What's your hoe doing?

[NH575E]

Still piddling with this 5 acres I had clear cut 7 years ago. Today was a breakthrough where I think I dug out the final stump and I can now see the back from the front through the volunteer regrowth. Most of these trees are infected with Fusiform Rust so I will eventually get most of them down too.


Every time I work with the backhoe or tractor I get one of these little birds that gets right under me hoping for a free grub. They score every now and then and so far I haven't hit one while digging.

 

[Swetz]

Every time I work with the backhoe or tractor I get one of these little birds that gets right under me hoping for a free grub

My neighbor used to have chickens that were on my property more than theirs. Anyhow, when I would dig with any of my machines they would come running. I would assume they were getting something good the way they high tailed it over to my dig site. I didnt mind, but at times they made it tough to dig...I am sure they were thinking I was a pain with that bucket causing them to run away. They came rite back tho...persistant little buggers...LOL

 

[ianjoub]

Most of these trees are infected with Fusiform Rust so I will eventually get most of them down too.

I am in FL and have never heard of that. What is it? Is it just in long leaf pine?

Ok, did my own googling:

"Loblolly and slash pines are the most affected tree species. Longleaf is fairly resistant; shortleaf is highly resistant. Oak isthe alternate host."

AFC - Fusiform Rust

www.forestry.alabama.gov

 

[NH575E]

Yeah. These are Loblolly.

 

[aighead]

Looking nice NH! We are working on a similar project to see the back of the property from the house. My property is kind of split at the creek where it was forested with honeysuckle. My wife has been clearing a lot of it out so we can see the back tree line, making the "yard" look a lot bigger. Also, that pile was hoed together with all the scrub that was cleared from the other side and is awaiting a good fire.



You can kind of see how grown up this area was before.

 

[aighead]

Oh yeah, it was a little dark out when I took the picture and it's winter time but here's the hill now! Compared to the 2nd post of this thread, pretty cool and it's working!

 

[Bootheal]

It does look good. Well done.

 

[NH575E]

JD standing by to feed the pile as needed. We are allowed piles up to 8 feet without a permit so I just stick with that. Permits aren't that hard to get but the last time I called I got tired of answering all the questions.

 

[aighead]

For fire? I understand, but that's bullsh!t. You could have a burning man style fire there and be fine.

 

[Willie B]

Last week I was thinking how nice the air suspension seat was. Sunday I drove the hoe 8 miles, some of it on very rough potholed road. I was smugly enjoying my air ride seat, fine tuning it so my ample body didn't bottom it out or bounce to the limit of travel.
Monday afternoon I brought it home, same thing.

Yesterday evening it wouldn't pump up It was fully bottomed. Pump made the usual noise, but no inflation.

 

[Welder Dave]

Too much bouncing and you killed it.

 

[Swetz]

Too much bouncing and you killed it.

Actually I was gonna say...Your "ample body" did it in...LOL

 

[aighead]

On Sunday we went out to work a bit more on that area I mentioned above. The story goes that there used to be a guy that lived in a bus back in this area, probably at least 25-30 years ago. I'm not sure if it was him or just a dumping ground for the previous owners but we've found a fair amount of metal waste- chain link fence, fence posts (both metal and wood), railroad ties, and other assorted crap, so it was time to get in there, remove the honeysuckle stumps, and dig a hole to toss all this junk into. My first hole was not big enough so I dug another attached to it. We tossed all the junk in there then realized that the downed tree was covering even more, so I'll repeat the removes stump, dig a quite large hole and toss junk into it. I'll probably have to extract that tree first, and it's a biggie! It's also kind of floating, so I'm not positive how it'll come out.

 

[aighead]

Well, I kinda screwed the post up... You can see the tree that is floating there, in the last picture you can see how it's pointing up towards the sky and it's probably 15 or so feet up out there.

 

[T-town]

Hey Aighead....things look pretty dry there?? Good to see your getting some things done!
We are just losing the snowpack here. Have not had any frost depth to speak of all season.... but we are too wet to work anything just yet... unless you wanted to make a mud mess

 

[rumblecloud]

.... but we are too wet to work anything just yet... unless you wanted to make a mud mess

Same situation here in the thumb. Today is s'posed to be in the 60s...it's February for gosh sakes..

 

[Swetz]

Found something for the hoe to do while keeping out of the mud!

I recently built a generator for my someday to be built pole barn

I was surfing Facebook Marketplace and found an OLD trailer that fit the bill exactly to be the carrier. When I got it home (on top of my other trailer) I noticed the suspension was badly worn. I never intend this trailer to be on the road, but given my luck it would fall apart at the worst time, so I purchased new parts. They are actually very inexpensive. Shipping was $20 tho

Anyhow, the hoe was used to flip the trailer over to aid in the work

Repair was quick and easy

Hoe got to flip it back over again...Good like new!

See, no mud

 

[T-town]

Nice find on da spacebook..... and did you get that up here in PA?

 

[Swetz]

Nice find on da spacebook..... and did you get that up here in PA?

Actually found it up in north jersey. Picked it up on my way to the PA house.

It is really stout. I am pleased with it. Gonna clean it up and paint it in the coming months.

 

[Welder Dave]

It's an odd build. The channel isn't mounted the strongest way which would be vertical. If the outside frame is vertical channel would add a lot of strength though.