03142025's brush/wildfires

[Ndenway]

Yes,

was in se oklahoma for a bit today, windy as fuckinghell, blew my service rig all over, had to drive with both hands on the wheel on some open roads.

Did get some sprinkles

 

[jakeman]

When I moved into my current house, the west property line was 10 yds. away and was densely packed with red cedars. I was always afraid if that patch were to catch fire it would likely torch my home. Last year I talked to the property owner and he said he hates red cedars and I was welcome to cut any that I wanted to but leave any hardwoods. I had a forestry mulcher come in last spring and clear a patch back about 75 yds from the fence line to the road on the south. I also keep it brush hoged down. It might still burn, but nowhere near the intensity to damage my house. I could easily stop any burn from crossing over with a garden hose. As an extra perk, I can now see beautiful sunsets out my windows instead of just a wall of green. It also cleared my power line drop that ran across the corner of his property so no more worries of ice storms weighing down the trees and pulling the line down. A big worry off my mind now.

Revisiting this while I'm watching a leak in my ceiling spread. When it rains it pours.

None of my bizness, but where find you find your forestery mulcher, and how did he charge you? By the sq yard, by the tree? And, was it outrageously expensive?

DM's are okay if you'd rather discuss there.

Thanks!

 

[Kingfish]

Revisiting this while I'm watching a leak in my ceiling spread. When it rains it pours.

None of my bizness, but where find you find your forestery mulcher, and how did he charge you? By the sq yard, by the tree? And, was it outrageously expensive?

DM's are okay if you'd rather discuss there.

Thanks!

I went to the local diner where everybody knows everybody and started asking if anyone know of someone with a mulcher. One guy did and he gave me his contact info. As I recall I think he was out of Bartlesville. I don't know how far he is willing to travel for a job. He had two different sizes of machines. He charged by the day. $1650 for the small and $1850 for the bigger. I don't know if you have any experience with one of these machines, but they are pretty remarkable. I didn't even know they existed until about 3 years ago when ONG contracted one to clear their pipeline easement and one came through and cleared a strip in the field next to me. Once I had the money I called the guy and had him bring his big machine. Originally I was only thinking about a 100' strip cleared, but he had that much done before noon. I called the landowner and asked if he could keep on going. He hates red cedars and gave me his blessing to take out as many as I wanted, but leave the hardwoods standing. By the end of the day he had cleared a strip about 75 x 100 yds. It was my plan to keep this area brushhogged down, but the aftermath of the mulcher left so much ground up wood, I knew it would have to be cleared out someway. I found a guy with a skid steer that said he could scrape it all up for $40 an hour so I hired him. It was in the late spring and he couldn't get in there right away because the ground was so wet. While we were waiting for it to stop raining and dry up, I kept going in there with my little tractor and scraped up the debris into rows and then burned them. I did a couple hours every day or two and eventually cleared about 2/3 of the area. He came out finally and finished the rest of the field in a day. It would have taken him longer if he was going to have to hall the wood off, but we decided to just stack it in piles back in amongst the rest of the standing cedars. It was expensive, but I consider it money well spent. Here's how it looks now. Before, that wall of cedars you see in the back were right up against my fenceline. The one thing I wished I had payed more attention to was making him grind the stumps down level. Most still stick up 2-4 inches. It's a real bitch mowing over them and it feels like I'm riding a bull at the county fair. I have to keep my brush hog up high as possible to miss them.

Here's how it looks now





In the background you can see in this pic one of the leftover piles. I had a landscaper out later after this had been done and he told me they had a machine that could have just pull the cedars out of the ground and wouldn't have left all the shreds, but then I would have had a field full of big holes that would have had to be filled and leveled which probably would have been more work in the long run. If your anywhere in NE OK, you can give him a call. His name is Jim Beam (for real) 918 636 1698.

Edit
I don't know if it was just a coincidence, but I found a nice batch morels in one corner of the field. I'm hoping they like the place and will spread out even more next year.

 

[jakeman]

I went to the local diner where everybody knows everybody and started asking if anyone know of someone with a mulcher. One guy did and he gave me his contact info. As I recall I think he was out of Bartlesville. I don't know how far he is willing to travel for a job. He had two different sizes of machines. He charged by the day. $1650 for the small and $1850 for the bigger. I don't know if you have any experience with one of these machines, but they are pretty remarkable. I didn't even know they existed until about 3 years ago when ONG contracted one to clear their pipeline easement and one came through and cleared a strip in the field next to me. Once I had the money I called the guy and had him bring his big machine. Originally I was only thinking about a 100' strip cleared, but he had that much done before noon. I called the landowner and asked if he could keep on going. He hates red cedars and gave me his blessing to take out as many as I wanted, but leave the hardwoods standing. By the end of the day he had cleared a strip about 75 x 100 yds. It was my plan to keep this area brushhogged down, but the aftermath of the mulcher left so much ground up wood, I knew it would have to be cleared out someway. I found a guy with a skid steer that said he could scrape it all up for $40 an hour so I hired him. It was in the late spring and he couldn't get in there right away because the ground was so wet. While we were waiting for it to stop raining and dry up, I kept going in there with my little tractor and scraped up the debris into rows and then burned them. I did a couple hours every day or two and eventually cleared about 2/3 of the area. He came out finally and finished the rest of the field in a day. It would have taken him longer if he was going to have to hall the wood off, but we decided to just stack it in piles back in amongst the rest of the standing cedars. It was expensive, but I consider it money well spent. Here's how it looks now. Before, that wall of cedars you see in the back were right up against my fenceline. The one thing I wished I had payed more attention to was making him grind the stumps down level. Most still stick up 2-4 inches. It's a real bitch mowing over them and it feels like I'm riding a bull at the county fair. I have to keep my brush hog up high as possible to miss them.

Here's how it looks now

View attachment 12018

View attachment 12019

In the background you can see in this pic one of the leftover piles. I had a landscaper out later after this had been done and he told me they had a machine that could have just pull the cedars out of the ground and wouldn't have left all the shreds, but then I would have had a field full of big holes that would have had to be filled and leveled which probably would have been more work in the long run. If your anywhere in NE OK, you can give him a call. His name is Jim Beam (for real) 918 636 1698.

Edit
I don't know if it was just a coincidence, but I found a nice batch morels in one corner of the field. I'm hoping they like the place and will spread out even more next year.

I'm in south central OK, and I was just looking for a rough estimate on the price.

There are some stick in the ground signs around here, but didn't have an idea of the cost, and for that I thank you.

My neighbor is absent, and for all I know she's dead, but I know where her daughter lives. I'm going to contact her and tell her I want to clear a 100' wide stretch next to me. We'll see what she says.