As much as we would love to be surrounded by a beautiful 50-year-old hardwood forest, the reality is much different ever since my family had the land clearcut in 1997 (this was before it was transferred over to me and my brother). Only the areas near the natural spring, the creek, and the old cemetery were spared. The rest is full of young pine trees, brambles and vines, and lots and lots of struggling baby hardwood trees. In other words, a huge mess.
We’d more or less figured out where we want the house to be (generally speaking) by looking at the topography maps, but spent some time cutting trails through different areas just to be sure. My dad lent us his bush axe and it didn’t take 30 seconds for me to realize its superior utility compared to a machete. Thanks, dad.
At one point, we hacked a trail through the western part of the property just south of the old county road. Unfortunately, we figured out we were too far west of where we wanted to be and had to start over, but we did find some interesting artifacts along the way: a round car headlight, some old tires, and glass Mason and milk jars. I can’t say for sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they had been there for 70+ years. I wondered whose they were and how they got there…
The next morning, we began again and cut a new trail more in the center area and immediately knew we had made the right decision to start over. A couple hours later, the clearing crew from Specialized Forestry Solutions arrived. The equipment setup took only a few minutes and they were soon tearing through the area that we had marked as the future driveway. The trees started coming down while Laura and I were busy going through the woods as fast as we could to mark the borders of the main area to clear. I will admit it was somewhat frightening to be deep in the woods and hear that beast coming our way!
SFS used a Rayco C140 Super Crawler. It is a track-based machine (no wheels) with a spinning head on the front that is full of tree-grinding teeth. I believe they told me they used a different head on it that was even more vicious than the stock head. It was crazy. Be sure to watch the video below.
Eventually, they got enough of it cleared that we could actually see the lay of the land. We were imagining the house over here, the chickens up there, the pond down that way. The goats, the orchard, the vegetable patch, the pecan grove. After 5 hours they had decimated the 25 ft wide by 300 ft long area for the driveway, and an approximate 175 ft wide by 200 ft deep homesite area (not perfectly square).
We were very impressed with their work and the cost: Only $1400.
It’s important to note that, while I didn’t know it when I first found out about SFS, it turns out that they are located only 6 miles down the road from the land. So we are supporting our local community and economy. This is important to us. We chose them, too, because their method of land clearing turns the trees into mulch which helps with erosion control and eventually returns the organic matter to the soil. There is no haul-off or burning involved.
Check out the video. It is the first one that I have done, so I hope it’s not too bad!
Toccoa Eco Land Clearing on YouTube
Specialized Forestry Solutions
