Chipping

Due to pick up the chipper at 7:00am but the hire company had phoned yesterday asking if it was possible to delay until 9:00am. However we were up and preparing at 7:00, doing horses, preparing chainsaws etc. At 9:00 collected the chipper from close to Memmingen Munich International Airport (West). It would normally be towed by a tractor but this one has been adapted with a car tow ball but weighs 2.2 tons, 

Farmer Franz and son Markus were waiting for me to arrive and we set straight to work, firstly on the large 3-4 meter long Thuja cuttings from autumn which had been planned to get rid off then but due to kidney stones, rain and finally snow, got delayed and delayed.  The Pöttinger chipper driven by it's own diesel motor is according to the data sheet capable of 24cm dia. wood and much of the branches were between 10 and 12cm. However something didn't work properly, the branches not being pulled in resulting in very hard work pushing and shoving until the rollers got a hold. Franz & Markus are both very good with such equipment and took off covers and tried to improve matters but it appeared the roller springs were at their maximum torsion - we estimated the machine was probably 20 years old and the springs were the original one's. Shame as once the rollers grabbed the branches, it chipped very well.

After nearly 2 hours we had done one side of the hedge and had about 7m³ of chips. However it was decided that we couldn't continue with the machine and Franz would try to organise the big chipper he uses when doing major work as Bliped last year. Before they left, Markus quickly rolled our sand school (in the background of the photo) using their old Deutz. They had brought their home made 50+ year old roller thinking we might want to do our fields. The roller is a touch narrow not quite covering the width of the tractor tyres and so of no use on modern farms. My JD with it's very heavy front loader has trouble pulling the roller in deep sand but works fine on the fields.

Well that was, mission failed. Given all the storm damage in the area it could be ages before the big chipper is free. Indoors for lunch when the phone rang - it was Franz. The big chipper was free this afternoon and Markus had set off to collect it from south of Ottobeuren. He had just left when the firebrigade siren went off and although a member, he ignored it seeing a full team arrive at the firebrigade house. Turned out the forest harvester which did our trees last week and was working close by had caught fire. The village brigade got their first, beating the next village Frechenrieden and the full time brigade from Ottobeuren. The harvester won't be cutting down any more trees!

I the took off to return the small chipper and by the time I got back 80% of the remaining branches had been cleared by Angie, Franz and Markus. The Biber 7 swallowed everything up faster than it could be fed. It is in a different class and has a conveyor belt to pull the wood in which makes life very much easier. Wish we had opted for this in the first place and not only because the bigger machine is cheaper per hour!

Finally had about 10m³ of chipping which Franz will get dried at the local BioGas unit for use in his wood chip central heating. Normally he would have had the purpose built trailer to load the chippings in to (as in the November blip) which has a double floor and is connected to a pipe carrying excess warm air from the BioGas electical turbines.

So we did manage to accomplish our goal - thank you Franz & Markus for all your hard work.

After they left I hitched up the Amazone grass cutter/collector and "mowed" all the areas we had been working on, still full of masses of tiny branches, sawdust and thuja leaves (poisonous for horses). Only had verticulator blades on the Amazone which was good in that they are less vulnerable to damage from the bigger bits of branches but they don't collect up the smaller stuff as well as grass mowing blades. However managed a satisfactory job and the property certainly looks a lot tidyer. Angie in the meantime got the wellies on and descended in to the ditch between our garden and the forest to remove the logs and branches which had fallen in and were blocking it. Annoying given we had just had the whole length cleared out a few weeks ago. She then got out the petrol driven yard brush machine and did as much as possible clearing up the wood chippings that had fallen on the paved areas.

It was now 12 hours since getting up and I detached the Amazone and set about rolling the fields. The last field was done in the dark with very poor headlights so not wonderful straight lines but again, satisfactory. It was 9:30 pm when I got in.

Long day, great result and two very tired persons. Angie was a whirlwind as ever and put in at least as much physical effort as the rest of us. She just made the mistake of being short sleeved and has two arms full of scratches and swellings. The only losers were the dogs who didn't get an evening walk.