You should use a face shield with the brush cutter, it tends to throw little rocks and residue from what you are cutting in random directions, one could end up hitting one of your eyes. Be carefull :) also shin pads are pretty nice too
I'm sure this has been mentioned in another video, but, getting some goats or hiring some from a farmer is a great way to sustainably get through the undergrowth. You simply fence a section put the goats in and let them do their thing. They eat almost anything and make fast work. Plus, you don't then have all the green waste you get from a strimmer.
my boyfriend and I have plans for the future to start building a sustainable community here in Portugal as well. This channel is really inspiring for us, we learn a lot from you and all video long I just feel like grabbing one of the tools and helping out! Hope we can meet soon :)
One hint for bush cutter: it is, for all form and function, a motor powered scythe. Using long, sweeping movements just over ground may be more effective.
"you don't borrow your wife and your machines". Love the community you are building with your neighbors. North American here and .....that's actually been a really unique essential aspect I'm seeing in your videos compared to the ones here that tend to focus on being self reliant. Gave me lots to think about. Go Europa!
What I love about your adventure is the discoveries you are making on your land and slowly clearing the land and the water ways. Enjoy the discoveries and discover your own skills.
Good work! 10 hectares is a lot, specially if a big part of it if overgrown brambles, bushes and (not so good) trees, part of it in rough rocky hilly land. And that cleanning is a anual job, not a one time deal (althou it gets better). You need machines. Not one small electric brushcutter, and one electric chainsaw... You need those plus diesel power, tractores, etc. A big tractor, with a big mulcher may cost to rent 1000 euros for a few days a year, but it will get the job done and save you more then that in broken smaller machines, plus labor and you back... Even with big machines its work for years... Its been nice to see. Hope you guys can handle it.
I agree. Hand held units are more suited for small tasks and/or small scale routine maintenance. Initial clearing is often a job for PTO powered flail mowers and/or rotary mowers.
People that love goats usually dont have any... Because they need care, veterinary care, and a place to be held, and lots of fences...animals mean work and expenses, and people to manage with no days off...and sometimes they are rough to handle...and dont eat just brush, specially if they can eat grass and foliage...
they are goat grazing services that are growing in popularity. given the amount of overgrown brush you have perhaps they would be worth looking into. also, some municipalities are helping cover the cost as the risk of wildfire is so high.
Do yourself a favour and get a protective faceshield when working with that bushcutter. Check out Kris Harbour natural building on YT, can't give links anymore. Maybe you can learn from; Mike Reynolds, Sepp Holzer, Could a Ram-pump be useful for you at some point. Find out what coppicing is and can it it be used in combination with a rocket mass stove. If you need fences in the future could hedge-laying be a solution?
Just remember that you cant use that cutter with metal blades all year round in Portugal. When the fire hazard risk for your area is at maximum you can't use it cause the risk of fire, is in the law.
Great to see you use the right tool for the tasks. I will go out on a limb and say that a tractor is probably the most valuable tool/machine for fast progress. Just something with a frontloader and you can remove buschen trees flatten ground use as a building scaffolding. The possibilities is endless. Will easily do the work of 10 people. It's a big investment but they do not loose their value in the same way as a car and you can run it on biofuel aswell. The sooner you get one the sooner you realise how much you accually needed it.
Will be interesting to see how Makita works out for you, we are going same route. PLEASE be sure to up your safety game though - goggles, visor, thick gloves, shin guards, box (for your plums), long sleeves and steel toecap boots. When, not if, the brushcutter or the chainsaw throw something at you fast, you will know about it. Batteries make sense to me because you can timeshift your energy use. Plus making less noise early morning or late in the day seems polite. Good luck with the weather!
Wonderful Videos, Dave. I saw the summary of year one a cupple of days ago and am now watching through the whole process. All these cleaning up work seem so satisfying - although of course so much work. Sending Love from Germany
You probably could have made some woven panels from the branches and you could use them to contain your chips, mulch and compost(animal and garden). You are doing a great job.
I was going to suggest a chipper a while back. Such cool machines. Especially with you having made plastic chipping machines before. My advice is over engineer it, and make it bigger than you think you need. They have a tough life, getting a bigger and stronger one will last longer and you will never regret it :-) keep up the good life! Cheers.
Great Video. Electric is cleaner for you , but as you say , your tied to it . i would always go petrol on heavier work like your going to have to do , Cheers!.
Good job guys.... I should also mention that goats can also be used to clear the land as they seem to eat almost everything and fertilizing the land at the same time. ( except tall trees unless you can get very tall goats lol) There are videos on RU-vid about borrowing goats from a farmer or smallholder temporarily fencing in an area and letting the goats eat! The goats can eat right up to waters edge or over uneven ground where a tractor cannot go. If you are talking about growing vegetables then again fence off an area where you want cleared, cleared and fertilized (manured) then a couple of pigs can do that for you as the root around the ground and there are youtube videos on that too.
Hi! Just a tip about wood chiper! Dont buy one :) u can invest in a tractor and a brushcuter for the tractor, u clean the land and when u cut anything u just put smal limbs in bunchs and use the tractor and brushcuter to get wood chips, and larger pieces of wood u can save for heat! Wood chipers are very expencive and require allot of maitenence! Good luck
@@aisejongsma3042 maibe u got a good one, it is not my experience... also it takes a long time, if u pile the small branches and use a tractor brushcuter on top its more and less the same outcome but in 1 minute... keep that woodchiper!
Very happy to see your progress! I understand that maybe there`s not much to show, but i think a video format of ~15 minutes would be better for your viewers. PS Maybe save some of the skinny and young wood to make some woven fences?
