Foresty,  Landscaping,  Machinery

Landscaping with a Horst BH600 BigArm

CAT 257B2 skidsteer,landscaping
skidsteer land clearing

I started back in September clearing a spot behind the garage. The Cat 257B2 does a good job of digging into the embankment.

 

 

 

Pics below were Sept last year when most of it was cleared. That’s about 25 ft in at that point.

CAT 257B2 skidsteer,landscaping
skidsteer land clearing

Its my first time as well driving a skidsteer so I’m taking it slow, learning as I go.  I started by making my way through the trees to make a small road. I needed  a place to dump the dirt that was to come.

landscaping,forestry
making a road through the woods
heavy equipment,machinery,MTL,skidsteers
small machinery allows for tight squeeze

I cleared out the majority of that space with just the tooth bucket. Pretty amazing what it can do when time is not a consideration. I’ve put about 65 hrs on the machine since I got it, so that how long its taken me to get that far. I’ve gone about 50 ft and about 35ft wide.

I started running into “cement” ground. That’s what I call it. Grey, gravel and friggin hard to dig. Its random, like small pockets of the stuff. The skid steer bucket could do it sometimes but was really hard on the machine. So I thought about a backhoe.

I settled on a purchase of Horst Welding BH600 ‘BigArm’ and set to work learning how to use it. Large hydraulic cylinder swings the arm and curl the backhoe bucket.  It no mini excavator but its 10 times cheaper than one.

June 2015:

About 50 ft in now. I’m in on hurry so I can pick away at it but I now learned that controlling the water is the important issue when excavating. No control on the drainage and the ground goes soft when driving over it. So I’m in a bit of trouble hear now with a mud pit.

I set to work making a ditch along the side, which I knew I needed, just didn’t realize how soon.

So yesterday and today I spent time ditching… and wading through the mud.

That’s a 15 inch bucket. Big enough for the size of the machine I think. A bigger bucket would require more torque. The cylinders that tilt the regular bucket on the skid steer and the lift cylinders for the skid steer loader arms are what do most of the work. And given the tilt bucket cylinders are the smaller of the two, I am mindful of its limitations. Well, actually I don’t know the limitations unless I break something 🙂 but I want to avoid doing that.

June 10 2015

Landclearing continues behind the workshop.  Its a bit of a muddy mess with the rain. Need to start on the drainage ditches and keep on that task to try and dry things up.

201506610-landscaping2 20150610-landscaping

 

June 25 2015

Clearing trees continues. Here’s a short video, short due to the fact the mosquitoes got the best of the camera operator who was not prepared for filming 🙂

 

June 28 2015

We finally got the remaining trees removed from the area to be levelled. The BearCat wood chipper CH8993H makes short work of getting rid of the brush. The mulch makes ideal material for adding to compost, soil aeration in gardens and mulch on the ground to control weeds.

 

wood mulching,balsam fir,landscaping,forestry
awesome balsam fir mulch
witches broom,forestry,
brushing up on my new hair

(to be continued)

A Newfoundland born Canadian with a life long interest in woodworking, baking and anything else that peaks my curiosity.

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