This weekend, I am going to start on patch two! I kept meticulous records about the developemnt of patch one... and wrote down time worked, temps, costs, wildlife noticed, amount of rhodo cut, etc. When I re-read all of that earlier this year, in feb and march, It made me get tired all over again... There were 37 pages of notes -including soil sample analysis- in my notebook.
Anyway, the total number of hours I put in behind the chainsaw was 28.5. This is what it took me to reduce and destroy the rhodo, in the 4.5th of an acre I cleared. Gathering soil samples in also in that hourly tally. Installing water brakes and planting was not included in that figure.
I have decided to hire a couple of college students for a long day this sat. My crew will number as 4, plus me and my partner. We'll be running two saws, and clearing as we go. I plan on installing water-brakes on the mountainside, getting a fresh set of soil samples from the newly cleared area, spreading 4 bags of lime, and spraying the Agri-Grow solution. I marked off approx another acre that is to be cleared.
It's ambitious. However I really think that having some much younger college students do the saw work/lap removal is in order. I'm thinking that my crew will get as much done in 6 hours, as that took me 28!
Photos to follow after the weekend!
