Now that it's spring, everyone on the farm is busy cleaning up and preparing for the season.
Farm chores include animal care, garden maintenance, and other seasonal tasks. To stay organized during transitions, we follow a schedule of chores from one year to the next. Over the last few weeks, we've been blowing old leaves, pruning trees, cleaning out garden beds, and removing all the burlap that protected my precious boxwood all winter long.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
For as long as I’ve been gardening I’ve covered my boxwood shrubs and outdoor ornamental urns. When the ground begins to thaw, it’s all removed. Here is the Boxwood Allee about to go through its spring transformation.
The first step is to remove the wooden strips that help sandwich and secure the burlap. These strips are at the bottom of the metal frames.
Once a section is unattached, Chhiring slowly pulls back the fabric from on top of the metal frames.
It doesn’t take long, but the burlap is very heavy.
After the burlap is removed, it is folded in half neatly on the ground and then rolled.
Here’s Chhiring bringing one end up as part of the folding process.
Meanwhile, Justin walks my Fell Pony Banchunch into the stable after his turnout. Depending on the weather, my horses are turned out during the day and then brought into the stable for grooming and feeding.
Up at my pond, the leaves left over from last fall are blown. The pond are was in need of a good cleanup. I am looking forward to seeing all the blooming azaleas this spring.
Here’s Adan clearing the area using one of our STIHL leaf blowers. I’ve been using STIHL’s backpack blowers for years here at my farm. Both the gas and battery powered units are powerful and efficient.
Phurba follows and collects the branches and other debris gathered in bunches.
All the debris is put onto the tractor bucket and brought to the compost yard where they await chipping and then spread out in other areas of the farm as top dressing.
More growing seedlings are transplanted into larger pots and brought to one of the temperature and humidity controlled hoop houses where they can continue to grow until they are planted into the ground.
Storm windows are removed and screens are installed for the season.
Carlos carefully inserts each screen and secures it to the window frame. Mine are secured with screws.
Truman “TJ” Junior is taken out of his stall to meet with his farrier. Compared to a horse, a donkey’s hooves are smaller, more upright, and more resistant, but like all equines, their hooves are constantly growing. My farrier comes every six to eight weeks to check on the donkeys’ hooves and give them a good trim.
Behind my main greenhouse, the pussy willows are getting a hard pruning which helps to promote healthy growth, enhance blooms, control size, and prevent disease.
Here, Pasang takes away any pruned branches and piles them up at the edge for easy removal later.
Cesar is cleaning up another garden – wait until you see this transformation in a future post.
Fernando helps to remove the branches and take them away.
And here’s Adan blowing more old leaves by this allée of lindens. On the left is a hedge of European beech trees, Fagus sylvatica, or the common beech.
And at the end of the day – treats for everyone. Here’s Bond, one of the handsome Friesian residents in my stable. As long as the weather continues to cooperate, we can get lots of good tasks done around the farm. What spring jobs did you do around your home this weekend?
Once trees are taken down in the garden, it's essential to grind the tree stumps left behind.
Grinding the tree stumps prevents pest infestation, clears space for new plants, improves the safety of the area, and maintains a clean and tidy landscape. After several trees were taken down from an area near my hoop houses, the team from Bizee Bee Tree Service returned the following day with the stump grinder to finish the job.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
I hate removing any tree, but those trees that are dead, diseased, or growing improperly can fall and cause injury and damage, so they must always be removed. Eight trees were taken down in an area near my hoop houses. Now it’s time to grind the stumps.
A stump grinder is a powerful machine designed to eliminate the remaining part of a tree stump by grinding it into small wood chips.
The main component of the stump grinder is the cutting wheel. It is equipped with carbide teeth that grind the wood.
Here, the teeth are inspected to make sure all are in good working condition.
The teeth are held on by these clamps that attach to the cutting wheel.
Sometimes these teeth need to be rotated or replaced. They are often checked for damage and wear during the grinding process.
