Day 313 - Vines, Privets, & Pines

[Music] [Laughter] audio synchronize the AUD [Music] oh we're starting to clean up this berm over here so this berm should not be here this was created when the driveway was cut in so when the excavator was just picking up these trees these small ones anyway and just setting them off to the side grabbing dirt and setting them off to the side grabbing dirt setting off piling them up what we're left with is a BM that has a bunch of these bigger trees and logs and such stuck inside of them and that's a huge pain in the butt obviously they're covered in mud so you can't really burn them so you got to pick them up and knock them off and and create smaller piles and we can burn them that way and then starting to flatten out and get back inside there so this is a long-term project that we're working on um it it's not fun by any means it's it's the wet season so I'm running into situations where I can't continue right here because it's so wet but up here at the other side uh where the driveway kind of sort of starts where all the stuff starts uh we can we can start cleaning up and burning there but we also want to get rid of a bunch of Pines a bunch of Chinese privets a bunch of stuff that really doesn't make any sense really doesn't add any value to the ecosystem here so we're going to be pulling this stuff out clean heat up and hopefully making this side of the driveway look a lot like this stretch right here we cleared this out a little bit um late late summer and started cleaning this up and and adding uh compostable material to build up some soil a little bit uh this had wild flowers in it naturally last year so we're hoping a bunch of wild flowers will come back uh but we did plant a bunch of clover and um some other stuff accidentally like pumpkins this section is going to be just for wildlife so I don't care what grows there so long as it's valuable to the ecosystem this stuff up here is covering a row of some beautiful walnut trees if I'm not mistaken there's like five really large walnut trees right here and I'd like to clean out all of this stuff underneath the walnut trees and really save them I've already taken the vines out or at least sto The Vines now we need to make the ground around it really nice ah ah more Vines I didn't see all right as far as cutting around the base of the trees uh I got rid of most of the vines you know it's interesting how much more you can see during fall and and winter when all when the majority of the vegetation already knocked down you see all that green stuff right there the majority of that is Chinese privet it's an invasive species that just takes over and I don't know if you can see how much it's already taken over we want to get rid of those also these smaller Pines these smaller Pines are competing uh for canopy space with these walnut trees and I want the walnut trees to stay so the Pine's got to go the Chinese privets got to go and all this brush here at the bottom it's got to be cleaned up as well you can kind of get a better idea of how much I've cleaned up right here already inside there I kind of bulldozed my way in and cleaned up a little bit so I've got enough room for the tractor to do a whole 360 and keep moving stuff around uh all of this like I said it's Pines and Chinese privet it pro it it provides no value to the ecosystem here so I want to clear all this out and uh at the very least get wild flowers going get some taller grasses going some some protection for bunnies and birds and whatnot and really try and bring back a lot of wildlife I'm primarily going to be working over here on this side and I'll be pulling the stuff over to uh Jaime's burn pile Jamie's got a pile going over here and uh she's been working at that for a little while gas can is not for the fire gas can is for that just want to throw that out there and the kids and dogs are doing what kids and dogs do [Laughter] best oh that was perfect timing perfect timing all right let's get to work the ground is soft enough that pulling them out's pretty easy just got to keep them stacked in an organized fashion to where I could take many of them over at one time cuz that's the slowest part the slowest part is taking them over to the burn pile I'm going pull backwards bend the tree in One Direction and then I can get on the other side of it and bend the tree in the other direction by then the root system should be exposed and really easy to lift out of the ground the ground is so soft right now cuz it's the later part of our wet season so it's like cheating pulling these trees out it doesn't take much at all it makes this tractor feel much more powerful than what it really is I tried to pull these trees Tre out in the summertime when the ground was like you know hard as a rock that's not an efficient use of energy will say holy smokes it's it's a night and day difference doing this right now versus the summertime and all of these Vines are just taking over anyway so clearing this out is going to solve so many problems with all this smaller stuff it's just a lot easier to put the put the uh rake down and just push through the top layer of the the dirt just push it off to the side then I can pick it all up knock as much dirt off as I can and then stack it oh oh [Music] [Music] now [Music] oh [Music] [Music] what a difference what a difference this makes this is exciting these bigger trees were just hidden this is a huge walnut tree and it was almost completely covered up by junk really and the vines that's that's another benefit of doing this is we're getting the vines out of these trees look how big these Vines were I already came through and cut them a little bit but the fuzzy Vines that's all poison ivy and um man I wonder how long this tree would have lived without any intervention and just let the vines go as they wish they're eventually going to pull it the tree down completely so I got this one cleaned up all the way around the base well rough work anyway uh I don't know if I'm going to keep this one we're going to have to figure out um how it's competing with the canopy once the leaves are on not too sure about this uh this other Walnut right here massive Walnut I just keep dropping my gloves um massive walnut tree getting the vines out of it and it's nice to keep them alive getting close I still got to pull all this other stuff out this is the perfect time of the year to do this right here the ground is so soft and Squishy that we just I mean that tree right there that Big Pine it's probably a 6 in diameter Pine and you just push it over and the roots are exposed and you pick it up couldn't quite get to it because there's this pile of trash right here A bunch of glass didn't really want to break the glass any and uh rocking and rolling on the tractor so I don't want to get off and pick it up just yet but we we find piles of this all over the property it's I mean eventually it's it's going to be gone but come on man if you're going to go play out in the woods enjoy it don't destroy it all right speaking of Destruction um starting to get back into the original burm that was created from the driveway got to get that out I don't know how many of these Pines we're going to keep but I do want to keep a wall on this side because uh this entire side of our property um is is joined by one neighbor so that's good and the majority of that is horse pasture so I'm not too too concerned but I do want the wall of vegetation and I don't know how far we'll take this off the driveway but all of this back here is just Chinese privets the majority of it's Chinese privets and Pines that are not thin there's too much competition we're going to pull this stuff out uh pull out the privets as much as POS possible and hopefully get this to like a an oak Savannah so we have some some taller grasses Big Trees tall grasses some mediumsized trees and use the canopy once the leaves start coming back use the canopy as as a guide to what we can keep and what we can get rid of as far as no not uh overcrowding and stunting growth and all that stuff um but I want a lot of high grasses and wild flowers through here that'll really help bring some small animal life back to the property we do have a lot of rabbits around here uh possum and raccoon that we've caught on camera but I want to get more birds in here a lot more birds in here and uh we do have some Quail on the other side of the property which is pretty cool over by the creek uh I want to expand some of that Wildlife this way uh cool thing about this is as the driveway comes in the driveway the road's over there so we have this hill at the road you have to come up a hill when you come in the property so that Hill gives us natural privacy this way that's one of the reasons why I Justified opening this up is because nobody can see it from the road anyway but as you come in we now have as you make this turn one two three monster walnut trees in a row and this should be a beautiful kind of a signature area on the driveway now the driveway comes in through this curve and as you see as you come through the curve you'll see this but as soon as you straighten out once again I haven't gotten around to putting a lot of work into it just yet but once we straighten out this way we see what will be the orchard in the future I've got to get these Pines down uh beetles are just going crazy with them uh but that is an ongoing process as well this is what I'm really excited about getting rid of right so this is what it all looks like now over here big difference huh big difference I want to keep continuing this open area all the way up to this walnut tree that other walnut tree and I'm not too sure if that one is Walnut or not but I think there's many in a row it looks like this was planted it looks like this is on purpose walnut walnut walnut walnut walnut walnut burn oh this is looking good looking good I'm excited I am I don't want to quit but I got to go cook lunch for the family I'm excited progress this is great this is going to look so much better when it's done this is going to be such a better habitat when it's done okay food [Music] a [Music]