Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Rammy]

He's stalking you, isn't that enough? Now you want him to follow you too? Geesh!

I saw a truck pulling a trailer today that said Rolling Acres Farm. Made me think of you! They named thier farm after you! How cool.
Yeah, I know STA is stalking me, but its kind if like Stockholm Syndrome...

 

[RollingAcres]

I saw a truck pulling a trailer today that said Rolling Acres Farm. Made me think of you! They named thier farm after you! How cool.
Yeah, I know STA is stalking me, but its kind if like Stockholm Syndrome...

Dang it! There goes the idea of using that name when I have a real farm! LOL
DH wants to call our place "Windy Acres" but there's a farm down the road from us called "Wild Wind Acres" so, I wanted to stay away from anything "wind".

 

[Rammy]

Dang it! There goes the idea of using that name when I have a real farm! LOL
DH wants to call our place "Windy Acres" but there's a farm down the road from us called "Wild Wind Acres" so, I wanted to stay away from anything "wind".

Considering that the RA,farm is in Tn I dont think it would be a problem. You could call it Rolling On Acres? Or Rolling Downhill and Picking up Speed Acres? Just a thought.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Yeah, I know STA is stalking me, but its kind if like Stockholm Syndrome...

Don't worry, Miss @Rammy, while you are not the only one I have stalked, you were among my favorites. (But then, so was Miss @RollingAcres !)

Well, an update on the fun with the tree. My first attempt was to see if I could simply pull it out with the tractor towards the pasture. All I managed to do with churn up the ground. I thought I heard the tree laughing at me. Tree - 1, STA - 0.

Then I tried cutting off a lot of the limbs. While I did get the limbs not sticking in the ground, there was a couple that I was unable to reach, or where, if I was successful in getting the tree down, I feared it would fall on me. Tree - 2, STA - 0.

Then I tried pushing the top limb with the grapple, hoping that it would cause the tree to move and then fall. The top limb broke off where I was pushing it with the grapple. Tree 3, STA - 0.

So here is what the tree top looks like now. You can see the deep tractor ruts I dug trying to move the tree with the tractor pulling on the chain:


After failing to move the tree, I decided to finish cutting the small and medium size trees next to the pasture south of the tree (to the right in the picture). Here is what it looked like when I finished. Note all of the tractor ruts in the pasture. There were none there before I started:


Tomorrow I plan to try to get the tractor into the woods enough to pull the tree to the right (south) in hopes that it will fall and then I can more easily cut the limbs once the tree is on the ground.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Latestarter]

DH wants to call our place "Windy Acres" but there's a farm down the road from us called "Wild Wind Acres" so, I wanted to stay away from anything "wind".

Well, as long as you don't go with Breaking Wind Acres...

 

[Rammy]

Well, as long as you don't go with Breaking Wind Acres...

Thats a good one!

 

[greybeard]

Tomorrow I plan to try to get the tractor into the woods enough to pull the tree to the right (south) in hopes that it will fall and then I can more easily cut the limbs once the tree is on the ground.

On a 4wd tractor, over 60% of your traction is from the rear wheels. On a 2 wd, it's all from the rear of course. Trying to use FEL in either case reduces the traction you have in the rear wheels resulting in rear wheel slip.
Connect the chain as low as possible out on the end of the fallen tree.
Tie the other end of the chain as high as you can on whatever implement you have on the BACK of the tractor.
Tie chain where the arrow points

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Yesterday, we tackled pulling down the tree limb again. After looking things over and seeing that we would need to cut down many more trees than I initially thought to pull the tree with the tractor directly to the south, I decided to try to pull the tree with the tractor toward the southwest, in a new area of the pasture that wasn't wet and muddy. I hooked up the chain at the point where Mr. @greybeard recommended, and pulled in that direction. The tractor started spinning its tires. Rats! Tree - 4, STA - 0.

Then I tried pulling the tree with a come-along hooked to a big tree to the south and the chain in the same position. Once the slack got out of the chain and cable, I simply did not have the arm strength to move the tree. Tree - 5, STA - 0.

I started putting on my chainsaw gear, thinking I simply was going to have to cut the limbs that touched the ground. I was dreading doing that, as I could see the tree rolling suddenly and falling on me, or if it twisted while falling, I could see the bigg limb sticking up high might swing around and whack me good. But my Beautiful Gal came up with a better idea. She recommended that instead of pulling, I could push with the grapple from the north end. After looking to see how many trees we would need to cut down, it turned out to be only 3 relatively small ones. Once we got the small trees cut, I came in with the tractor and used the grapple to push on the limb that was sticking up high. It worked! Tree 5, STA 6!


Now I need a bit of advice. My chain saw is cutting in an unusual way. It likes to curve up as I cut a tree. If I try to cut straight and level, it seems not to cut much at all, but if I allow it to curve up as I cut, it cuts much better:


What would cause that? Is it the dummy that's holding the chain saw? Is it the way I have been sharpening the chain? (Until yesterday, I had always sharpened it from the side of the chain where the power head was closer to me, which is the side of the chain that cuts better.) Or is it something else?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[B&B Happy goats]

STA, I can't offer you a answer, but just wanted to tell you how much you get me laughing with your adventures with the trees and tractor.....the score keeping is way too funny. Good luck fighting the Forrest

 

[Rammy]

Run Forrest Run!!