The Bulldozer: A Free-Ranging Chicken's Best Friend

[bluey]

We're in the process of opening up another acre on our property for a larger garden, fruit trees and some extra living space. The basic idea is to increase our self sufficiency. We also created a nice western facing area for a future patio area to watch sunsets. After 2 days of bulldozing, we are almost finished.

The before shot:

Our new western sunset view that connects to our lower fields:

The after shot:

Apparently there are some other occupants on our property that are reaping the benefits of the bulldozer in the form of uprooted grubs, worms and other assorted bugs.

Yes, we're all pretty excited with the new space. This will give the chickens much more free ranging space as well.

 

[trilyn]

Wow, that's some place you've got there! Those are some cute chooks enjoying their new "playground" lol!! Congrats!

 

[Hen_House_Rocks!]

What a breath-taking view!

 

[bluey]

Thanks! I think we're about done clearing except for some cleanup and some grading/tilling. Of couse, I've got lots of wood to cut as well but we heat the house with wood, so that has to be done anyway.

Then comes the seeding. I can't even guess how much grass seed I'll need.

The chickens are in love with their new yard! I'll post more pictures soon. I've been a tad busy!

 

[speckledhen]

I'd love to clear out our extra three acres down the hill from our house! That is awesome. Is that your bulldozer or did you rent it or pay someone to clear? I wish I could find a logger to take the wood off the property in exchange for clearing/grading ours. Sigh. Need more open garden space!

 

[bluey]

My wife's uncle owns the bulldozer and keeps it adjacent to our property. He works with it as a second job. We recently paid to fix his bulldozer engine and in return he cleared about an acre for us! I would imagine to rent a vehicle and pay someone to do it would probably cost a few thousand dollars depending on the size of the plot to be cleared.

We've been talking about doing this for awhile and I'm glad we finally took the plunge. We had so much unusable space with a lot of underbrush and sickly, scraggly trees.

We still have about half of our acreage in woodlot and now have a stunning view of most of our property! It's still pretty surreal when I go home and see it. The best thing is that we gave up no privacy as the view is in the direction of more of our land.

If you have a fairly mature woodlot with good lumber grade trees, I'm sure you could find someone to clear a plot. That wasn't the case for us in the area we wanted to clear.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

I can't wait to go home and tell hubby we're going to bulldoze up the yard so the chickens can have fun!

 

[bluey]

Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it!

 

[bluey]

I also hate to admit this, but the desire to drive a golfball down our new "fairway" was just too great.

Yup, yesterday, I used it as a driving range...

I just couldn't help myself...

 

[speckledhen]

We have lots of mature oaks, maples and sourwoods. Not many pines (mostly what we do have are the pretty white pines). Much as I adore the trees, we need to do it in order to grow a better garden and be more self sufficient here on the mtn.