clearing a few acres with an axe?

Nowadays, a person would just use a tractor. Is that 6yo of yours any good at climbing trees?

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

like a hairless monkey. hmmm.....i wonder if he's any good with a saw?

I cleared a whole bunch of young, 4" diameter trees with an axe and a saw - was still hard, slow work (for this woman anyway). I'd think a couple of acres worth of this activity, while good exercise, is a guaranteed setup for early arthritis, bound to break the body down before its time. Save yourself the wear and tear of your shoulders and joints - you have much more to gain by using a chainsaw. Unless you have a LOT of anger and energy that needs burning off, lol

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Wise enough to know I'll never be wise enough to know it all

Just how big are the trees? What are you clearing for? Are you going to remove the stumps?

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

I think the diameter and kind of trees you're dealing with will make a big difference. Also the terrain and how thick are the branches clumped, because I can see felling a smaller tree (4-6 in diameter) and having it be hung up in larger trees that surround it. I think the hardest part will be hauling the wood once it's down. How are you planning on getting the wood out? What do you want when you're done? Open meadow? Pond? food plot?

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"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow the fields of those who don't."-Thomas Jefferson

No problem, I have bad days as well. Besides I don't let things like that bother me. I've got too many real problems to let someone's words bother me.


I have allergies AND bad asthma so I know about triggers. I don't know if it would help but you can buy mask w/filters which will remove most of the nasties from the exhaust. Also trying to work up wind helps.


Sometimes we get focused on the specific and miss the general. Its like spending hours digging through all the cans and jars of bolts I have laying around when I could just go to town and buy a pack. But dang it I know I have a bolt to fit it somewhere!

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

I have a little 35HP 4WD tractor with a bucket on the front which has pushed down MANY a tree. But it depends on the type of tree. Some of them have roots which go so deep the Devil probably has to trim to keep them out of his face. Those just don't like to be pushed over.

If you can find someone with a tractor here's what I've found. For bigger trees dig out as much as possible on two opposit sides then push from one side then the other. Like wiggling a lose tooth. After a while you can usually push it over.

Take a while to figure out where its going to fall (this applies to cutting them as well). Its not only a pain when it gets stuck in a still standing tree its dangerous.

Take it ONE AT A TIME. Because its fun its sssoooo tempting to push down several trees at a time. If you do you'll pay for your fun when it come time to clean up. Its a big enough PITA to have to climb around the upper branches of one tree. Having two or three all trying to grab your hat, glasses, boot laces, saw, etc isn't worth it.

Also when you get done you now have a fair sized hole to deal with.

BTW, I've been working on clearing my place, on and off, for almost three years now. Good luck on yours.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

Wow, you have ambition. But larger logs require two people to run the crosscut saw. And your marriage partner would appreciate it if you use gloves and hand lotion...... At any rate. if you finish before winter, you can go on the arm wrestling circuit.

I would go the chainsaw route and use a mask to help with the fumes. Also, be sure to wear safety glasses. I about lost an eye due to branches breaking off as tree was falling, but smacked me right on the glasses instead...phew. I am glad to hear that your are not going to have your 6 year old son out there. Way too dangerous. My husband and I have been clearing our place little by little for the past few years and I still hold my breath every time he is cutting because trees can be very unpredictable. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Well, much of the US forest was originally cleared with hand axes and hand saws. Certainly it can be done, and folks do it. Takes time and effort. If you've got the time and inclination, you can do it by hand, and be much stronger for it.

However, I also agree with the caution about having a 6 year old with you. That's a bad mistake. A real bad mistake. Don't think I could emphasize how bad a mistake I think it is.

From about 1919-1921 my grandparents homesteaded near Mountain View, AR. By the time they got there all the good land had been claimed so they got treed ridge. They cut down the trees and planted corn around the stumps (called stump corn). However, they didn't realize a cut tree stump will grow numerous suckers - which had to be cut off several times a year for several years. Waiting for the stump to rot out enough to pull might take 8-10 more years.

If you don't want the wood I'd let a clear-cut logger come in and haul everything off, leaving at least a 3' stump. Hire someone with a medium to large bulldozer to come in, push out the stumps and pile they for future burning. Then arrange for an area farmer to come disk it a couple of times to level it out. Next fence it in and run some goats to keep regrowth down.

