AWESOME DAY OF TRACTORS, CHAINSAWS, DROPPING TREES..AND THE WICKED 55 GRAPPLE

hey folks this is Josh Stern a rich farmer welcome to the farm blog today it's going to get hot today we are going to be cutting down some trees we've got a few trees we want to take out here on the farm and we also had a few limbs to go down in a big storm and we're going to work on those limbs I've just made a decision that I'm going to go ahead and cut them up for firewood but we're going to use the wicked 55 grapple from everything attachments today we're going to try out this little B 30 350 Kubota tractor we're going to have a little bit of fun give you a kind of a how-to and review and a little bit of information on this grapple hopefully it's a rock star so come along today we're going to have some fun we're going to drop a few trees and we're gonna clean up some mess left over by the storm pile all the brush up so we can burn it at a later date [Music] so guys first things first we've got to go ahead and get our Husqvarna 460 Rancher chainsaw all fueled up and filled up with bar oil so we'll fill up the bar oil tank here and we'll fill up the fuel tank this takes a fifty to one fuel to oil ratio it's a two cycle engine we get this guy nice and shaken up this is my chainsaw and weed eater gas container pretty much everything takes a 50 to 1 ratio and I like to try and spill some in the back of the Gator every time I use this machine so let's see if we can accomplish that today I have a toolbox just dedicated to chainsaw stuff we're here on the farm and to be honest with you I have just been dying to get out and work with my saw this thing is a is a monster I love using it I love running it it's a 23 inch bar or 24 inch bar on this thing so really really liked it it's been a great saw here on the farm if I can remember how to adjust it it's been a quite some time since I've used the thing there we go little buddy you know sometimes you just don't use something for a little while there we go we get our blade nice and tight or our chain nice and tight I wouldn't want to offend any of you chainsaw gurus by calling the chain the blade if this guy fired up and get him warmed up to good operating temperature here this has a compression release so I'll hit the compression release pump it four or five times and best thing the safest thing lock your bar and have it on the ground there we go lock our bar down set him on the ground we'll get our safety equipment on I always like to wear my safety shield my face shield and my hearing protection and also steel toe boots and these chainsaw chaps there'll be a link down below to a kit that includes all this stuff this is not pro Sawyer equipment okay but this is homeowner grade equipment and it'll save your noggin and it'll save your legs shame on me for not getting out here earlier this morning I should have been out here at 7 o'clock it's about 9 o'clock and it's getting hot ok so as we're walking down here to the trees I'm going to cut I want to talk to you about why we're cutting these trees and what the whole purpose here is what we're doing my septic field is right there behind me and these trees are going to grow into my septic field this was not my plan when we built this house this was not my plan this was not my idea we got approval from the county to put our septic field right here but for some reason the county thought it would be appropriate for us to put our septic field near a couple monster trees so up there by the tractor there were two pecan trees so I had to cut those because they're growing into the leach field and basically the field the septic field goes out through there one run and three runs go out through here and the trees are just right here so these are huge poplar trees and they're going to cause a problem in the future and that's why we're dropping them just in case you guys are really worried about the trees and how wonderful they are they're beautiful beautiful trees but I've got to get rid of them I've got to drop them I'm gonna drop one today maybe two but that's the reason behind it so let's get busy all right we're gonna take bigger in here and see if we can knock this out our next cut is going to be right here on the backside slightly above where we've notched out [Applause] nice nice drop awesome so what we'll do from here is we'll cut this tree into sections and get the brush off of it and we'll take what my neighbor normally would use for firewood up to his house and we'll take the brush and haul it off down to our pile in the woods you know what tree number one went down without a hitch you went down so good I think I'm gonna take tree number two down also we'll go ahead and drop both trees right now this is a big tree rad okay so we'll cut these guys up and we'll show you the grapple in action and the next piece of tree that we've got to get cut down there's a big old branch that broke off the side of a hickory tree down here in the woods so we're going to go ahead and do that as soon as we start dropping a few limbs out here so we're really exposed out here in the hot Sun and we want to work in the shade when it's a little warmer this afternoon so no more septic field problems here that's going to be good we're gonna cut these up we'll use it for firewood all this wood will be utilized it'll be awesome this is when the wood-mizer sawmill would really come in handy was donated by the sustainable homestead Institute in Spencer Virginia guys check their channel out we got business to take care of [Music] all right there's one tree cut up ready to go and the reason we're going to be using the wicked grapple is because it just saves time and labor so it's hot you see me sweating out here this could be in the 90s today and we'll be sitting comfortably on the tractor gathering up our brush so really the reason for having a grapple like this is labor and time savings it's a huge huge time and labor savings plus you don't have to get over in there and take a chance on falling down or anything getting hurt so let's go down we'll cut the branch down by the creek guys I hope you're having fun with this today please pound that like button subscribe the channel if you're new to the channel you've never seen this stuff or even if you're old to the channel you haven't subscribed leave me some comments down there tell me what you think it's good stuff we're gonna get down here I'll show you this limb that's hanging it's a great big limb that kind of fell off of a rotten hickory tree down here by the creek kind of right in front of our house and almost fill out the road this is our next project right here that's where it busted right off up there at the top so the thought process here will be I'll start cutting out this direction and as I work my way closer it should break loose from the branch up there from the trunk of the tree I think we're gonna have to get the backhoe down here knock that thing off you just ain't coming hue man I am sticky it is super hot my shirt is soaking wet I don't know if you guys can tell before we get started running the grapple and I get to relax on a nice comfortable tractor I'm going to tell you a little bit about it so this is the everything attachments 55-inch wicked root rake this thing features quarter inch steel hand built hand welded in their Factory in Newton North Carolina they ship within 1,000 miles for free this is not cheap steel this is American steel AR 400 it's nine inch spacing between the tines again I tell you everything is hand welded we have reasonable fittings in here so you can keep it greased up so that it'll last a really long time now we're gonna put it to the test and we're going to put this little tractor to the test so my neighbors burn wood year around in these water stoves so they have water stove for their hot water and they have water stove for their heat so those guys are burning wood year-round and they gladly take the wood I've got a little wood stove in my shop but I probably don't use but maybe a cord of wood a year or something like that depending on how much we have you guys in the shop this winter working on projects if we get the Jeep in there the Bronco or whatever it is we decide to build in the wintertime got some cool winter projects coming for sure the thing about buying a grapple like this from a company in America in North Carolina is you can pick up the phone and call the guy that owns the factory you can pick up the phone and call the guy that built it and say hey man here's a problem I'm having what can I do and that's the main thing that you're not buying this from some tractor dealer that you have to go through three or four different people when you have a problem [Music] [Applause] okay so we got about an hour's worth of cleanup to get done here we're gonna go ahead and get busy when we get done I'll come back and tell you what I think about the gravel all right so get ready well we got the job done I'm gonna have to say that I'm really happy with the grapple the only limitation of the grapple is the horsepower of the tractor as you can see that is a big log that thing's holding a big ol log right there no problems whatsoever just the limitations of the tractor the coolest thing I like about the grapple is that it rides along the ground and it digs in very very gently in other words it doesn't tear the ground up like the other grapple we've got on our bigger tractor I do like it it's strong it works good and we're gonna finish uploading these logs on my buddy's dump truck and take him up to his house and let him cut them up for firewood so awesome guys thanks a lot please pound that like button subscribing the channel and we'll see you next time on the Stoney Ridge farm all right whoa [Music] Pierce we've had some ways opposed to me stone Tyrion whoa whoa this seat is hot Oh baby roasting the toast in my booty red