Finally Bought Some Land

[j44ke]

Looks a bit sexier than my LL Bean XL canvas sail bag.

[ides1056]

get a scabbard for your saw

[ides1056]

this is the best sharpening tool I have ever used:2 in 1 Filing Guide & Saw Chain Sharpener | STIHL USA

consider the Kawasaki Mule vs a quad- it's a small pickup truck. Kubota makes a beefier version as well. Can't recommend these enough. We use the Mule for plowing as well, with a Cycle Country plow. Looks sort of rinky-dink compared with a tractor, but it is very effective, especially with chains on the front. The Kubota version has remote valves on the rear for various tools. I use a walk behind brush hog, DR manufactured, for mowing fields, paths through the woods and the like. Also an FS 85 Stihl brush saw with various blades for the same.The DR has needed repairs over the years because it is not as robust as it should be, but I haven't wrecked it yet. I have a neighbor whose a whiz at welding, so he fixes what I break routinely.

[Trevor]

FWIW - I have a Stihl MS251-CBE MS 251 CB-E | Powerful Lightweight Adjustable Chainsaw | STIHL USA which works pretty damn well.

I just picked one of those up. I also could not be more pleased with my local Stihl dealer. Really explained everything and went over every single detail with me. We lost 4-5 trees this winter/spring so I have some cleaning up to do. Nothing too big, and from the pictures of the trees, that is the machine my dealer recommended. Looking forward to using it this weekend when the weather is nicer.

[j44ke]

I realized last week look at the picture of that pack that I had a Mcleod when I lived in AZ. It was sold to me as a desert hoe by an old lady at the desert botanical garden annual sale. I used it lots.

If I can remember, I'll look at the saw next time I drive by the Stihl dealer.

[s_curran]

Anyone ever used an electric one? We dont have a ton of land, but theres a few smallish trees I'd like to fell, as well as some trails in our neighorhood I'd like to maintain, meaning I'd like to keep the noise down. The EGO seems to tick most boxes, and I wouldnt mind their lawnmower as well.

I splurged and got one of these for helping out the local trail builders and general yard stuff. It's amazing. https://www.benmeadows.com/rogue-hoe...archterm=rogue

[mmoore]

im fairly surprised with how often you have to sharpen your blade joe.

every two tanks sounds pretty frequent... we would go a whole weekend on one sharpening (unless you get the blade into the dirt) which on the 50cc is about 6 tanks of fuel.

[j44ke]

Stopped by the land early this morning for a birdwalk. Yellow warbler, brown creeper (sort of a cross between a nuthatch, a woodpecker and a field mouse,) lots of woodpeckers (hah, no wonder) and unfortunately a whole new batch of ticks. Ugh. Really going to have to spend a chunk of time building some trails so each visit doesn't require so much bush whacking. And get rid of the barberry and (new species I've learned recently) Chinese privet, which provide cover for deer and mice and thus breeding grounds for ticks.

Anyway, the land is still great even with all the blood suckers. Found a red eft form of the red-spotted newt, did a thorough moss inventory and my wife found a turkey "nest" with egg #1 in a clutch total to be determined over a couple weeks. Turkeys are sequential layers like a lot of chicken-birds (and ducks I think,) and they can lay up to 18 eggs in a clutch before starting incubation. I thought hens would have nested in undergrowth, but evidently they like to be able to have a 360 degree view around them so nest in relatively open areas. I guess we'll check to see if how many eggs are there in a week.

[bironi]

Great pics and update Jorn.

[Mabouya]

and unfortunately a whole new batch of ticks

If you can find a way to get some free-range guinea hens that stay close to home and aren't all eaten by foxes they'll help to keep a lid on the ticks. I believe chickens also eat them, but they aren't as exotic at guineas.

My place is a deer and mouse paradise, and thus also a tick haven. I can't spend more than a few minutes in the yard without picking up a few. The deer ticks are the worst, because in addition to Lyme disease, they're tiny, and I have freckles all over, so finding them is a real challenge. Often I don't, until I feel a spot on my leg starting to itch.

In addition to chemical sprays to keep them off (which I don't use often, because I hate them) these are useful as a last resort to remove them:

Remove Ticks Easily with Tick Twister O'TOM®

[j44ke]

Interesting tool. I like when someone sees a problem and heads to the workshop to come up with a solution.

The property to our east is now for sale. It shares about 60% of the eastern border of our land and includes the source of the creek that runs along our southern border. 48 acres of woods and wetlands. If we bought it, we'd have a nice buffer to the east, but that's actually the direction where we have the most buffer. If we were going to buy more land, I'd actually like the other bank of the creek, extra along our northern boundary or the little 1780 farm house to the west that was subdivided off the property and sold as a separate 4 acre piece.

We did get our first property tax bill after rejoining the two lots we purchased. The way they calculate based on acreage cut our taxes in half, so that was a good move.