Now someone with a D-8 dozer might cost you $100 hour, but they can do a heck of a lot of work in an hour. Plus, the land would appreciate in value by being cleared.

On stumps, one old time practice was to take a digger bar and punch holes under stumps, fill them with corn and then turn in hogs. As the hogs root for the corn they essentially dig out the stump base.

I saw a guy try that with a tractor. He found out the tractor would only bow the tree but it wasn't big enough to pull it over. He then hooked on another tractor to pull the first one. This bowed the tree further until the tree decided to unbow and it pulled the first tractor off the ground and flipped it over. Durn near killed the guy.

What was that saying Forrest Gump had?

"O"

I was gonna ask the same question as Ken, do you want all the wood? Could it be logged & sold as lumber? Could it be given away to a firewood dealer? Our local paper often has ads of folks offering to cut & haul away trees just so they can sell the firewood.

Bear in mind logging is one of the most deadly professions (right up there with commercial fishing). There is a reason some loggers have the nickname of Stumpy. You can get hurt cutting up downed timber as easily as during the felling process. Say a bore is under stress when cut. At some point it is going to 'unstress' itself.

felling a tree with an axe is something every homesteader should know how to do and should do, once. After that, get the chainsaw and get something done.

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When faced with issues in life, where do you look for the problem; out the window, or in the mirror?

Hey.

It can be done, but time will be against you. You need to remember that the bone joints such as the elbow and shoulder will take only so much punishment and use and they will give out.

RF

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It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

Felling trees is not hard with a chainsaw, but I don't like stumps.

I have a tractor with a front loader and backhoe.

I think that if I 'worry' the tree's roots using the backhoe, and put the front bucket up 10 feet high against the trunk, stand in the bucket and attach the chain [at about 15 foot high]. Then yanking the chain might pull over said tree, and drag it out entirely to be processed.

Be careful with a backhoe or loader around trees. My uncle was doing something in his yard with a backhoe, hit a tree branch with it, it popped back and hit him in the head and broke his neck. He died a year later, a quadriplegic. He was a VERY experienced operator, by the way.

While I agree that it's not a good idea to have a six-year-old around while you are felling any trees large enough to do any damage, once they are down and cut up, you can put him to work dragging branches out of the way. Be careful about having him help move firewood, though (if that's what you are going to do with the trees). One of my daughters helped pitch a load of firewood out of the truck when she was about eight, and woke up the next morning vomiting because her back hurt so bad. They can do too much too soon and hurt themselves -- and it seems like once you've hurt your back, it's always easier to re-injure it.

How much timber felling have YOU done? It would be a really good idea to get some safety training if you aren't really experienced. As has already been mentioned, logging is one of the most dangerous occupations there is, even for people who are very experienced at it. Lack of experience makes it a lot more dangerous. (My dad worked in logging camps, mostly as an equipment operator and mechanic -- he lost a few friends.)

Kathleen

I cut just short of 100 pine trees down on about a half acre of my land 4 years ago (chain saw - 6 weeks from standing trees to stacked 18" bucks) - most of the time I had my neighbor helping me. We dropped all but two of them within a couple of feet where we wanted/expected them to fall. The others twisted and chased us. We were very alert (and apparently agile enough to dodge the errant timber) to escape injury. His 7&9 year olds occasionally came out to 'check us out' and I immediately declared it break time until they got bored and left (unless we had a few trees bucked out - then we recruited them to help move the cut sections to the wood stacks - oddly they quit coming to check things out..). Point is that clearing trees is no place for children and even with the proper equipment and a certain amount of expertise - **** can happen.
The learning curve with a chain saw is shorter than with an axe and hand saw. Get a good chain saw, keep a sharp chain on it and have fun. Then get a big tractor (or a MAJOR winch) and pull the stumps....

The species of tree is also a factor - hardwoods will be more work than softwoods. Axe X 10...

you've all given me some great ideas and some things to ponder. namely:

1. how valuable is my time?
2. how can i make this process as safe as possible.

thanks, everyone. i really appreciate all of the advice and suggestions.