Forestry Mulching

[baymule]

We have a 2 1/2 acre so called horse pasture that is thickly wooded. The horses did a lot to trample out trails, but it was still an impassable thicket.

I checked into Forestry Mulching, costs are $250 per hour, 8 hour minimum plus delivery and set up. At $2000 per day...….we just kept looking at the mess. I saw an ad on Craigslist for $150 per hour and no other fees. I sent an email asking for the phone number, we were interested but it would be a few months before we were ready. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I got an email asking were we ready now, I replied no. I got a reply with a "special" of $100 per hour for that week only. I read that off to my husband and we both concluded that we just couldn't pass that up. With great anticipation we waited for the mulcher and operator to show up.

It arrived.

Before pictures.

 

[baymule]

There is a gulley in the horse pasture that gets deeper as it crosses the pipeline and during rainy season, seeps keep the water running as it exits our property. There is a slope, nothing like your mountains, but enough to erode. The sand is loose and it washes.

My husband is going to drag the front end loader on the ground to push the mulch away. We will do this in strips. The mulch will help to trap soil and keep it from washing away. The bare dirt will be for seeding pasture. This fall I plan on Crimson clover and white ball clover and rye grass. In the spring, I will plant giant Bermuda. I can't do it all at once, but I also plan on planting forage plantain, chicory and brome. My sheep LOVE chicory and will eat it down to a stump. Except the Bermuda, these are all cool season grasses, I need to plant more hot weather grasses. I figure on a good 2 years to get what I want established. I want to make a diverse pasture. I may even plant giant ragweed and lambs quarters, since the sheep love them so much. There is a weed here called Poor Joe that the horses and sheep will eat. It has a long taproot and I figure that it draws up nutrients they want. I have crab grass, but it dies back in the dry and heat. There is a little bahia here, but I want another summer grass too.

I have an invasive weed, sida rhombifolia. the sheep love it and will strip the leaves off. It is said to be toxic for goats. It is also a medicinal herb. I have eaten the leaves off the plant, not too bad.

https://earthmedicineinstitute.com/more/library/medicinal-plants/sida-rhombifolia/

This is the gulley where it exits our property.

Since there never is a rush of running water, we used bags of concrete to make a water gap, leaving spaces between the top 2 layers of bags. The paper has long since rotted off, but the concrete is still doing it's job.

@Beekissed this is just for you. LOL

 

[wyoDreamer]

I love the idea of placing the concrete IN THE BAGS along the low point of the fence where the gully is!! That is so ingenious.
Love the sheep picture!

 

[CrealCritter]

Smart right there! i must admit i've never seen anyone do that before for erosion control. Usually it's big field stones that weigh hundreds of lbs. Bags of concrete are easier to handle and cost less than big field stone, plus you can get a tighter fit, the paper is bio degradable and the cement sets up naturally with rain and moisture. Very cool idea @baymule !

BTW... The forestry mulching operator did a very nice job. Its usually the folks that want to work, are the ones that are best at it.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I bet every time you step outside and see the difference, you are thrilled all over again! We get vines and briars and wild grape vines like that here too (oh, and Kudzu too.) They sure can make a tangled mess FAST. But how cool that not only is it cleaned up, but mulched at the same time! Woohoo!

 

[baymule]

After pictures.

The back ground in this picture is clear now!

 

[wyoDreamer]

I know my DH would be pounding iron rods through the bags after stacking, just to make sure they wouldn't move... He does believe in belts and suspenders.

 

[CrealCritter]

You cracked me up. It's a guy thing. If something can be built with 2 x 2's, my hubby will insist on using 2 x 4's or even 2 x 6's!!!

Yep it's a guy thing... when in doubt, double or triple the stout.

 

[baymule]

More before pictures. There were 5 big dead trees that we had taken down in 2017. They laid on the ground, we couldn’t get to them to haul to the burn pile. You can see 2 of the trunks in the above before pictures. Look closely and you can see one of the trees already cut and down.

I took these pictures last fall. I was standing on the pipeline. The fence line on the inside was so tangled that we couldn't walk down the fence.

I took this picture yesterday.

Wow. Just wow. We are thrilled. The bush on the left is actually a tree top that fell on the fence, we'll get it off, there are several more. Before the forestry mulching, we couldn't walk from one side to the other, it was so thick and tangled. Look at it now!

 

[baymule]

What you see as cleared in the picture above, was a mass of green briars, small scraggly trees and brush. It was totally unusable. Now the fence line on both sides are cleared and Jimmy can finish fencing his place.

He called me that night and said that he walked to the fence! He must have said thank you for including me in this a dozen times. He couldn't be happier.