Working Clearing The Berm

With the snow/ice storm in early January a fairly large tree limb had fallen on the berm, luckily parallel to the fence and not across any utility or cable lines. Besides that tree limb I also needed to cut back all the overgrown bushes along the berm before they started getting leaves again. I'm talking around 140' of work.

With numerous fallen limbs mixed with the tall bushes that I had cut off at ground level it was going to be an interesting project. Last month I had found three men advertising on Facebook Marketplace for clearing tree limbs and brush. Work just like this. One charged by trailer load, another by the hour and the third by the job.

One thing all three had in common ... they couldn't do it the weekend a day later. Plus there was a forecast of more snow on the following Tuesday at the end of January. Cost was going to be $200-$250. All three had seen photos of the berm so they knew what they would have to do. 

Even before contacting those three men I had planned on cutting all the small saplings along the berm once it was cleared of the brush. Small saplings turn into more large trees that could blow over across the lines/cables and my fence. It has happened three times in the almost four years that I have lived here.

Instead of buying a chainsaw a friend suggested using a reciprocating saw. Less maintenance and safer. I found out early that small blade worked fantastic on the tall saplings maybe 2"-3" in diameter. To cut up the brush/bushes into smaller pieces so they would fall to the ground, I was going to use my electric hedge trimmer. 

While waiting for the snow to melt and the rain to stop, the more I thought about it, I decided to do it on my own, save some money and come up with a plan for disposal. Ironically after the snow melted and the weather was perfect ... I didn't hear one word from the three men looking for this type of work. All of them said they would get back with me after the storms were finished and the snow was gone. All three wanted the job of hauling it away and clearing the bank. 

The plan I came up with was to cut the tree limbs to a smaller size with the saw, then use the trimmer to reduce the size of the bushes so they could be put into my trash bin and taken away, a week and a bin at a time. I could also use my larger recycling bin as long as I sat that out for pick up with the trash bin on alternating weeks, where recycling was NOT picked up. 

Of course every limb has a lot of smaller limbs towards the top. After the tree was cut smaller I would use those trimmers to cut the top of this tree up. That is suppose to happen today since I trimmed this tree only yesterday. I started this project at the opposite end of the berm. 

I am not sure what kind of bushes these were but the berm was full of them. At ground level their stems were 1"-2" in diameter. They grew so much the past four years, the berm had gone from fairly empty to these bushes growing upward and outward towards my fence. In some cases the bushes were almost touching the back of the fence and covered the berm. 

These next photos will not be in any particular order (takes to long to add them individually) but you will see the progress I am making. It was great weather this week but it took more effort than I thought it would. That reciprocating saw gets heavy when it is raised at shoulder level and higher while cutting limbs. 

Where do I start? Some of these limbs have been blown over in past storms. I was thinking I would start cutting the brush with the trimmer first so the tree limbs would fall on top but I ended up doing the opposite. I guess I wanted to see how well the saw worked, so I started on the backside of the corner, to the right and then over to this area.

I wanted to clear off this corner down to the ground. For this particular area I am going to rake the area down to the dirt and either put the cuttings in the trash bin or move them to the berm. Why the berm?

My friend told me if it were him, he would leave all the cut bushes on the ground or close to it. Then leave all the cut tree limbs in any length on the berm to prevent erosion plus over time that wood will break down. I decided to try that and see how I like the looks of it plus what it looks like this spring after the leaves come back. 

It wasn't until the next day that I could cut that limb off the stump. I ran out of battery and had to stop for the day. The battery cost as much as the saw, over a $100 so instead of buying a second battery I had decided to use the one I already had for my weed eater. After a couple of days of working on this berm I decided ... I needed a second battery and I needed the larger blade that would cut trees 4" and bigger in diameter.

When I say "couple of days" I don't mean eight hours of work in a day. With the saw I had to take a break after 20 minutes!!! Pulse rate was up to 135bpm and I don't even get close to that riding my bike. I was tired just after that short amount of work. For each day, the maximum time I worked was less than two hours.

My electric trimmer worked well. I have enough extension cord I can get to the whole berm from one end to another with it plugged in the same outlet by the bbq grill. I was going to cut up that stack of stuff on the corner and to the left with the trimmer. 

I was pretty happy with my progress but I could see this was not going to be a three to four day job. The more I cut the more work I created for myself. 

All of that was trimmed with my electric hedge trimmer. 

Slowly but surely I was making progress. This is not the finished product but just the process of cutting the bushes into smaller pieces. 

Those are all bushes where I had cut them off at ground level for them to fall over. I trimmed all of them to smaller pieces with the trimmer.

Of course every day I was cutting trees and bushes the hounds and dogs sunbathed on the dirty patio deck. They did not even move when I took my break and sat on the patio with camera in hand. The temperature might have been in the mid 60s but with the cooler air and the overnight temperatures in the 30's it still felt cold to me. It is rare when I can get all five in one photo.

By Thursday afternoon not only had I cut more tall trees, but had cut those into shorter lengths for them to lay on the ground. I still have more to cut but not until I get all the brush cut up. As I would walk on the cut brush they would stay mashed closer to the ground.

Still I am not sure I am going to like the looks of that this summer. 

You can see here how I have laid more of the taller trees on the ground parallel to the fence and the corner is cut enough that I can haul that small stuff away today in the trash bin. I am going to cut that tree that curls to the right on the corner down also.

This photo gets my past the halfway point of the berm. Around 70ft of work done. There are also more tall thin saplings I am going to cut I this photo in the final phase of this project.

Thursday I made a lot of good progress but like I said, it seems the more I cut down or cut up, the more work I create. Once again just in this photo there are a lot more saplings that I want to cut down but some are tall enough that they might hit the power lines or fence if I don't cut them to fall parallel to the fence.

Before I cut them I have to get the bushes cut to ground level or hauled away. 

Friday I wanted to do only one thing. I wanted to cut that fallen tree limb, left side of photo, into smaller pieces. As I did that the top of the tree fell lower and went across that grass area behind the fence. I will cut them today with the electric trimmer. I'd like it to get a little warmer today before I start ... I am not to enthusiastic about working with it being 37° and it's already 9:30am. 

My friend says leave this as is. The four squirrels I saw Thursday afternoon running around and through what I cut up say leave it as is. They loved it. Yet the small voice in my head says, that looks like crap, have it hauled away. 

I am going to cut down that limb that is leaning to the right. It is nothing but rot.  I forgot to mention that almost every limb or sapling I cut down, the center of the limb is rotting inside. 

I am going to cut those stumps to ground level now that I have two batteries that I can use. 

If I could be sure I wouldn't catch that cornfield on fire, I'd like to burn the whole berm. It is dry enough it would burn fast but I am not sure if the heat would cause damage to my fence. Could I keep the flames on this side of the berm?

On a side note ... we are enjoying the dryer and warmer weather. The temperatures are so cold at night, 20's and 30's any hight temps above 50° during the day still feels cold. 

After turning a year old Ava has seemed to have grown out of her chewing stage. She is not chewing up corners of blankets or the dog's sleeping bag anymore. She is not pulling the roll of toilet paper from the holder out to the hallway. She does like to drag the blankets she sleeps on from the bedroom floor to the backyard ... but at least the nibbling and chewing on stuff has stopped.

IndyCar starts racing Sunday in St Petersburg Florida for their 2025 season. That is a sure sign that spring is around the corner. They were displaying their 2025 model cars in a park. I pulled these photos from their Facebook page that was showing up in my Facebook newsfeed. 

Some final advice .... luckily this next photo is NOT me, nor have I bought another dog/hound or rescued any ... still some sound advice. 

That is all for today, from "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.