Now we just need to get the house started!

[caleb]

Anyone ever used an electric one? We dont have a ton of land, but theres a few smallish trees I'd like to fell, as well as some trails in our neighorhood I'd like to maintain, meaning I'd like to keep the noise down. The EGO seems to tick most boxes, and I wouldnt mind their lawnmower as well.

My father has a little battery powered one, and he really likes it for light duty tasks. I think the bar is 12", and it's light. I expect it would be great for trail building/maintenance.

I also hear really good reviews of the small Jonsered saws, and they might be worth checking out if you have a dealer near you.

I have a Husky 440 that I like for large tasks, but it's a bit of saw to lug around the woods on foot.

[j44ke]

I've used Japanese saws in the woods with good results. The tooth design cuts on the push rather than the pull, but once you get the rhythm thing down, they blaze through surprisingly large pieces of wood. And if you are dealing with standing or fallen dead wood, it is like butter.

The two I have are fairly small, but I will invest in several of the larger models later this spring. Silky Saw is the brand I've been using. This model is the Big Boy and the blade is 360mm long with big teeth for ripping through lumber. They make a larger saw called the Katana Boy.



These are not substitutes I don't think for the bulk clearing that a chainsaw can do, but for trail building/maintenance and dead wood clearing (or Asian bittersweet vine killing,) they are pretty capable.

A lot of good stuff right here: https://www.japanwoodworker.com

[ides1056]

Silky is top of the line. This is a local supplier:OESCO, Inc.

There's a permethrin based repellent made by Sawyer you can find at WalMart- you spray it on your clothing, not on your body, and it lasts forty days or so. I recommend you have dedicated clothing for working outdoors- tall rubber boots your pants tuck into and the like. It's a pain, but lyme is only one of many life-changing diseases ticks carry. You can't be too careful, and this will help.

[s_curran]

Ended up getting the EGO. I had previously de-limbed and cut up all fallen trees with a silky big boy, its sooo nice. We had a few more go down (nothing major) and I need to do some trail clean up. So I grabed it at home depot out of convenience, ugh. Its pretty nice, very easy to use, arguably too easy, knowing that its not too hard to get in trouble with one of any size. Its very very quiet.

[caleb]

There's a permethrin based repellent made by Sawyer you can find at WalMart- you spray it on your clothing, not on your body, and it lasts forty days or so. I recommend you have dedicated clothing for working outdoors- tall rubber boots your pants tuck into and the like. It's a pain, but lyme is only one of many life-changing diseases ticks carry. You can't be too careful, and this will help.

Just to underline the point about ticks, I was out in the woods with the pup on Friday night, then showered and did a thorough tick check. Saturday morning I woke up at 5am thinking I had an ingrown hair on my taint (you know what I mean), and chalked it up to increased mileage without enough chamois cream. Only when I got up did I realize it was a tick that had been there all night. So now, even if I don't end up with anything, I get to try to contort my body enough to check that area for a bullseye daily, and by the time you're doing that there's no good outcome. It's just a continuum between unpleasant and the urgent care clinic.

I have reservations about applying nerve agent, or any functional approximation of it, to my clothing, but trying to look at my taint daily isn't a good alternative.

[j44ke]

Get a hand mirror for butt checks. One of those lighted vanity hand mirrors (yes they make them) for seeing where the sun don't shine.

Unfortunately dogs in the family increase the risk factor for ticks in the house, and if your dog sleeps with you in the bed at night, that's an even higher risk. Too bad they are so warm and fuzzy.

My doc who now has lots of tick experience, says less 24-36 hours means your likelihood of being OK is high. The tick actually takes a while to get embedded. As I understand it, the feeling of an ingrown hair is the tick's anesthetic wearing off and your skin reacting to the tick. But they have to actually back-flush their feeding system for you to get the spirochete in your blood system, and that evidently happens after the tick has been embedded for about 36-48 hours (and the blood test won't reveal an infection for at least a week after the back-flush occurs.) However, you are supposed to remove the tick without squeezing too hard, because your grip can actually induce the tick to regurgitate into the wound and thereby transferring the spirochete. So you grip at the head with fine tweezers and pull straight away from the skin to detach in one pull. Or you use that tool above I guess.

Get that mirror!

[Mabouya]

It's a shame this is no longer available. (So much for the free-market being perfect.)

https://www.vox.com/science-and-heal...-effectiveness

[hugh]

Freeze don't squeeze. Don't know if your ticks are the same as we have here in Australia, but we use a use a wart freezing spray to freeze them and then they just drop off.

More info in this video:

[caleb]

It's a shame this is no longer available. (So much for the free-market being perfect.)

https://www.vox.com/science-and-heal...-effectiveness

I've heard of both DVMs and MDs in high risk areas injecting themselves with the canine version of the vaccine. Apparently it's pretty similar to the stuff marketed to humans that was run off the market.