How Do You Clean Up A Yard? Interesting Post!

[prentice110]

every bush in the yard is shaped like a ball after they leave.
you can have the **** man.

I cant stand the way they do that. Who in there right mind would pay for that? Oh wait, there looking at the bottom line, not the bush.

 

[DirtyDog]

I cant stand the way they do that. Who in there right mind would pay for that? Oh wait, there looking at the bottom line, not the bush.

My friend, were are of the same. Neither one of us like Balls....lol aaahahahaaa

 

[pdqdl]

Anyone tried the 'bagster' yet? http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200381470_200381470

That's insanity. What are you going to do with it once it's full?

Call a tree service with a log grapple to come load it into your trash truck?

If it was sturdy enough, it might make a nice kiddie pool in the summertime.

 

[arbor pro]

I'm interested to know how you clean up yards on your smaller residential tree jobs?

Many yards I'm in don't fair well with front end loaders like a bobcat, so most all jobs have to be without larger machinery. Keep this in mind.

Here are some things I'm interested to know how you do it:
(Please keep in mind these are smaller yards)

1.) How do you clean up and haul the stump mulch to the truck?

2.) How do you clean up the smaller leaves, sticks and debris from the yard?

3.) How do you haul the logs out to the truck?

4.) How do you haul the brush to the chipper?

Last fall I purchased a Dr. Powerwagon.... motorized wheelbarrow, and I haven't used it as much as I thought, yet. It does wonders for longer hauls or softer yards where using a wheelbarrow is extremely physical and slow.

Currently to do the jobs listed above, it's mostly manually done... grunt work. The smaller debris are hand raked with hard & plastic rakes and hauled away with wheelbarrow or placed on a tarp. The logs are cut into handable pieces like firewood size to fit horizontally in the wheelbarrow or about 4ft. long, depending on size, to be placed length-ways in the wheelbarrow. The brush is hand stacked and carried to chipper, unless they're longer and heavier, then they're dragged to chipper.

I created the post to share ideas and hopefully pick up some tips on how you do it... plus might pick up great ideas on using different equipment I never considered or even knew of!

Edit: Forgot to mention that I use to use a Shindaiwa Powerbroom with the rubber flaps, not the bristles. I see Stihl has the same attachment(s) now. Do any of you use the powerbroom paddles or bristles for raking? What do you think of them? (mine was stolen early when I had it, so didn't get to test much, but liked it)

Thanks,

StihlRockin'

Mini skid with bucket grapple. Will move everything you mentioned from logs and brush to stump grindings and dirt with minimal disturbance to lawns or landscapes.

 

[teamtree]

Small Utility Tractor if we can get it in....usually we can...it is very effective for almost all trees....as long as you don't load the front in down....much less damage than any skid steer I have ever seen.....and I usually only have to take half the load that a skid steer could handle....so it usually only amounts to a few more cuts on a tree and a few more trips....for us the tree dictates how it is cut down

Otherwise we cut the logs down to firewood and pack it out.

Rake leaves and debris on tarp and drag to chipper.

We drag the limbs to the chipper...unless we can utilize the winch on the chipper.

 

[Henry111]

man i just have to ask where did you guys work before because this stuff sounds like a joke to me.

 

[talloak]

AMEN BROTHER TREE GUYS ARE TOUGH SO LETS GET UNSISSYFIED.GETTER-DONE

 

[BC WetCoast]

man i just have to ask where did you guys work before because this stuff sounds like a joke to me.

Why? It's the way most outfits around here work, except most don't have all the fancy small equipment. It's usually brute force.

 

[arborworks1]

You know the last comment about not having fancy small equipment, and you guys using brute force is ridiculous. Small equipment is cheap compared to the time and labor savings, not to mention the shear amount of work you can accomplish with less pain later.
A mini is a years salary for a greenhorn groundie, I see no reason to pull the macho card here, I will be sipping a corona while you guys are humping wood out of a backyard still.
Even if you aren't able to justify an equipment payment. Get creative and use some complex rigging to save some manpower and speed up the process. It will take longer to setup rigging, but when everything is expedited to a central landing zone by gravity or a little common sense its all good.

 

[fishercat]

my equipment payment is less than $500 a month.

You know the last comment about not having fancy small equipment, and you guys using brute force is ridiculous. Small equipment is cheap compared to the time and labor savings, not to mention the shear amount of work you can accomplish with less pain later.
A mini is a years salary for a greenhorn groundie, I see no reason to pull the macho card here, I will be sipping a corona while you guys are humping wood out of a backyard still.
Even if you aren't able to justify an equipment payment. Get creative and use some complex rigging to save some manpower and speed up the process. It will take longer to setup rigging, but when everything is expedited to a central landing zone by gravity or a little common sense its all good.

and i still have a tractor with a grapple.tarps are for Obama supporters to make dwellings out of.