I have a stand-alone yard works mulcher shredder that handles 2 inch ( 5cm) branches more than adequate for pruning and brambles, the shredder grinds up leaves into a fine mulch. Anything bigger than 5 cm is worth keeping for barbecue wood or fire pit fuel.
We also had a wood chipper with us last year, luckily with a slightly stronger tractor in front of it. With yours, it has always been like going out. But still better than none.
Hi David. A word of advice about using wood chips for mulch on the veggie garden: don't! You'll get a lot of leaf mould on the veggies and they won't grow as well (we tried this). A better alternative is pea straw.
all this did was remind me that I have a pile of trees to chip with my chipper haha. It's SO loud, and kinda hurts the hands and arms with the vibrations... also its good to know its not just us whos stuff always breaks lol
Would love to hear what David's ideas on batteries are that he mentioned. it's probably more ecologically friendly to use corded power tools, but in this case it is not always possible, and you sometimes have to resort to battery power, or much less, gas power.
A really good "Green" way of tackling thorny scrub is by using GOATS. They eat it all. Enclose an area and feed goats for a week. You get rid of the thorns and unwanted scrub and at the same time you're feeding goats. Im sure where you are, there should be a few goats around to borrow for a week.
I need a new string trimmer. Just assumed that cordless were only for postage stamp sized yards with a little grass. Glad to see your cordless. I loath 2 stroke cycle gas engines. Maintenance and reliability drive me nuts. Not to mention the frustration of getting them started, looking forward to your review.
I have one of these brushcutters too, a bigger one from Stihl. I love that thing for working in the woods. Hope you‘ll be happy with the battery one, because of less power for the thornes. But for the future you need goats, less work, more sustainable. 🐐
i would have put down a tarp where the chips come out and so you can collect them neatly so you can use them for compost and bedding for veggies but i would havee made a 3 sided box about 6 ft high as a composting area well 3 sides and one half size wall on the front
A stand alone chipper is expensive. The tractor mounted chipper is much less however, you would need a tractor to run it. Get a tractor then you can get a lot of implements to go with it or borrow them. The 3 point hitch is universal.
Hello, enjoying the channel here in England. With the chipper, I would get a petrol powered one over one that has to be on a tractors PTO. With the chainsaw, I recommend a "2in1 easy file" commonly available on eBay and Amazon, just make sure you get the correct pitch, doesn't have to be the Stihl branded one. I use my £11 2in1 file daily as I am a chainsaw operative and I think it is great. Thirdly, a forestry helmet with visor and ear muffs is essential for using the three tools above, £25 ish.
Also, one other thing. There's things called Habitat Piles which you could do with some of the wood you cut. These promote the growth of mushrooms, provide a habitat for wildlife, and are good all around really. They are easy to make and definitely worth looking into.
Have you heard about "Biomeiler" basically a big pile of woodchips with some pex tubing. Best and cheapest way to generate heat for the home. Oh and after a year of heating you also get composted woodchips.
Nobody is tied to any specific battery system anymore. They make battery adapters that connects different brands. It's another cost, but it increases versatility. DC electricity at 18 Volts is fairly ubiquitous. PS Makita is the best brand anyhow, good choice
wood chipper was great idea to reduce that wood piles . Instead of Playing useless video games you organizing some part of the land also very smart . Government should organize work camps for youths summer time to keep them busy producing something for enviroment and wild life .
Mimosas are usefull but they are essentially a invasive species from Austrália. They sorta monopolize the land. Control the area they are and dont let them expand. My mother use them as been climbers or tomato hangers.
One tip, use the bush cutter near the ground and a pendulous movement from left to right or vice versa, in a half circle pattern, instead of up and down.
If you dry and sort them, you can also use the wood chips as a fuel for wood stoves (for cooking and/or for heating) In fact it's a pity to put such large pieces of wood into a woodchipper, there is so much more you can do with wooden poles.
I believe wood chipper + Tractor it´s better as you can move from place A to place B much easier, additionally then you can use the tractor for other tasks, 55hp tractor should be enough, maybe you can apply for agriculture support from government. Keep rocking
Green wood chips will raise soil acidity and your land will be acidic enough because it's so wet in the winter, also not all timber is suitable for chipping, and you run the risk of propagating the seeds of all the rubbish your trying to get rid of. At this stage of your land clearing small scale multiple burns would be better so the rain dissolve the ash back into the soil. I know people will tell you they "think" burning is bad but at this stage burning is far better for the land.
Perfect material for quite everything, compost, mulching, walkwaymaterial, covering things up, things to dry up.... we always (sic!) have to few of those chopped up pieces of wood - never got enough of this stuff... Edit, and little ps: Woodchipper is way to underdesign/underpowered...
I believe the keyword for your being annoyed on depending on a battery system is TRANSITION. You may come up with a better option but let it be to the future.
You can use adapters for other tools as long as the voltage is the same. Keep to one battery system and replace the 18650s if the cells start failing. Get a spot welder and battery chargers and you can start up cycling old laptop battery packs…
Wood chipper, this is an Extreme Dangerous machine i always have nightmares about this kind of machines imagining my clothes stuck on that. I believe burning this woods during the winter is always the best option. :D
As far a chippers go, get a tractor pto driven chipper. while it may cost more upfront (including a tractor), the horsepower and robustness will out perform any smaller unit you would use by far.
I’ve been working on tiny scale solar, like a few usb devices or one power tool battery scale. Is there a forum I can post to? It could be useful when more people arrive for project kamp.
