Clearing With a 354 Jinma

[biggkidd]

Hi All,

As many of you know we just were lucky enough to purchase some land. We will actually own it in about 20 years. Ha ha...

Anyway its all covered in timber.



I need to take a video but you get the idea. I just backed up to that little old cedar and chained it up. The chain was kind of high 3-4 foot I guess. Then I put my 354 in low 3rd I think and away we went. Here are a few more picks to give you a small idea of what I have to look forward to.








Most all of those were taken in one of the 2 large stands of cedars & pines. We have about 5-7 ac of evergreens and the rest is all hardwoods.

I am sorry to say I don't have any picks of this past weekend as I forgot the camera. DOH But I do have a couple interesting things to tell you.

First I was pulling this little 5" tree. Yes I measured it after it gave me such a hard time. It would not budge. I had the chain 4 or so feet up the trunk. It just wouldn't come up. Then the trunk broke. It was still connected but snapped over. Well I had the BH on so I dug around it about 2 ft. deep. Then went pulling again. Well this time I lost my temper. I had been pulling these trees out in 3rd & 1st low. Many of them much larger than this little tree, which I THOUGHT was an oak. But I have never seen an Oak tree with a big tap root. Well I shifted up into 1st hi and got about 10 ft. of slack in the chain and let her rip. I set the hand throttle at 1800 and cut the tractor off when I ran out of slack. I should have a nice bruise from the steering wheel by now but I don't bruise easy. It stopped that tractor cold. Well I am hot by now so I backed up and set the hand throttle to 2200 Rpm. It stopped the tractor again this time I caught it as the engine bogged down though. With the back hoe on there I had enough traction to choke the engine out. So at this point I shut the tractor down and quit for the night. This AM I went back out and warmed the engine cranked her and while waiting decided I needed to get around the other side. Now thats harder to do than you think. The woods are thick. So first I had to move a few smaller saplings. That gave me just enough room to get a face full of tree while I got the tractor in position. Pulling from this side I got the stump out in three pulls. No more high speed runs though. If I had kept that up either the tractor or I would need new parts by now. Thats when I discovered that was no oak. I have not seen an oak with a larger tap root than the trunk or a tap root at all. This tap root was 2" larger around than the trunk and about 7 feet long.

Next it was time for fun with a Iron Wood tree. I think I have cut softer Iron than the wood this tree was made of. It was not a big tree either but man some hard stuff. For those who have never seen it it has a smooth light grey bark. Whats more interesting is it grows like a crape Myrtle bush. The one thing that makes it so different is it appears to have muscles. I actually thought I saw sparks flying a few times. Well I will try to remember the camera when I go back.

Thanks for looking.

KIDD

P.S. If any one has suggestions on better ways to clear with a tractor I am all ears.

[biggkidd]

Hi Guys,

We just got back from the property. Did a little more clearing this weekend. Here are some before and after pictures.



And now.






This is the biggest stump to come out here yet.





That pine wasn't to bad to get out I took the hoe and dug around the uphill side. Then hooked to it and pulled it right on out. It tell you it works a lot better if gravity is working with you. I seem to have a lot better luck when pulling stumps down hill. But we almost have a yard at camp now. ;D ;D ;D I need to grade it out and plant some grass seed. Then the kids will have a place to play.

KIDD

[3RRL]

Kidd,
You're getting like me ... working your butt off every visit.
Don't forget to take a break and smell the roses. Those are some neat photos and it looks like there's a lot of hiking and exploring you guys can do. I know you want to get things squared away, but don't forget to relax a little too. Nickole and the rest of the Kidds will appreciate you for it.
What's the weather like now up there?
Rob-

[biggkidd]

Hey Rob,

You're getting like me ... working your butt off every visit.
Your right about that I need a break when I get home.
Don't forget to take a break and smell the roses.
We went for a nice long ATV ride yesterday. We saw these 2 bridges built way back when we did.




That was the one over the creek that runs across the corner of our property.








That one is the Meharrin River (sp) its a ways farther down that road that runs in front of our place.

I have lots to post just been so short on energy! Not to mention we have been gone so much.

KIDD

Thanks for the comments.

PS Here is a vid of us atv riding its not very good though.



It was taken with Nickoles digital camera.

[3RRL]

Dang, looks like Nickole is just kicking your ass!
I figured you'd eat it a couple times when you where approaching those mud holes.
Is that one of the roads you smoothed or made Larry?

[biggkidd]

Hey Rob,

we had a blast. Savannah was riding with Nickole and Kyrstin was with me. We stayed in 1st &2nd gear. Now we need running water to wash everything off. We sure got muddy. Theres miles and miles of those little "roads" we have yet to see. But even though they are posted we can go down them because they are through roads and we have property in there. If we didn't own the land we wouldn't be allowed to go there either. Of course those things aren't enforced to hard unless someone is being malicious.

KIDD

[biggkidd]

Hi Guys,

We got some more clearing done. I even dropped some grass seed around the camper. Nickole's tired of the mud already. Can you imagine that?

Here are a few pics.



Nope thats not where I cleared. Thats where I bet the crap out of my bucket loading both the pulverizer and rake into the truck.



Thats the second bucket I have bent.





So if I get lucky again it will rain nice and easy. Then the next time we go up we might have a small start on some grass. It would just add to the work load having to cut the grass. But thats about the only down side. Now I have to decide where to work next. Or what to do next. I need to take some more trees out around camp. But I also need to clear for a garden and start clearing where we think we want the house to go. So many things to do and only so much time.

Thanks for looking

KIDD

[3RRL]

Lots of choices and decisions, huh? Don't worry, you'll figure it out.
You did a nice job clearing Larry. The camp looks great!
Oh, nice job on that bucket too. ;D Big deal, it still works, right?
Rob-

[stumpy]

biggkidd said:

Hi All,

KIDD

Hey biggkidd:

I see you got a LW-7 backhoe on that Jinma 354. How to you like it? Do you need any modifications to fit the LW-7 backhoe to the Jinma ?

Thanks,

Tom

[biggkidd]

Thanks Rob,

Oh, nice job on that bucket too. Big deal, it still works, right?
Rob-

Hey thats a custom big mouth bucket now.

KIDD

[biggkidd]

I don't Think Jinma intended their tractors for this but here are three bad videos. Beware some of the language is rated (R).

While I sit here and wait for my slow A$$ puter to load them. This was the first time we had one of our friends out to the place Darren and his daughter came out for the weekend.

We only got a little clearing done but a little is better than none. Mostly we showed them around some of our land. The camera gave us trouble all weekend so not to many pics. For some reason the batteries die for no apparent reason when we are there. The camera and my GPS have the same symptoms. Oh cell phones too. Just charged or new batteries are dead in an hour or so. Its weird or just my imagination.

Well I almost have the videos loaded and I am disappointed the tree actually coming down is not on there. But I think you get the idea. This is the biggest tree I have strait pulled out of the ground without first digging around it. I think Darren says it all there in the second video. ;D









I tell you it sure was nice to have some help. If I had the extra $$$$ I would hire Darren for the summer. We cleared a space about 40X70 that day. Not all the way clear but down to the small stuff less than 1.5 inches.

You know I might just be pushing the limits of my little Jinma.

Larry

[3RRL]

Heck Kidd, I thought you had borrowed Larry G's bull dozer for that work.
Your 354 is pretty dam tough!
Nice going man.