Mini-Excavator, Mini Pasture

Phil started on the mini-excavator work as early as possible yesterday. He re-graded the road, and filled in some last remaining holes and trenches along the drive. Then he went to dig holes for our future orchard. (This photo shows the field pre-orchard.)


He tried to finish the one hole he had started, and realized that the excavator was not the tool for the job. The bucket scoop was too long; in order to actually clear a hole three feet deep, the diameter at the top would be five or six feet.



Bummer! Yet another week without trees planted. We think an auger would do the job, but that is more money, more delay.

On the other hand, I am thankful that I had the trees delivered when I did; if we were trying to deal with all this in March, I would be pretty much frantic.

With nothing else to work on, and an expensive rental on our land for the weekend, Phil took the excavator down the slope to try his hand at clearing the future pasture by the creek. Sadly, the excavator was not quite what he ordered: it was missing the claw attachment, which would have allowed him to grip the trees and brush and move it easily. Instead, he was forced to attempt to use the bucket to move the downed trees—rather like positioning asparagus when you only have a spoon. Except it was way worse, because he had many levers and attachments to figure out, and the learning curve was steep.

He didn’t stop for lunch, trying to work straight through. It was SLOW going. At about 2pm, he had cleared two stumps and downed one tree, and was attempting to down a second tree. I was done with the darn machine, loud and slow and scratching large red slashes on my pristine forest floor. Bah!

Phil stuck with it, though, and 4pm had cleared a swath through the steep hillside down to the level acreage nearer the creek and knocked over about 11 more trees. And then he started cranking. Without the slope to contend with, he knew he wasn’t going to tip the excavator over; after a day’s practice, he knew the controls. He came back after the sun had set, pleased with his progress.

Of course, it did look like a moonscape, slashed and destroyed. But I was pretty stoked about today.

We woke to rain. What?! More rain?! The Bushes and the Bessettes have both commented on how unusual the amount of rain has been this season, but still! Not today!

Phil went to the Bessettes to help with slaughtering their other pig. As far as I can tell, a good time was had by all, and the libations in celebration afterwards were also enjoyed.

Abigail and I went down with Phil to see the patch he had cleared right before dark. He had cleared a patch of grazing land maybe the size of a personal pool, but to see bare sky where before there were only branches, to walk with ease where brambles grabbed before—incredible. We witnessed his technique, which was something like this: scoop on one side of the tree’s trunk; scoop on the other side of the tree’s trunk. Use the bucket to push against the trunk, and hope the tree topples over. Otherwise, scoop some more, until the tree falls and the roots come up.

For the bushes, a single scoop with the bucket removed them; for some of the brambles, simply driving over them with the scraper was enough to knock them down. Great piles of organic matter line the path of the excavator.

I think cutting the trees down with a chainsaw would be faster, but the roots wouldn’t come up, and the remaining stump could make future haying difficult.

The real issue is what to do with the downed trees and bushes. Some of the trees 70 feet tall; not large around, but, well, long. They would be fine firewood, or, perhaps, fine hardwood mulch for the orchard trees. So the materials’ handling question: how to move heavy trees 500 feet upslope and transform them into chips?

There’s always something to figure out.

Phil wondered yesterday how I spend my time. I was wondering myself, so I wrote a detailed list today. Apparently, I spend most of my time reading to the children, disciplining children, making food, cleaning up, and interacting with Phil (either talking about what to do next or watching him as he works). Good to know.