The land maintenance, non-chainsaw thread

[TAFKALVS]

Let's discuss machetes, shovels, tractors, bulldozers, weedeaters, brush mowers, and other tools for property maintenance.

I'll start:

What 30-35hp tractor should I buy?

[Game Over]

You can't go wrong with a Deere

[irul&ublo]

Let's discuss machetes, shovels, tractors, bulldozers, weedeaters, brush mowers, and other tools for property maintenance.

I'll start:

What 30-35hp tractor should I buy?

The red one. Red is faster

[Cruiser]

Are there better axes than the Fiskars ones? Cuz the chopper and splitter that I picked up have been awesome.

[wooley12]

I carved a trail 1000' long and 12' wide trail through the brush with Lop-zilla.

[highangle]

Are there better axes than the Fiskars ones? Cuz the chopper and splitter that I picked up have been awesome.

Ochsenkopf felling axe or double-bit (pronounced: Oxen cough). They probably make really good splitters too.

[highangle]

I carved a trail 1000' long and 12' wide trail through the brush with Lop-zilla.

They say there's no real cure for OCD, that you just have to live with it and manage it the best you can. What do you think?

[Gepeto]

They say there's no real cure for OCD, that you just have to live with it and manage it the best you can. What do you think?

convinced myself that I have turned it into a likable asset

[Viva]

There actually is a "which tractor should I buy" thread here. Maybe ten years old, but it's there.

[Todd Zander]

i bumped it in january but kq never saw it i guess

answer: get the old diesel one with minimal wiring

[Buster Highmen]

I've got 5+ acres of 1970s logged Cascade woods to maintain.

I let the alders die and sit for the woodpeckers unless they're threatening the drive or a building.

But we've got a boatload of vine maple and salmon berry that needs cutting back. Not to mention Himalayan blackberry, cascade creeping blackberry and black cap vine. No ivy thankfully.

A machete works OK and has that dramatic touch, but I really prefer some loppers, a small set and a big set, though not as big as Wooleys. The bigger loppers have an adjustment bolt on them; I think I got them @ HomeDepot. These manage the salmonberry and vine maple pretty well. Also a set with long (like 10 inch) cutting blades. Metal handles on those.

The Himalayan blackberry are nasty and the only way I can eradicate the fuckers are by digging them up. I have snapped or cracked enough of those shitty plastic or fiberglass handled shovels that I don't buy them anymore. I rely on at least one big bladed and one small bladed wood handled shovel for digging up blackberries and ferns, generally preferring the smaller blade since I have to dig around the packed knots of roots that wind around in the dirt here. Digging in rocks is a lot easier with the smaller blade too. The bigger one gets used gardening or digging in easier soils.

I did the driveway (a 300+ foot long 20 foot wide track through vine maple, alders, elderberry and salmonberry) a few weeks ago with the cloppers, using the longblades to chop back the hanging stuff and then the smaller cloppers to cut out the biggers stalks. The elderberry droops into the driveway and yard, but it's really soft and can generally be cut with the long blade cloppers.

Another angle on yardwork is using electric. I know it's fashionable to burn enormous amounts of fossil fuels to fortify one's masculinity, but if you get a couple hundred feet of big gauge extension cords and a burly electric weedwacker, you can get a lot done without screwing around with the fucking carburetors and gas and oil. If I need a chainsaw, I'll kowtow to that temple, but the electric shit makes it easier since they're lighter with less maintenance. I even got an electric chainsaw for chopping down the smaller alder starts.

[wooley12]

They say there's no real cure for OCD, that you just have to live with it and manage it the best you can. What do you think?

Better than a gym membership and good for the mind. Natural sounds. Hours spent tending the burning brush pile is an experience all should enjoy.

That's what I think.

[SKIP IN7RO]

Are there better axes than the Fiskars ones? Cuz the chopper and splitter that I picked up have been awesome.

They are the best value out there and split Blue Stain beautifully.

[highangle]

I've got 5+ acres of 1970s logged Cascade woods to maintain.

I let the alders die and sit for the woodpeckers unless they're threatening the drive or a building.

But we've got a boatload of vine maple and salmon berry that needs cutting back. Not to mention Himalayan blackberry, cascade creeping blackberry and black cap vine. No ivy thankfully.

A machete works OK and has that dramatic touch, but I really prefer some loppers, a small set and a big set, though not as big as Wooleys. The bigger loppers have an adjustment bolt on them; I think I got them @ HomeDepot. These manage the salmonberry and vine maple pretty well. Also a set with long (like 10 inch) cutting blades. Metal handles on those.

The Himalayan blackberry are nasty and the only way I can eradicate the fuckers are by digging them up. I have snapped or cracked enough of those shitty plastic or fiberglass handled shovels that I don't buy them anymore. I rely on at least one big bladed and one small bladed wood handled shovel for digging up blackberries and ferns, generally preferring the smaller blade since I have to dig around the packed knots of roots that wind around in the dirt here. Digging in rocks is a lot easier with the smaller blade too. The bigger one gets used gardening or digging in easier soils.

I did the driveway (a 300+ foot long 20 foot wide track through vine maple, alders, elderberry and salmonberry) a few weeks ago with the cloppers, using the longblades to chop back the hanging stuff and then the smaller cloppers to cut out the biggers stalks. The elderberry droops into the driveway and yard, but it's really soft and can generally be cut with the long blade cloppers.

Another angle on yardwork is using electric. I know it's fashionable to burn enormous amounts of fossil fuels to fortify one's masculinity, but if you get a couple hundred feet of big gauge extension cords and a burly electric weedwacker, you can get a lot done without screwing around with the fucking carburetors and gas and oil. If I need a chainsaw, I'll kowtow to that temple, but the electric shit makes it easier since they're lighter with less maintenance. I even got an electric chainsaw for chopping down the smaller alder starts.