 

[Slvrmple72]

LMAO..aaahahahahaaaaa Looking at that picture... What could possibly be going through their minds for adverstisement reasons??? You have a guy which appears to be a consruction worker or 'weekend warrior", throwing sinks, doors, scrap wood..etc into this bag in the driveway. Ummm, Okay, now what?? WTF wcould you possibly do with a bag full of all that stuff? You certainly couldn't pick it up by hand. Are those yellow ropes on the side the handles? maybe a bucket loader could pick it up by them, but then if you have a bucket loader you wouldn't need a dumb bag in the first place.
The only thing I can see that being pretty handy and useful for....Leaves! However, your still gonna have to dump it. Branches, logs...No way in hell. Looks like a complete hassle

I got one on the way for the wife... dirty laundry basket deluxe for downstairs next to the washer and drier!

 

[tree md]

I got two big guys that will tote anything all day long for $200. Maybe brute force but it works for me and them. Got a problem with that??? I could have them make you disappear as well...

 

[Henry111]

It's a good thing that you guys who rely on small equipment to do your clean up didn't climb in webbed sadles and 3 strand ropes, and didn't work with the guys who taught me what tree work was. Thank God for todays equipment or you wouldn't be a treeman now!!!:chainsawguy: Now as far as you guys that aren't scared of swet and dirt, hard muscles and a strong back this doesn't apply. With todays tools sissy's can climb trees. Hope that Corona comes with muscles.:hmm3grin2orange: there's not a damn thing wrong with hard work!!!

 

[arborworks1]

Never said that hard work was bad, I will be willing to bet I work circles around you. It is foolish to punish guys when equipment is cheap and will work as hard as you can take it. My tree crew runs lean with one groundie and myself climbing, We use the bucket truck when we can, and alot of crane work. Us "tree sissies" down south do things a little different its cool.

Change is not bad at all.

 

[Rickytree]

Equipment saves time, energy, and moral. It also increases productivity and profits. You can still work hard with equipment, you just get tons more work done. Used my daughter's four wheeler ( 80 cc Raptor) to drag brush on a couple jobs. There's no way someone could drag brush all day long as far as that 4 wheeler did. The guy could of been in the best shape and he'd be done by the 2nd hour. Guaranteed!! There's hard work then there's stupidity!

 

[John464]

I got two big guys that will tote anything all day long for $200.

ok, so you are paying out a grand a week for your brute force. thats 4 grand a month. You could cut your labor cost by half or more. Do you know how many mini skids and regular skid steers you could have with that extra money? You could also be doing jobs 5-10 times faster. Add it up bro. Think BIG.

BTW I am not a fan of mini skids. Get something with some power

 

[tree md]

ok, so you are paying out a grand a week for your brute force. thats 4 grand a month. You could cut your labor cost by half or more. Do you know how many mini skids and regular skid steers you could have with that extra money? You could also be doing jobs 5-10 times faster. Add it up bro. Think BIG.

BTW I am not a fan of mini skids. Get something with some power

LOL, that was a joke on my part. I do like to keep my guys working as much as possible but I agree, equipment is the way to go if you can afford it. I used to be able to rent a regular bobcat skid for $500 a week. That is average pay for a ground man and you get 20 times the work out of the skid and don't have to pay for the upkeep when you rent. I don't think you could rent one for anywhere near that these days. Trust me, I'll do anything I can to make it easier for my guys and myself, take a section of fence down to back up to the wood or whatever I can. Don't have a skid steer yet but there is one is in my plans.

 

[arborworks1]

I don't get the not having a loader of some kind, its kind of like not having a chainsaw if you remove trees.

 

[StihlRockin']

I don't get the not having a loader of some kind, its kind of like not having a chainsaw if you remove trees.

You also forgot what my post said originally:

I'm interested to know how you clean up yards on your smaller residential tree jobs?

Many yards I'm in don't fair well with front end loaders like a bobcat, so most all jobs have to be without larger machinery. Keep this in mind.

=========================================

I love the replies to this post. While I learned a bit, I also got a lot of laughs too. It's funny watchin' y'all interject with each other. Some serious, so funnin' and some rockin' the boat to make waves.

I'm also from the old school. All my life I've bucked the hard work dragging brush, lifting logs into a wheelbarrow, then lifting the logs again to manually place into the back of a dump truck. Then I started getting smarter by using backpack power blowers when I could, then utilize power brooms and power pruner saws. Then I got the idea to get a Dr. Powerwagon; a motorized dumping wheelbarrow. Looks like I've done most of what y'all did too. But like some mentioned above, it's time to work smarter, harvest faster profits while at the same time saving the back and keeping moral up, because sometimes humping logs and dragging brush all the time gets boring... especially in 94 degree humid weather!

Now it's high time for me to get equipment, like a skid-steer loader, and do some faster, easier work!

Thank you again for the replies. Lovin' it!

Note: Keeping in mind the post, I do like the idea of a smaller loader to prevent lawn damage. I did the skid-steer loader thing years ago, had slicks for tires and KNEW how to turn properly and still had ruts to fill in at times and burn marks in softer areas where I did turn. So lighter smaller is better in many situations in more delicate lawns.

StihlRockin'

 

[talloak]

I would rather pay 2 good TOUGH tree guys then make a MINI payment when theres families trying to support them sevlves. It all comes down to who you are and what you prefer but in my opinion " BRUTE FORCE KICKS ASS". Im 6 foot 8 and 355 lbs. so brute is my way of life