Clearing Brush.....

I had a good day on the land today - starting the process of clearing a 10 metre strip on the border, which is a legal requirement for fire safety in this part of the world.

I had some help from a guy whose worked in forestry for a couple of decades, and it's been a great day working alongside him as he's a very useful source of knowledge.

We started off on the Northern boundary which consists of cork oaks and pine: he got busy with his chainsaw to take out all the larger brush while I dragged it out, piling it up at the bottom of the slope to make an enormous hugel bed:

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(Tidying it up is for later in the week!)

I then went back and used the Stihl to clear the smaller brush - the Stihl's good for anything up to about half an inch thick, while he started taking out some of the smaller trees.

We got a LOT of brush out of one relatively small 10 metre strip (actually I think we may have gone more than 10 metres in places) - there was so much tinder box material in there that it took a couple of run throughs:

  • chainsaw to get the larger stuff out, dragged out
  • Brush cutter to get the smaller stuff out, dragged out
  • Then go back through and take out the smaller trees.

This is what it looked like to start with:

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This is the end result:

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There's a few young oak saplings and hawthornes that now have a chance to breath - and that's basically the plan for this section of the land - just let the oaks come back naturally, and plant a few more - you're allowed oaks in the 10 metre border strip as they don't burn easily apparently.

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We're still not done with this area - we need to rake it through, but affter than it's just a matter of planting a few acorns and whatever other helpful and fire resistant shrubs I want here, something to research!

I've also got a nice emerging wood pile already - we're leaving in the thicker pines, but there's a lot of thin densely packed ones that need thinning out...

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Overall I had a great day!

I think this is the kind of thing that works so much better with two people - had I been doing this on my own, it would have been depressingly slow going.

We worked at a reasonable pace, with plenty of tea breaks along the way and the day just flew by, it was 16.30 before I new it, and that was enough for the day.

back to it tomorrow! I think I'm getting a lesson in how to maintain my brush cutter, it's so damn useful working with someone that knows a lot more about this stuff than I do!



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3 comments
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Good evening. Even the photographs show a large amount of work that you have completed. I love your post. Thank you so much. I wish you success and all the best.

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Looking good and I expect you will be feeling the effects of all that effort. Do you see much in the way of wildlife around there? Some birds and critters could help keep some of the pests under control. Lots of exciting possibilities.

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I'm feeling it after day two - I was at my limit by about 15.00 - just dragging out wood and brush and stacking it is tough.

I fell asleep in front of Netflix, haven't done that for a while.

Day off today.

The wildlife here is pretty intense at this time of year, it's great! Lots of birds especially.

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