The teeth are removed and replaced easily with wrenches and ratchets.
Meanwhile, any stones or big rocks are removed from near the stump. This is to prevent any unnecessary damage to the grinder’s cutter teeth.
It is also done to prevent any projectiles that could potentially cause serious injury.
The operator stands at the controls behind a shield while grinding up the stump.
And then he maneuvers the machine right up to the stump and begins grinding.
The pressure of the grinder and the carbide teeth chip the wood away quickly.
Here is a section of the stump done.
The grinder works from the other side.
The stump grinder uses its high speed cutting wheel to chip until it is at least five inches below ground level.
A stump can take anywhere from 30-minutes to two hours to grind down a tree stump depending on the size, wood type, and accessibility. To grind all eight stumps took the crew one day.
The wood chips can be used to top dress the bed. They provide moisture retention, weed suppression, and improve the soil’s health. All the wood chips from the grinding job are returned to the earth.
Once a stump is done, the crew spreads and levels the wood chips.
And finally, the area is raked evenly.
This space at the edge of my Japanese Maple Woodland and near my hoop houses is now clear, giving more light and air to the plants and smaller trees nearby.
Protecting one's property and maintaining a landscape sometimes means cutting down trees.
Trees are important to our environment - they are the world’s single largest source of breathable oxygen. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, and they create an ecosystem to provide needed habitat and food for birds and other animals. However, occasionally trees need to be removed. Trees that are dead, diseased, or growing improperly can fall and cause injury and damage. Yesterday, a team from Bizee Bee Tree Service came to take several trees down from an area near my hoop houses.
Here are some photos.
Do you know what this is? It’s a grapple system attached to a knuckle boom crane truck. It is controlled by computer and an operator on the ground.
This attachment is crucial for tree care and can save lots of time when removing large trees.
This is co-owner and operator, Massimo, from Bizee Bee Tree Service in Mahopac, New York. He is holding the computer that controls the knuckle boom and grapple.
Here is the grapple open and ready to go to work.
Massimo remains on the ground at all times with his eyes on the grapple and his hands on the portable computer controls.
The crane truck is equipped with hydraulic stabilizers to keep it secure during use.
All the trees being cut down are large, dying, and pose a risk of falling. Massimo directs the grapple up to the top of the tree getting cut down.
The grapple is positioned tightly around the limb as an arborist in the bucket cuts from below using a chainsaw. Every precaution is taken to do this safely and efficiently.
Once a limb is cut, the grapple carefully lowers the limb to the ground.
The grapple is able to safely maneuver in tight spaces and carry very heavy loads.
As branches and limbs are brought down, they are put straight into a chipper, which is a machine used for reducing wood into smaller, more manageable wood chips. The machine consists of a hopper, a collar, and internal blades or cutting teeth.
Occasionally, long limbs are cut into sections on the ground, so they’re lighter and easier to feed into the chipper.
This team uses STIHL chainsaws. STIHL offers both gas-powered as well as battery-powered chainsaws. I’ve been using STIHL equipment for many years – they’re dependable and efficient.
As larger logs are cut, they are gathered in a separate area. Straight logs will be saved for milling at a later time.
Ronny is an experienced arborist. He works his way down the tree carefully, cutting one section at a time.
It doesn’t take long before most of the tree is cut down. Massimo controls the grapple very carefully, but also watches that his crew is safe at all times.
Here is Massimo inspecting the grapple before it goes back to work.
Here’s the last cut to this maple tree.
The base is brought to the pile.
All that’s left is the stump. It is still wet from the recent rains.
Some of these logs will be great for other projects.
Bizee Bee uses another grapple attached to a giant dump truck to cart away more than 20 logs to another part of the farm.
Meanwhile, the grapple system is brought back down for the last time – it has done its job. This piece of equipment is folded safely and returned to the knuckle boom truck and locked into place. It was a good day’s work. Thanks Bizee Bee.
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