Day 471 - Grapple Mulcher Mowing - BaumaLight MP360

BPO3 is supported by Timber King sawmills. For more information on my 1220 CRZ mill or one of many Foley hydraulic options, go to TimberKing.com. Yesterday I did not get back out for round two. After my two o'clock shower I just stayed inside, didn't do much of anything. But today I want to tackle some of this taller stuff before it gets too hot. When I used the mulcher on the other side of the property, as I came back through I just cut through this just to see what it would do. And it cut all right. Now this isn't a flail mower, it's kind of like a flail mower on steroids. So it's not the best thing to cut all this smaller stuff but it'll definitely do the job. I mean these are taller than I am. I gotta knock them down. I gotta get a rotary cutter or a flail mower, one of the two. But if I can delay any expense or purchase right now that's exactly what I'm going to do. So I want to knock some of this taller stuff down and then also get into that corner over there where that shady area is. There's a lot of brambles and really thick, hard, dense vines. And I want to clear out all that area because eventually I want to get rid of this patch of pines right here. This patch of pines. Oh goodness, Peter Piper picked a patch of pines. They're gonna come down eventually. They serve no purpose here. There's no value for them right here and they're blocking our view of our beautiful hardwoods. This side of the property is primarily hardwoods and I want to see all those fall colors. I don't want to see pine trees right here that provide nothing for us. Looking like Mr. Clean today or that guy off of Adam's Family. What was that guy's name? Short guy, kind of chubby, bald head. Sounds like someone else I know. Anyway, I want to get this done and then kind of play it by ear. I need to get in the habit of at least two logs every single day. Whether that's first thing in the morning or before sunset. I'm milling in spurts and I need to mill in consistent spurts. Probably not the best tool for the task, right? You know, this is a mulcher so essentially we're spinning a bunch of hammers, right? You can cut your grass with hammers but that's not the right tool for the job. This on the other hand where we're starting to get into a bunch of really big pieces of wood, right? All this junk. This is where the mulcher really shines. I don't know how far I want to go into it because there's some Chinese privets back there. I don't know if I want to mulch up privets or not. It's my understanding that if you don't get rid of the roots they just keep coming right back but at the same time I can just keep this area maintained and then they shouldn't come back. So I don't know but this thing's a lot of fun. It's instant gratification especially when you get into this thicker stuff and it just mulches it all up finer and finer and finer pieces the more you run it over and also the lower you go. This elevation change right here, this is a kind of a tricky terrain to be using this implement because it's really really lumpy and bumpy and I keep scalping the ground and what is the enemy of all things sharp? Dirt. Dirt is the enemy of all things sharp so the more I scalp the ground and and stir up dirt the faster I'm drilling the cutting edges on here. This is the only camera I brought out here so rather than going back getting more cameras I'm just going to put you up there. Here's an interesting perspective. I'm standing on the tractor seat about to put the camera right here on top of the rocks and some of the stuff we're about to be mulching is taller than the tractor box. Quite the difference in just a short amount of time. I switched over to the grapple and started piling all the debris rather than mulching it because this this terrain is just it's just too challenging for a three-point implement that does not have a elevation roller on the back side you know like a rotary cutter you can set the wheel on the back side to limit its depth all the way to limit its depth so you don't bottom out as much. Same with flail mowers. Bommalite makes a flail mower that has a roller on the back side and that roller will prevent it from digging down into the dirt but like like this right here I don't know how it's showing up on camera but that right there is a good foot foot and a half taller than right there. It's just too many real severe lumpies and bumpies. This almost looks like an area that was previously used to just mound up dirt. Like I don't understand why it's so lumpy and bumpy. Anyway right here was basically that wall of vegetation where we could not see in because that Chinese privet right there was huge and it was just mounding over all the way out to here. Now I initially also started to pile this up kind of like a test for the for the mulcher. How would it do on just a pile of vegetation like this? But I don't honestly think that that's necessary just to test out the mulcher. Instead I think my new plan is to let this let this dry out. Let this get to where it's burnable. Not because I want to burn it here but because I want to burn it over there. That's our last final pile of root balls. We've been trying to get rid of these root balls for over a year now. Oh mosquitoes are huge over here and we're running into a situation where we don't have enough fuel to burn up the root balls. We just burn up everything around them and then we have to pile more stuff and then burn them all up and then pile more stuff and then burn them all up. So this has got a lot of sticks and a lot of I think what will be good debris once it dries out for me to just take over there that short distance and pile it up over there and just let it burn on that to hopefully get rid of the root balls. Holy smokes the ants are over here too. Okay ants and mosquitoes keep moving don't stand still. So as far as mulching I really really like it. It is it is so nice to be able to mulch on the ground rather than cut pull and then feed through the chipper on the tractor. Now the chipper on the tractor oh there's a snake right there. Oh you see that? See that snake? Hey little buddy little green snake. That's the first live snake I've seen on this property. Awesome. Let me switch. I got you on wide angle. I'm gonna I'm gonna switch it over to narrow. Narrow 27 millimeter lens. Hey little fella. I want to see if I can't catch him. Nope I can't catch him. I'm fat and slow and he's small and fast. Goodbye buddy. Okay easily distracted. This GoPro keeps overheating. I think we're in the beginning of our drought. Hopefully these monsoon rains can hold off for a little while and we can get some more outside work done. But it's hot. It's really hot and the sun's creeping over these trees. I think I think I need to go grab a couple eight foot logs and switch gears to saw milling in the shade. Same old song and dance. It wasn't supposed to rain today and uh you know what? The past month or so I've been complaining about rain rain rain. Woe is me. But it was hot today. Crazy hot and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. I just looked at the radar. This is just a little small cloud. Nothing crazy but I'll take the break in the temperature. But that means um it means video editing time. So we're done with the saw mill for today and I didn't even get started. I remember the days all those years ago that never fade away and I remember your face when you hit the ground I can recall the time and place on a midnight walk through the old streets trying to turn back the clock to the days of old back to the days when all the things we knew were made of gold as the world moves on time sings a song in the old neighborhood as the clock strikes one the memory lives just as it stood like a quiet dream shadows of that time are cast beneath the streetlight beam as the world moves on time sings a song don't cry don't cry as the days move along you can remember this all I remember the days looking back I can't see clearly how we had it made and I remember every phase and when I think of them it takes me to that time and place time sings a song don't cry as the days move on you can remember this song cry cry as the days move on this song