I’ve posted a few pictures in other random threads. Starting this one to journal whats happened so far and where I’m at now.
Part #1 - The Christmas Trees
I purchased my childhood home from my folks in 2018 after they retired and moved north to the boarder to be on the St. Lawrence. It’s a 2 acre property but only 1 acre was ever available to use. The other acre was planted Christmas trees, now 45 years old, by the original homeowners in the '60s Folks purchased the property in the early '80s and the trees were already large at that point. They gave away what they could, and growing up we’d cut one down with a handsaw and then just take the tippy top to use as our own holiday tree. They were a bit disheveled and loaded with small pine cones but us kids loved the yearly activity so my father continued it for years.
They were planted in straight rows with intent to harvest and sell, but that never happened. Even whittling down the trees through the years made barely a dent in the overall number. Tall and overcrowded, the interior trees received little light and began to die. The forest floor was a bed of brown pine needles, both fallen and half-fallen trees, and largely devoid of other growth. There was simply no sun that reached the floor. The non-Christmas trees that did grow naturally and survive shot up like a gun barrel to reach the sun. The forest now has fine, straight black cherry, tulip, silver maple, and ash (until recently). The plan was to remove all Christmas trees, keep the hardwoods, and turn the area into something we could enjoy.
As the property was. McIntosh tree in the foreground. Age unknown.
I found out quickly that simply cutting them down wouldn’t do. Would need to remove the stumps and roots.
That first winter (after several months of searching) I picked up a John Deere 510 tractor loader backhoe. My fiend with a family greenhouse business offered his time, truck, and trailer as the unit tipped the scales at 10 tons. Driving back north to Syracuse on 81 through Pennsylvania was a struggle. It was advertised as having a grinding sound from the engine and I picked it up cheap, figuring “I’m a tinkerer, how hard could it be?”
Turns out I got lucky. Grinding noise from the engine was the balancing gears that smooth out the big inline 4 diesel. Took out the gears, plugged the oil pressure hole, and I’ve been using it ever since.
Backhoe does a nice job at pushing the trees over. Much safer and gets the roots out, too.
Planted the first trees that winter, too. Plum trees from Stark. At this point I knew nothing, except that I really wanted the Elephant Heart plums I remembered my uncle growing.
I had a lot of work ahead of me.
-End, part 1