Spreading Wood Chips on a Trail - Daughter Reagan's First Loader Project

[@westvirginia8658]

That was fun. Your daughter has a great sense of humor.

[@jaxturner7288]

She was really entertaining and had a great attitude! You two are naturals on camera together. 👍

[@jimh7268]

Great to see father-daughter and a little fun at the end.

[@codybosher4112]

Anytime you get to have fun with your grown kids it's a great day. Thanks for sharing your family with us Mike.

[@paulinemcdowell6565]

We've been watching your videos for quite a while, lots of useful information for long time owners and new ones alike. Love these ones with your daughter, thanks for sharing and best wishes.

[@peacefieldfarm_mn]

It is amazing how much Reagan sounds like you. A chip off the old block! Cheers!

[@rlmillercpa]

Including and mentoring your daughter is fantastic. Way to pass the baton, Mike!

[@berk3695]

That ending was hilarious! Great job Reagan.

[@critical-thought]

Ha! Nice ending 😂. Congrats to your daughter - it’s awesome that she wants to learn how to operate the tractor.

[@profdave2861]

Nice to see a positive training experience. Your daughter did very well, Mike! And I loved the outro!

[@TP-xi7ri]

Loved the video. Your videos have gotten much better now that your daughter is showing us how to do these tasks correctly. Keep em coming. TP

[@SethKrieger]

Absolutely loved the last bit! I literally laughed out loud! 😀

[@Bob-vb8lc]

You both did a great job. Learning the tractor and the methods to get various tasks done does take time & experience. She seems like a natural @ it. You can tell that she is your daughter Mike. She has your voice lol. Happy New Year to you both and your entire family.

[@FarmerDrew]

Love the smell of a fresh trail

[@buildingalegacypa]

Great learning video, for your daughter and us alike! Both of you did a great job. Thanks for the video!

[@dmorris9268]

Reagan you go girl ! Good job . Never hurts to learn the proper way to operate a tractor . Your dad has many years of experience to learn from . No yelling and screaming is a good thing or maybe that was edited out . lol

[@Amywazwaz06]

She did a great job. Love it.

[@royosborn7869]

Loved the ending. Great job with spreading the mulch to soften the ride

[@CliffsideStables]

Your daughter has an amazingly deep voice that sounds awful familiar! 😎 Tim

[@hankfrankly7240]

Liked the video. Learned something about operating the bucket. Liked the cute ending. I hope the chips work out for you.

[@jackiejoe8930]

I like these tractor horse to videos with your daughter. I know our inspires all my nieces to learn more amuter the tractor.

[@mikelynch3102]

Funny ending. Unexpected humor.

[@d.a.ballou9740]

Thanks Tractor Reagan. Nice job. You too Mike! Happy New Year to you and yours! 😁🧑‍🚒

[@lawrencebessette754]

Great young ladies she did a great job a I laughed my back side of at the end she lips sinks to your voice

[@Steve_Wojo]

LOL... Reagan you are a hoot ! Nice work..

[@butch6474]

The Reaganator comes thru like a pro!!! That you discovered some Morrells is exciting!!

[@deweysmith5677]

Great video, Mike. Keep up the videos coming.

[@powrguy1696]

Great editing job on the video with the sync of the sound to the ending.......real good. I do the same with wood chips, as the trails ALL tend to develop those surface-exposed roots, over time, and it is a teeth-rattling ride without some cover/fill over them.

[@michaelc9128]

Thumbs up.. she did better job than I would of done 👍

[@thegreatnorthwoodswithbb6513]

She did a fine job

[@mkc0005]

Love the close! Especially since she has the same name as my favorite President.

[@rvdawg6231]

Fun and awesome synchronization at the end you two. Thanks for sharing

[@MikeBrown-ii3pt]

Good video Mike and daughter.. No matter how light or heavy the load is, ALWAYS carry it as low as possible. That mulch will settle as you drive over it and you might even find that you need more to fill low spots as time goes on.

[@tomvonkamecke7136]

Haha that’s pretty neat. Got a kick out of your hired hand!

[@Jasonrcsd]

how cool!...Regan trying to show up her old man! lol Now if only I could get my daughter on my Boomer 40.

[@jameskennerly9748]

Awesome job there Daughter!!

[@rickylangston9690]

She's doing good Mike.

[@TheSnakeman3]

Nice touch at the end.

[@belindakt]

Well now, that was an awesome video- you guys are great together! Thank you & happy new year!

[@davidhaskins9457]

Great video perfect timing our subdivision is getting a bunch of trees and brush removed along our main road I'm gonna talk to my brother and see if he agrees with me about putting mulch on our trails in our woods, thanks again for the video

[@lightfoot9485]

Nice job daughter Mike, show dad how its done.

[@stephenrhodesianridgeback7418]

Great job Regan 👍 I’m lucky where I am for chips . I use cedar and they don’t rot for along time . If you have a wide flail mower you can level chips and spread them very evenly at low rpm on the trails 👍

[@TractorMike]

Great tip on the flail mower!