"I was cutting some line
'Bout a quarter to nine
When I decided to have me a smoke.
When I sat in the grass a snake bit my ass
And to top it off I was broke."

-- Phillip The NSFW Coonass

[iceman]

Buster, I have a Worx battery string trimmer that was cheap and does everything I need. Battery lasts a long time and I have 2 of them, I like the thing.

https://smile.amazon.com/32-Volt-Str...ustomerReviews

[Meadow Skipper]

My core land-management hand tools are a pulaski and a forest fire shovel. The fire shovel blade is sharpen-able and is smaller than a regular one and the handle is somewhat shorter. It is really great for land maintenance tasks. Hard to find in stores, but worth searching out.

[t-the-east]

I think I got them @ HomeDepot.

I'd like to add, buy local, small biz if you can. I own a garden center. We rely on all sales. Home Depot doesn't help

[Buster Highmen]

Buster, I have a Worx battery string trimmer that was cheap and does everything I need. Battery lasts a long time and I have 2 of them, I like the thing.

https://smile.amazon.com/32-Volt-Str...ustomerReviews

OK, I admit that the cord does make me wonder about my masculinity sometimes since it reminds me of vacuuming, but yeah, go electric.
The only 2 stroke (more innuendo) that I'll keep maintained is the chain saw.

[Buster Highmen]

I'd like to add, buy local, small biz if you can. I own a garden center. We rely on all sales. Home Depot doesn't help

I used to when we lived out in the meth-sticks of Cascappalachia and before the ensuing load of idiotic free market admonishments come crushing down, I would still.

But the Home Depot is the closest now.

What kind of cloppers? Wood or metal handle? Carbon blade? Vintage? Terroir? Is there a turbo charged Euro model with a stick?

[SKIP IN7RO]

Woot was blowing out these last week for 159.00. https://tools.woot.com/offers/core-e...d_cat_tool_5_1 I should have mine this week. They make some big claims...45cc, runtime = to 2 tanks of gas, commercial quality. I am skeptically optimistic. There'll be a head to head comparison with the Honda hht35, which is a badass trimmer.

[Jacques Sheer-Rocko]

+1 on pulaskis, great for grubbing.

[t-the-east]

I used to

Thank you

But the Home Depot is the closest now to destroying small, family owned garden center and nurseries

Couldn't agree more. Well said

What kind of cloppers? Wood or metal handle? Carbon blade? Vintage? Terroir? Is there a turbo charged Euro model with a stick?

Always been a fan of wood handles, or the new composite ones, Corona or Fiskars are the best we've found. Bypass, never anvil. Take care of them and they will last a long time

[highangle]

Better than a gym membership and good for the mind. Natural sounds. Hours spent tending the burning brush pile is an experience all should enjoy.

That's what I think.

Do you get out there and mow that little troche with some scissors to help relax too?


Watch that nasty YouTube I posted. That fat Cajun kid's on his first day or two, and his fat Cajun uncles are giving him some straight dope about how to cut survey line amid all that profanity and low-living.
They're breaking him in to a job which feeds their kids. If there was a better way to tangle with that woolly booga-bottom mess than a ditchbank blade and a machete, they would be carrying it out there.

I know all this from the erstwhile narrator's use of the phrase, "...But that's whut we're in", and the way they keep looking back towards the instrument you can't see to "get on line" so they don't end up wasting their lives in the steamy enervating snake-infested swamp cutting a bunch of fuckin' bullshit they ain't gettin' paid to cut.



"Take heed Old Man!" -- The Prophet Elijah


.

[DoWork]

What kind of cloppers? Wood or metal handle? Carbon blade? Vintage? Terroir? Is there a turbo charged Euro model with a stick?

Fiskars are ok, but even their big dog ratcheting loppers blow out pretty quickly tbh. Plastic just gets worse and worse until it just buckles. Good for the homeowner but I wouldn't buy another pair. I got a set of smaller pack Florian loppers at a trade show and ended up getting the big set as a gift later in the year- holy crap that is a real piece of equipment. If you want to buy one set of loppers for life, buy a set of Florians. If you can wear them out (most people won't) they will rebuild them for you no problem.


If you're clearing lots of low sticky brambles though, man I can't say enough nice things about my scythe. Seymour aluminum snath and a 20" brush blade makes quick work of just about anything under a half inch or so, and I can move a lot faster with it on steep terrain than most people with gas brush wackers. Check them out, they kick ass!!

[BmillsSkier]

Better than a gym membership and good for the mind. Natural sounds. Hours spent tending the burning brush pile is an experience all should enjoy.

That's what I think.

Betcha five bucks you made fun of that picture of W clearing brush on his ranch.

Do you get out there and mow that little troche with some scissors to help relax too?


Watch that nasty YouTube I posted. That fat Cajun kid's on his first day or two, and his fat Cajun uncles are giving him some straight dope about how to cut survey line amid all that profanity and low-living.
They're breaking him in to a job which feeds their kids. If there was a better way to tangle with that woolly booga-bottom mess than a ditchbank blade and a machete, they would be carrying it out there.

I know all this from the erstwhile narrator's use of the phrase, "...But that's whut we're in", and the way they keep looking back towards the instrument you can't see to "get on line" so they don't end up wasting their lives in the steamy enervating snake-infested swamp cutting a bunch of fuckin' bullshit they ain't gettin' paid to cut.



"Take heed Old Man!" -- The Prophet Elijah


.

That whole last part was oddly poetic.