Turning timberland or scrubland into farmable land.

[Biggkidd]

Angie asked what we homesteading topics could tell about and this is one I have to much experience with.

First off it's MUCH easier to get stumps out with the tree attached. Using the trunk height for leverage. A large truck, tractor, dozer or just about anything with weight & traction can be used. You have to kind of get a feel for how high up you can hook the chain, cable or whatever depending on tree size. My basic rule of thumb is one foot up from the ground for every two to three inches of diameter IE: an 8 to 10 inch tree hooks up 3 to 4 feet off the ground. Having weight in the bed of a truck helps immensely. If you try and hook up to high you WILL break the tree trunk!
Before taking the brushy stuff down turning goats, pigs and some breeds of cows in helps a lot. Once the larger stuff is down turning pigs in helps root up the smaller roots stumps and stuff. A backhoe is also wonderful to have for those larger trees. Digging around the base can make a huge difference. If you don't have a backhoe a post hole auger or even a plow can help a lot. Then I run my homemade root rake through to pull up what the pigs missed and to start breaking up all the ground. If you're trying to smooth things out a box blade and pulverizer work well. If you want a real smooth finish a chain drag works wonders. Like the ones they use on the infield of a baseball diamond.

If you have areas that hold water or water tends to puddle up when it rains and takes a long time to go down Daikon Radishes are awesome. Their long deep drilling roots open up the compacted soil (clay) and give a way for water to drain to lower levels. Mixing in clovers, buckwheat, hairy vetch, sunhemp, sunflowers and beans also helps improve the soil. Those radishes are also full of protein all our animals love them. A diverse planting works MUCH better than a single crop and gives a much better chance of having something growing for your livestock or wildlife. Plus a mixture gives them a better balanced diet. For new ground just leaving everything there to add biomass is a big plus.

Please note I am NOT AN EXPERT but these things have worked well for us!

 

[Spikedriver]

Good stuff about the trees. We use similar techniques when we need to remove trees on the farm. It is much easier to knock it over, roots and all, than to try to dig out, or grind out, or burn out the stump later.

 

[Alaskajohn]

It looks like the original homesteader who built my place used a bulldozer to clear the land he farmed as I can see the remnants of the trees at the lower edge of the area he gardened. It’s now an awesome raspberry path that attracts many bears each fall.

The soils was lacking and too rocky from my midwestern and Appalachian farming experience, so I decided to build raised garden beds as this has been all the rage. We had excess potato tubers last year and planted them in the dirt, and they produced almost as well as the raised beds, so I probably could have just worked the soil and planted the old fashioned way from the get go. Beds do make weeding easier though.

I recall seeing tree stumps being burned as a kid, but I also remember seeing stumps being pulled up by horse teams and by tractors. The soil was probably a lot worse in Appalachia than Alaska, but I do grow rocks up hear. The freeze thaw cycles produce rocks each year that weren’t there the previous year, but the soils is decent absent the rocks.

 

[joel]

When I was young eight or ten, we dug up the a tree, the tree had a small tap root. We removed the dirt from around the large support roots & cut them. Father had me climb the leaning tree, then he cut the tap root & I rode it down. I was astride a small trunk with my feet on two other trunks of a multi trunk cherry tree. As for stumps on open land, I used a shovel & ax, then a truck & chain to remove it from the field. Now I use a small backhoe to dug them, because I am old & with no children to feed I can afford one.

 

[Spikedriver]

When I was young eight or ten, we dug up the a tree, the tree had a small tap root. We removed the dirt from around the large support roots & cut them. Father had me climb the leaning tree, then he cut the tap root & I rode it down. I was astride a small trunk with my feet on two other trunks of a multi trunk cherry tree. As for stumps on open land, I used a shovel & ax, then a truck & chain to remove it from the field. Now I use a small backhoe to dug them, because I am old & with no children to feed I can afford one.

Stump removal is one of the things a backhoe is handy for.

With smaller stumps, you can drive the lip of the bucket straight down into the flat surface of the stump and start rocking it back and forth. Eventually the roots will start to give and you can tip the stump over. It's a little hard on the backhoe, but it works...

 

[joel]

My manual is do NOT push with the bucket, but I saw contractors do it.
I have a compact 47 Hp, so it is not as tough as the contractor tractors.
I just dig them up & haul them to the woods.

 

[Biggkidd]

My tractor and backhoe attachment are small beans 06 Jinma 35 hp 4x4 diesel but china made. I have to admit it has been used more as a bulldozer than anything else. I bought it new and have had very little trouble once getting the bugs worked out of it. My big advantage these days is the 69 deuce and half. All ten wheels are powered and it weighs in at 13,000lbs empty. When pulling hard I sometimes fill the bed with rolls of hay or pickup a load of rotted down tree chips. They make a superb soil amendment.

 

[joel]

I was in SCNG for six years & I saw a deuce and half in low gear push a six in dia pine tree over without choking down. 19 acres just is not big enough to justify that cost.

 

[Biggkidd]

I was in SCNG for six years & I saw a deuce and half in low gear six in dia pine tree over with out choking
down. 19 acres just is not big enough to justify that cost.

I bought it for two reasons. 1) It will run on just about ANY combustible liquid Which will be handy if / when the world as we know it stops working 2) to use around the homestead Bonus for me is the fact it only has 4300 miles give or take. It spent most of it's life sitting in germany waiting for trouble. Plus it was a LOT cheaper than a 25-50 year old 1 ton 4x4 pickup. I wanted a 69 -72 Chevy or 78-79 ford But man people think they are made of GOLD!

 

[Alaskajohn]

I bought it for two reasons. 1) It will run on just about ANY combustible liquid Which will be handy if / when the world as we know it stops working 2) to use around the homestead Bonus for me is the fact it only has 4300 miles give or take. It spent most of it's life sitting in germany waiting for trouble. Plus it was a LOT cheaper than a 25-50 year old 1 ton 4x4 pickup. I wanted a 69 -72 Chevy or 78-79 ford But man people think they are made of GOLD!

Being retired military, I have a healthy respect for what a deuce and a half can do. I did one winter REFORGER in the mid 1980s. That could have been one of the ones we drew from our POMCUS site, but there were literally many thousands sitting there. The ones we had back in the states were abused, but with tinkering and some know how, they kept on going.