0002 - Northern Trees

2026-10-25

Written by John

For my last vacation, I spent it camping up at the Northern Estates, beating my tractor and its grapple up tearing out autumn olives.

Aerial view of the property on July 30, with dense brush between the cleared paths

Aerial view on August 1, showing the widened clearing around the crossing paths

The property was overgrown with these when I bought it, and while I’ve pushed it back in some places, they have not retreated, and they have in fact advanced in several areas. Last year, I came up with a flail mower on several different days, and this mostly works.

I can back the tractor in and mow down the tiny trees.

Tractor with an orange rear-mounted flail mower in a clearing — Last year's approach: the flail mower.

But what worked better was a stump bucket that let me dig and rip them out of the ground. But that itself was slow and wouldn’t work for a cluster of trees.

Tractor lifting a tangle of brush beside the clearing

View from the tractor cab toward branches held above the loader

But this time I brought a grapple. The grapple was a game changer. I could push the grapple into the brush up high and drag small branches out. Then once I made my way to the base, I could grasp the entire tree, rocking back and forth until the root system released it. Plucking one tree could clear a large area.

View from the tractor cab of exposed roots and brush caught in the grapple

Tractor beside a cleared patch with uprooted brush held in its grapple

Side view of the tractor holding an uprooted tree with exposed roots

Front view of the tractor carrying an uprooted tree above the cab

Leafy branches held in the tractor grapple beside the cleared grass