New dozer and land clearing

[Syncro]

Hey Tom,
Couldn't agree more with the other posts, sure looks like fun. I was just wondering, any snakes in that brush?

 

[IH3444]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, yellow fever. My 310F in action. It is fun. Congradulations on your new purchase. Dozers are getting into the big boy toy range. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Thanks for posting this sequence.
The right tools for the job is always fun.
Keep the action photos comming.

Cliff

 

[MadReferee]

Ok, here is a picture of my IH TD6 with Drott loader clearing some land behind my house. More work will continue this spring.

 

[TxTom]

Thanks for all the comments. The dozer purchase was a combined effort between me and my father. They've got 138 acres that joins my 28. I've got about 7 more to clear but he's got all of his to do that pretty much looks like mine. He's about to retire and is looking forward to getting a few hours in. The owner of the 1150 has done several of my previous jobs and gave an estimate/guess of $7-10,000 to get everything done like I wanted. We got the dozer for $34,000 with the rake and after new engine and undercarriage. I gave $4000 as my part with an agreement to share expenses as needed.

The burn pile picture might be a little misleading. Most of the smoke you see is being stirred up from the engine and not from fire. But I am pretty careful around the piles especially after my neighbor had his 850 catch fire while just cleaning fence line. And we do keep an extra air filter and a compressor to clean them with when we're working. Since we're still in the new phase all 17 grease fittings get greased every morning before starting along with everything else being checked.

I've got a few rocks around but they usually don't show up unless I'm trying to build fence. I still need to smooth and level the dirt from the pond when I can get to it. I'll see what I can post from the pond project.

No live snakes seen so far. I figure I'll start seeing them when it warms up. My other neighbor (very afraid of snakes) keeps a sawed off 12 guage strapped to his ROPS on his tractor.

My next chance to play will be this weekend so I'll have more shots to post then.

Thomas

 

[TxTom]

Pond pics

Before. Sorry about the shadows. When the water level is normal, the shoreline on the right goes about 30 feet to the willow trees making a swamp.

 

[TxTom]

Before

 

[TxTom]

After, but still about 4-5 feet low.

 

[TxTom]

After, from the bank looking west.

 

[TxTom]

The digging machine with the clean out bucket. Next time he's got the 16" trench bucket on and taking out trees, I'll try to get some pics.

Thomas

 

[TxTom]

Some before and afters. I tried to get the exact same angles in both shots.

 

[TxTom]

same angle after

 

[TxTom]

brush before.

 

[TxTom]

Hard to recognize without the brush and vines in the trees.

 

[TxTom]

House area before.

 

[TxTom]

House area after.

 

[TxTom]

The next few shots are of how I managed to take down this tree. It's the oak that's dead center in this picture. About a foot above ground it was 22-24 inches thick. The main vertical trunk was hollow and it needed to go before the bees found it. Plus, it was pretty ugly with one branch sticking out.

 

[TxTom]

I first tried the high push to see if I might get lucky and not have to dig. No chance.

 

[TxTom]

Digging around the tree to break the roots.

 

[TxTom]

Picture for above post.