So I bought a DR Brush Mower. It wasn't an easy decision. Those things aren't cheap. And they come with serious warnings about possibly injury. So I watched videos of people using them (happily and unhappily). I read about them.
I admit that when I saw people just chopping and mulching shrubs and 1.5" saplings with the self-propelled kinds, I gave in.
The delivery was all messed up (it got lost in Baltimore for 2 weeks), but it did arrive. I uncrated it with some difficulty but got it freed. I read the instruction manual 3x.
It is a funny thing. There are large heavily-treaded wheels on the back and pipes like thick sled runners in the front. The engine could power a motorcycle. The blade is a sharpened rod of metal 1/2" thick. My riding mower blade is turned by rubber belts; this thing is all metal gears. There are 3 forward speeds and 1 reverse by levers at the handle.
I got it started up in the garage and drove it around back. I gave it a brief try into the edges of the brambles and it reduced them to mulch. It doesn't cut and ground level like a lawn mower; it just pushes stuff over flat and grinds it up.
There are some limits. It doesn't handle raised areas or stumps of saplings larger than 1.5 inches. But OMG, does it chop up anything it can propel itself onto and over! My first run-though was exciting; I left a path of mulch as I went. The reverse gear is really valuable. The brushmower gets into places where there are brambles left above, but just reversing pulls it back out. Its not easy to turn around in tight places, but powered backing out helps.
It can't do much about grapevines and greenbriars hanging up in trees. I've learned to use a hedge trimmer to cut through the wild grape vines and my electric chain saw to cut saplings over 1.5" at ground level first. But using the brushmower to clear paths through the brambles gave me access to them.
Spent the first 2 days with the brushmower, cutting paths through the bramble and shrubs and small saplings. Yesterday and today, I used the cordless hedgetrimmer to cut vines and small briars to get me access to the larger saplings. I used the electric chainsaw to cut larger saplings.
I was worn out, and rather minorly injured all over. Even cutting as many vines as I could with the hedgetrimmer, there were still some out of reach creating odd tensions on the tree. So everytime I used the chainsaw, expecting the 3" diameter tree to fall in a certain direction, it fell on me!
And malevolently! The tree would fall, pushing of my hat, and then looping briars around my head. This is AWFUL work! But it is my fault I allowed things to get to such a state and I want to personally clear every last inch my self. Matter of pride and obsession...
Here are "before" pictures...
