Forestry Mulching

We have a 2 1/2 acre so called horse pasture that is thickly wooded. The horses did a lot to trample out trails, but it was still an impassable thicket.

I checked into Forestry Mulching, costs are $250 per hour, 8 hour minimum plus delivery and set up. At $2000 per day...….we just kept looking at the mess. I saw an ad on Craigslist for $150 per hour and no other fees. I sent an email asking for the phone number, we were interested but it would be a few months before we were ready. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I got an email asking were we ready now, I replied no. I got a reply with a "special" of $100 per hour for that week only. I read that off to my husband and we both concluded that we just couldn't pass that up. With great anticipation we waited for the mulcher and operator to show up.

It arrived Monday July 29.

Before pictures.

After pictures.







The back ground in this picture is clear now!

More before pictures. There were 5 big dead trees that we had taken down in 2017. They laid on the ground, we couldn’t get to them to haul to the burn pile. You can see 2 of the trunks in the above before pictures. Look closely and you can see one of the trees already cut and down.



I took these pictures last fall. I was standing on the pipeline. The fence line on the inside was so tangled that we couldn't walk down the fence.







I took this picture a couple of days ago.



Wow. Just wow. We are thrilled. The bush on the left is actually a tree top that fell on the fence, we'll get it off, there are several more. Before the forestry mulching, we couldn't walk from one side to the other, it was so thick and tangled. Look at it now!

We had 2 neighbors with about 3/4 acre apiece, not enough for an 8 hour minimum. My husband asked the owner of the mulcher if we could include them as part of our property. He told the owner that we would cut the fence and the operator could go from our property to theirs and not have to move the equipment. He said yes. Our two neighbors were excited. In the below picture is our neighbor, Jimmy’s property at our side fence. We cut the fence where the small gate is. There are pipe posts for hanging the walk through gate, but it was never hung because nobody could walk through the back of Jimmys place. The green gate is what he brought over to cover the down fence REAL good! His place is not all fenced because of the thicket and he said no coyotes were going to get through the fence to my sheep, "NOT ON MY WATCH!" The LGD's were on lockdown in the backyard because of cut fences, people coming and going and mass confusion. LOL



See that grass in the foreground? This strip was a mass of green briars and young trees. It took us a month to clear it out, the grass was planted the first of June, it is giant Bermuda. The oak sprouts were trees, the sheep will eat them down when I let them on the grass.

What you see as cleared in the picture above, was a mass of green briars, small scraggly trees and brush. It was totally unusable. Now the fence line on both sides are cleared and Jimmy can finish fencing his place.

He called me that night and said that he walked to the fence! He must have said thank you for including me in this a dozen times. He couldn't be happier.

There is still some fine tuning to be done. There are several standing dead trees to cut down. I've joked with my husband that now that he can actually see our big beautiful trees and walk up to them, he will be trimming the dead lower branches off. We will be out there working this fall and winter. The briars and vines are still hanging in the trees, we'll pull them out and take to the burn pile. We will selectively cut a few more trees.

Our total cost was $1800, each neighbor got their places cleaned up for $300 each. What a bargain! We are wildly happy with it.

Notice that there are big chunks in the mulch. The operator offered to go back over it and mulch it up real fine. We were more like, just get it DOWN, we'll worry about the chunks later. LOL

This past week has been crazy. We had the mulcher show up Monday. We kept our 2 and 4 year old grand daughters Tuesday through Friday morning so their parents could get away for some time for themselves. We kept their two dogs also. Their small dogs could get through the cow panel holes, under gates, so I had to watch them constantly. We had to put the LGD's on lockdown to keep Paris from attacking the two little idiots. I took the dogs home on Thursday because my DD and husband would be in late that night. I went over at 5:00 to let them out to potty, then put them back in their kennel. I just couldn't take them any more! LOL After the kids left and the mulcher left Friday, we collapsed and took a nap.

Saturday we were busy all day, Sunday we had company for lunch, they stayed the afternoon, then a neighbor brought over a mean rooster for me to butcher. Today my husband and I haven't been worth a nickel, just tired. LOL but we sure can look at our newly cleared land and admire!

nice when it works out well like that @baymule!

That looks fantastic! You sure lucked into some good neighbors, but there is a saying about receiving what you give out, so I'm sure they are marveling about what great neighbors they have, too.
When I first started reading this thread, I was afraid it would be a story about a rip-off. Glad it isn't.

That's so great! Being able to move around your property and see across it must be like finally being able to take deep breaths. It looks spacious too.
What a great bargain you got.

That's great ~ looks like some good country ```