One step closer to having a new shop in Florida

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[rmack898]

Chris, the stumps are going to be my job. The largest ones are about 10" but most are between 6-8". If I can't get them out with my machine, I will rent an excavator and do them all over a weekend.

Ted, Thanks for turning the pics around, damn iPhones.

[rmack898]

PROGRESS We are moving in a forward direction.
The area we laid out for the shop and the house was cleared today. Tomorrow the logger will clear the driveway and start thinning the rest of the property.

I have 54 stumps in the shop clearing and 174 stumps in the home site clearing to remove. The stumps range in size from 4"-10" with the majority falling in the 6-8" range. I figured if I can dig out a stump with my machine in 5 minutes, it would take just under 20 hours to clear the stumps. I picked out an average size stump and went to town. I quit at the 5 minute mark with the stump still in the ground.

I'm going to rent an excavator for this job. Problem is nobody will rent a decent size machine to an individual. I need a Florida company and insurance. The biggest machine I can rent is going to be about 12K #s and I'm not sure if it will have enough ass to do the job in a reasonable amount of time.

I'll spend this weekend cleaning up debris and marking all the stump locations while I figure out what my best rental options are going to be.

[terry lingle]

With the tilt in some of those pictures a little stumping powder will relocate the stumps clear off your property
Humping that many stumps with an undersized machine.
would certainly tax my patience.
How far are you from ORF and his cat?

[greywynd]

What sort of a root system on these stumps? I’ve taken out stumps twice that size easily with the two ton mini ex I had, and had stumps that size fight every inch of the way with the 15 ton excavator. Tough, fibrous roots that go deep are worse, than soft, fanned out roots for example.

Soil also makes a difference. Softer sandy soil makes for easy digging, but roots pull out more instead of breaking. Harder soils are harder to dig, but often allow stumps to come out with less work because the roots will break off.




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[SmokinDodge]

Originally Posted by rmack898

PROGRESS We are moving in a forward direction.
The area we laid out for the shop and the house was cleared today. Tomorrow the logger will clear the driveway and start thinning the rest of the property.

I have 54 stumps in the shop clearing and 174 stumps in the home site clearing to remove. The stumps range in size from 4"-10" with the majority falling in the 6-8" range. I figured if I can dig out a stump with my machine in 5 minutes, it would take just under 20 hours to clear the stumps. I picked out an average size stump and went to town. I quit at the 5 minute mark with the stump still in the ground.

I'm going to rent an excavator for this job. Problem is nobody will rent a decent size machine to an individual. I need a Florida company and insurance. The biggest machine I can rent is going to be about 12K #s and I'm not sure if it will have enough ass to do the job in a reasonable amount of time.

I'll spend this weekend cleaning up debris and marking all the stump locations while I figure out what my best rental options are going to be.

I got a quote from both RSC and bobcat on a 45,000 pound machine not long ago. Call around or take an afternoon and go visit. One day with a real machine and all your stumps will be gone.

It would be advantageous to take the stumps out with the tree attached. Are they selling the small diameter wood for pulp wood? If it can be beat up just a little I’d try like hell to push a tree over with your long bucket then cut to length.

[RED caddy]

Mac, The last time I got involved in a project like that, here in Sarasota county, We pushed/pulled the trees over with a Case 450. A couple of heavy winter rains helped a bunch. (using the tree as leverage makes them stumps jump outta the dirt)

Chainsawed the stumps free, cut and stacked the trees by size and usefulness and then had a stump grinder (huge) come in and mulch all the junk. Made a really nice job of it.

Just a thought, (it's truly amazing what a dumb ass can accomplish with enough OPM)

RED

[LKeithR]

Originally Posted by rmack898

...I have 54 stumps in the shop clearing and 174 stumps in the home site clearing to remove. The stumps range in size from 4"-10" with the majority falling in the 6-8" range. I figured if I can dig out a stump with my machine in 5 minutes, it would take just under 20 hours to clear the stumps. I picked out an average size stump and went to town. I quit at the 5 minute mark with the stump still in the ground.

Skid steer is definitely not the best machine for rootin' out stumps. Pretty sad when 4" - 6" is considered to be a log. We're down to that level some places in the province but most wood is a bit bigger than that.

...I'm going to rent an excavator for this job. Problem is nobody will rent a decent size machine to an individual. I need a Florida company and insurance. The biggest machine I can rent is going to be about 12K #s and I'm not sure if it will have enough ass to do the job in a reasonable amount of time....

That's kinda weird; all I would need to rent a big machine is a credit card with a big balance. A place that didn't know me might want me to show them that I actually know how to run the machine but otherwise no issues.

Originally Posted by SmokinDodge

...One day with a real machine and all your stumps will be gone....

Yup.

...It would be advantageous to take the stumps out with the tree attached....

Yeah, much easier...

Originally Posted by RED caddy

...then had a stump grinder (huge) come in and mulch all the junk....

Stump grinders are generally used to grind a stump in the ground, a big ass chipper is what they use to mulch all the debris after a plot of ground is cleared. Used to be that all land clearing debris just got burned but we've reached the point around here where most jurisdictions won't allow open burning and debris has to be ground up...

[midmosandblasting]

At least those on house and workshop have to come out . Rest could be ground .

[rmack898]

Here's where I'm at and why.

The clearing for the house, shop, and an 800' driveway comes out to a little over 2 acres of area. To have someone come in and clear it for me was going to cast between 6 and $8K per acre.

So I decided to sell the timber to a small scale logger. He uses a feller/buncher and cuts them close to the ground. When he is all done clearing and thinning the balance of the timber plantation, I get a check. If it costs me $2K in machine rentals I will still have cash leftover and will only have spent my time.

When I was clearing the landing area for the logger I was able to push the trees over without too much difficulty. Every inch of diameter of tree, equates to a foot tap root (a 4" tree has a 4' tap root).

I have a very good felling that this whole project is going to go over budget so I will inject sweat equity whenever possible.

I took some video of trees coming down today but the wi-fi here is so bad I can't up-load them. I might have to go to a Starbucks this weekend to get good wi-fi