage for a hay field and homestead. The only flat areas are the 2.6 acres at the front which we have cleared and made usable over the last several years, and the rear area. These flat areas fall off sharply on thee sides being reclaimed strip mine land from the 1930's. There is a mostly dry creek bed separating the two halves of the property and about 57' of elevation change from the level area(s) to the creek bed.

This first photo shows the entrance where the roadway will start. As can be seen in the photos the land starts to descend quickly:




This photo shows the dry creek bed we will cross. I'm thinking a pair or 24" culverts side by side, or a 36" elongated culvert with concrete walls for deck abutments should work. Deck will probably be gravel and earth over the culvert area. You can see where the path starts ascending to the back of the property across the creek.



This is a little "collage" I made with my phone yesterday of the existing path to be opened up. The tentative plan is to bring the hillside back 15' from the solid part of the current path. This will entail a lot of tree removal but I think my tractor will be up to the task. You can see how the land falls off from the upper flat area(s). The photos contained in the collage are taken about 50' apart as I walked the path.

This is the machine which will be tasked for the work:

 

[materthegreater]

From what I see in the pictures it looks like nice land. Gently sloped, no rocks or ledge. Should be easy to work and shape into what you want.

 

[1693TA]

We cut that trail back in 1980-1982 using an F-12, F-20, IH, a couple of VAI Case, and a 4020JD loader tractor along with several chainsaws. Didn't have a dozer, just several tractors and my winch truck for the hard work. The smoothing was done with an I beam which I still use for a road drag every coupe of years behind a VAC Case tractor. Never have done any gravel or rock work, but we didn't know this would last as it has. We'd drop a tree, top it a bit, cable around it's trunk and I'd winch it up to the pile for stacking after cutting and splitting to dry. Lot of hardwood at the time so everything was used. Several pieces of furniture were also made from these trees.