Shelterbelt

Wheatland KB · Apr 30, 2009

I've been planning a shleterbelt around our 5 acre place since odering 1000 seedling trees in Feb. One row of chokecherrys around the perimiter, A row of hybrid polar inside of that, then a row of alternating white spruce and siberian larch on the inside of that. The trees were supposed to be here May 30 so I figgured I had lots of time.

I found out 2 weeks ago that the trees will be here on May 2.

Not much time!

The ground hasn't been worked for around 30 years and is pretty hard as I tried to use the tiller in spots over the last few years and it was like tilling on a tennis court!!!!

I decided (through reading excellent posts on TBN) to build a subsoiler. I jambed a quick ripper together and tried it out two weekends ago. Worked not too bad but only went down about 4 inches.

Last weekend I added a gusset to the top link point that extended it about 8 inches. That tilted the tines forward enough that the little ripper dug in about 10 inches and worked the hard pan up pretty well.

Once that was worked up I put the tiller on and tilled like it was in butter. then it was time to relax.

I will be heading out for the weekend to till one more time and then plant 1000 seedlings on Saturday and Sunday. I will take some better pics of the goings on this weekend.

I hope the pics attach OK. The last two are just after trying the ripper the first time and it also gives a bit of a before moving all of the junk view.

czechsonofagun · Apr 30, 2009

Is it going to be a windbraker? Snow barrier? I am just curious about the typical problems you face in a country open like this.

Wheatland KB · Apr 30, 2009

Wind and snow. It will help the snow drifts from piling up right on the drive and around the house. We usually get a 5 foot or so drift right in front of the shop.

Egon · Apr 30, 2009

Wish you well on your planting. The recent snow should provide some nice moisture for the transplants.

Neat subsoiler you rigged up. Custom made weights too I see!

tmiller · Apr 30, 2009

nice pics. Not to get off your subject but i would love to see some more pics of that international dump truck. Thanks Taylor

Wheatland KB · May 5, 2009

I don't have many pics of the truck but will take more in a couple of weeks.

We did get the trees in last weekend. Started by giving the whole perimiter a final tilling. then ran the harrows over it all and rolled it all.

To make the planting easier we built a single shank row cultivator and ripped all of the rows. Then we planted the trees and were pretty much done in 1 day thanks to the Wife, Daughter and Daughter's Boyfriend.

Makes a big difference if the ground is prepped well.

A few more photos. Keep in mind all of the implements we are using are purpose built and done quickly so there was no time to make them look pretty.