limb removal

[oldhippy]

My place is in northeast ar and has been hit pretty hard by Ice storm. I don't figure to have power for at least a month. I have a lot of tree limbs on the ground. The big ones I will pick up with loader and put on brush pile. The smaller ones and there are a bunch I don't know how to pick them up and get to burn pile. If push comes to shove I will take finish mower and use it to chop them up. And ideas would be welcome. I will post picture of damage next post. big dan

 

[oldhippy]

trying resizing

 

[oldhippy]

resizing worked here are a couple of pictures from place. big dan

 

[Egon]

Looks ugly. Chances are perseverance and one little area at a time and it will get done.

Is the Allis Chalmers B tractor used much?

 

[LBrown59]

Wow //Guess I can't complain about The 12 or so 2 3 and 4 inch limbs the ice broke off one of my big pine trees nor the 5 hour power outage the ice storm caused.

My place is in northeast ar and has been hit pretty hard by Ice storm. I don't figure to have power for at least a month. I have a lot of tree limbs on the ground. The big ones I will pick up with loader and put on brush pile. The smaller ones and there are a bunch I don't know how to pick them up and get to burn pile. If push comes to shove I will take finish mower and use it to chop them up. And ideas would be welcome. I will post picture of damage next post. big dan

Looks like you've racked yourself up some future seat time.

 

[J_J]

My place is in northeast ar and has been hit pretty hard by Ice storm. I don't figure to have power for at least a month. I have a lot of tree limbs on the ground. The big ones I will pick up with loader and put on brush pile. The smaller ones and there are a bunch I don't know how to pick them up and get to burn pile. If push comes to shove I will take finish mower and use it to chop them up. And ideas would be welcome. I will post picture of damage next post. big dan

My suggestion would be to find out if your friends has a landscape rake, and gather the smaller limbs and drag then to the burn pile, or rent a chipper and chip them up. One person driving, and one putting the limbs in the chipper.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Wrap a chain around several of the bigger branches and drag across the small stuff to scrape up into piles. I think JJ's idea would be more efficient.

 

[rox]

oldhippy, my oh my you are really hit bad. I have been reading the news stories about the storm but your pics bring it into reality for me. Well you could so what my husband and I do and it sounds much worse that it really is. We prune 1,300 olive trees and as you can imagine we have it seems like acers of small branches. We simply take a big plastic 10' x 12' tarp we throw the branches ont he tarp and grab two corners and pull them up on our shoulder adn drag them to the burn pile. Like I said it sounds like a lot fo work but it is not bad at all. It does give me some good excercize. I suppose you could drag he tarp behind the tractor but we don't we jsut drag it. My husband mans the fire and I drag the tarps to him. You can ge a LOT done in one day and the investment is very low. Sure the tarps get ripped up but we still use them even ripped and when they are really bad just throw them away. We go though maybe two per year during prunning season.

 

[J_J]

I have one of those 3PT Bearcat chipper/shredders, with blower attachments, and it turns limbs and pine needles into sawdust, depending on the grate installed. It will handle up to 4 in. Those Vermeer units work quite well.

 

[oldhippy]

Thanks for the replies. J J I am going to borrow a landscape rake from a guy that I work with. I will burn all limbs in the spring after the grass turns green to reduce the chance of spreading fire. We are pretty lucky that there very few people hurt by this ice. They are starting to get some of the stores and gas stations open with generators.
Egon the Allis B is kind of retired. Runs great as does the WD that is a old family tractor.
rox hearing about dragging those limbs makes my arms ache but it does get the job done.

Once again thanks for all the great replies. big dan

 

[FrogLick]

I lived in AR when the ice storm came through about 8 yrs. ago and it was a real mess. I got it here in KY this time and wish I had gotten off easy enough to only have some limbs to clean up. Probably still be cleaning up a year from now from this storm. Worse part is a tree fell on the new barn I just completed in Dec. Worse yet, I got up on the barn roof to limb up the tree top figuring I'd lighten the load and prevent further damage as I brought the rest of the tree down. Metal roofs, wet boots, and chain saws don't mix. ER visit and 10 stiches later I'm almost as good as new. Could have been worse. I was alone, 1 1/2 hrs away from ER, phones out in the area so no one to call, I didn't fall off of the roof, the chain saw cut was relatively minor, etc. Be safe out there. Tree is still on the barn.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Hey Froglick you are certainly not the first nor the last that is going to try and save something from further damage to end up damaging yourself.. Been there done that myself. I am glad that you are ok.. There is another thread on here about chainsaw safety and accidents. You will find my blunders on there. Shoot I would go down there and help you all out if needed. I spent 3 weeks in Mississippi helping out after Katrina blew through the area.

 

[oldhippy]

I sure am glad that you not cut up to bad. I can see bty looking that you have a whole lot more trees than I do. To quote Hill Street Blues "let be careful out there". big dan

 

[2manyrocks]

I, too, agree that a rock rake would be nice for this.

Looks like you have a loader on your tractor. It would be easy to add a couple of tusks to the FEL and use them to pick up and move some of this wood. For larger pieces, you could just chain and drag them.

 

[LBrown59]

I sure am glad that you are not cut up to bad.

He could have very easly removed the wrong limb.

 

[HCJtractor]

We had a very similar ice storm 3 years ago. I live in an old neighborhood with a canopy of 100 yr. old oaks, which were devastated much like yours. I remember at night when the storm hit, it sounded like a war with limbs and trees cracking. When a big one let go the whole house shook. The next morning we almost cried. My words are meant to be encouragement, for at the time, we thought things would never look the same and our beautiful neighborhood and city ruined. But now, a few years later, nature has healed these trees to where most would not even notice the damage. Yes, if you look high into the canopies, especially in winter, you can still see the effects, but it looks better than I could have dreamed. So be patient and good luck with the clean up!

 

[ragkar]

In the spring, if you have a bh, dig a burn pit 4x4x4 minimum at least 25 feet from burnables. And on a calm day burn the branches there. The wood ashes will be negligible and you can refill the pit with the removed dirt.
The fastest way to start the fire (info found in another thread) is using a weed burner and one of those 10lb propane bottles.

 

[DanD78]

Sorry to see your damage but have been there and done that. A couple of other neighbors and my self kind of did a co-op on our clean up. It took us about a full day at each home. We used an old ton truck with a dump flat bed and threw the branches across the bed then duped in the field to burn. I had a brush pile the size of a two car garage. The land scape rake is great for getting some of the small stuff and the mower took care of the rest. A brush grapple or 4in1 bucket would have been very handy. The pictures are from 12-1-06 in central Illinois. We ran our propane generator for 7 1/2 days.

Good luck and don't strain your back
Dan

 

[Carykong]

When I prune by 80 walnut trees in the winter. I leave most of the branches under 2" in diameter in the grass where they fall,chip with my 5 ft.brush cutter. goes fast.

 

[rox]

When I prune by 80 walnut trees in the winter. I leave most of the branches under 2" in diameter in the grass where they fall,chip with my 5 ft.brush cutter. goes fast.

That is what we are going to try this year for the first time.