The Bramble And Sapling Jungle, Part 2

Well, the DR Brush mower is pretty fearsome.  It basically says that if you use it carelessly, you could lose a foot.  The blade under that shroud is very heavy, fast, and sharp.  You can't cut a 1.5" sapling into mulch with a simple lawn mower!  A word to the wise is sufficient...  I was careful.

Here is what the half of the backyard looked like before...

The cleared portion on the right; uncleared on the left...

The view from the deck.

And that was after an intial test of the DR brush mower.  I could tell it would work well.  It is self-propelled and can push over and mulch saplings up to about 1.5" diameter.  At the same time, it is a large machine for an individual and turning it around takes some effort.  But it mowed down the brambles mercilessly!!!

I wish I could say all it took was guiding it around the brambles, but there are limitations.  There were old 12' tree strumps.  There were 3" diameter saplings.  There were rabbit holes where a tire would spin helplessly.  I did the open areas first, and when I had to force the tires out of rabbit holes, I did.  The reverse propelled gear helped.

So then I was faced with saplings too large for the brush mower to push over and chop up.  I stopped.  I have to say that I sure liked the battery-powered hedge trimmer.  It cut the wild vines very well.  I still got stuck on a lot of falling brambles, but I found and old leather hunting jacket in a closet (I'm a bit of a "saver" and that was immune to bramble thorns.  It was so old I couldn't zip it closed (it was about 6" too small at the waist, LOL!) but as a cover, it worked well.

After hedge-trimming as many vines as I could from ground level to as high as I could reach, I went after the larger saplings with my electric chain saw.  I deliberately cut them about a foot high so that I knew where they were ( I wanted to know where they are for complete removal later).

That was several weeks ago.  Because after bending around awkwardly to chainsaw the saplings and haul them out of the vines and put them in piles for cutting the pieces to fit my hauling trailer (to bring them to a County place that makes free mulch)...

I woke up the next morning and couldn't stand up.  Yes, I mentioned that in a previous post and I'm just catching up.  I had 2 weeks of pain and used up 2 tubes of muscle relief ointment (Aspercreme, not that smelly type that athletes use to advertise their need for something).

A few days ago, I woke up and all was well with my back.  So, naturally, I went back at the yard work.  And more about THAT tomorrow...