[@geremychubbuck3730]

Looks great and excellent video as usual. Another tip, make sure to give the bucket a little shake or two when you lift and it's full. That way any excess will fall back into the pile instead of along the way. Keep up the great work!

[@mikeadams2339]

Adorable!

[@paulriley7523]

Nice video!

[@luvbigiron]

Spreading wood chips from a tractor bucket is virtually impossible because they don't flow like crushed rock so hand raking is required. Trying to smooth with a box scraper would also be impossible. You got it done and it looks great. Now for several more loads from the tree service and you'll be in business.

[@kylerayk]

I never realized it until I saw it from the side view, but the bucket on your tractor doesn't have much rollback. I think it's due to the design of the loader arms as they are relatively straight. Neil from Messicks touched on this in his recent video about the Boomer 55 tractor.

[@jimputnam2044]

Hate to say it Mike she did a better job, gota love when your children want to help.

[@stephengmeiner3264]

Funny ending!

[@johnmessinajr.2591]

Awesome video you two! Maybe next time try back dragging and putting the loader in float. 🙂

[@rickywilson6214]

Good job you to

[@ronevans852]

She did right nice job for first time, it’s little hard to put wood chip down .

[@ronaldcamp6757]

I am so surprised you did not teach her to drive and operate the tractor when she was a young girl. My daughter liked to run equipment and power tools. She still does at 38.

[@peacocklandmgmt3719]

I can get all the wood chips I want and have used over 1,000 yards the past several years. They're great the first year. OK the 2nd year. By year 3 they are decomposing enough to become a little muddy when very wet. They become basically a muddy mess by year 4 when wet. Wood chips are very "fluffy" vs. mulch and will settle over time as you said. A good rain helps smooth them out and bind them together too. The price is right, but they decompose. So it's not a one and done job. Try and add more every year. It will become a mess if you don't.

[@alanswanson1952]

I use wood chip in my shed I store my tractor in. Much better than a dirt floor and over time they pack down so they are firm to walk on

[@kendrury3713]

Hey Mike, wood chips in a wet area never ends well!

[@patrickbass3118]

Hi Mike! I am wondering what implements you would recommend for cutting and maintaining trails like this in the woods? Our new property has about 10 acres of hardwood bush and I am eager to get some nice trails cut out and maintained. Thanks! Love your content sir keep up the fine work you do

[@TractorMike]

I've always done that kind of thing with my brush hog. One of the earlier comments was for a flail mower set low and running really slow to smooth down the chips and I'm intrigued by that idea. A rough cut flail mower would also be good to cut the brush out and be maneuverable in tight places. I'm thinking of exploring that option sometime in the future. I don't think a box blade or landscape rake could keep the trail level, they'll both drag the light wood chips to the end. I think maybe a field roller running over the chips right after they're dropped would spread them out and smooth them down, but I've not tried that yet. A Harley Rake might be good for maintenance, but they're a little pricey.

[@T_157-40]

Question, if you wanted to level it out; use a rake behind tractor?

[@peacocklandmgmt3719]

They're so light you can end up dragging them around. Much lighter than mulch. Just get it close, they'll settle on their own. Even if you're spreading it on mulch beds by hand, make small piles and toss it around with a manure pitch fork, and spread with a steel rake. Wood chips will keep weeds at bay if you have lots of material to spread thick, but becomes an issue as it decomposes after a yr or so.

[@TractorMike]

Great question, I'm not sure I know the answer, I was wondering the same thing. I think that as light as the material was that a landscape rake would bring it all to one end in one big pile. I thought about taking the landscape rake and turning it around where the tines weren't digging in and running over it, that might have worked. It wasn't in the video, but I tried to level a bit of it down with my loader bucket and that didn't go too well. Best thing I could come up with was getting it as roughly level as you could with a hand rake then running over it with a field rock roller. I'm open to ideas.

[@TractorMike]

Just read the comment below from Stephen Rhodesian ridgeback 77 about running a flail mower over it at low RPM's, that sounds like a great idea!

[@T_157-40]

@@TractorMike Maybe drive over it many times, then reverse rake on surface and see what happens..

[@fmixthings]

I have a service path for my neighbors power lines about 100ft long where I do all my wood chipping to keep weeds down. I have been considering a front implement for spreading the chip pile that can also be double duty for snow. Do you think either a blade or snow pusher would work better? I have a short ~80ft gravel driveway with a 2500sqft gravel parking area. Being in the Puget Sound area we don't get much snow so I don't have a lot to worry about. Any other thoughts? This year was my first snow with the tractor and the bucket worked just fine for me, but I did gouge a few spots in the gravel, and my neighbor's gravel..... and a friend's gravel a mile and a half away up the street. Thanks

[@TractorMike]

I really don't know what would work to spread it out. The material is so light that it may be a challenge. If there's any weight at all on the loader there's a good chance it'll pull the material with it, instead of smoothing it down. Another viewer commented that he runs over his with a flail mower just an inch or two off the ground. That's one of the best ideas I've heard yet, but I think if I ran over it with a field/rock roller it would spread it out just fine.

[@fmixthings]

@@TractorMike I keep coming back to a snow pusher thinking if I keep it up an inch or two off the ground I can push the wood chips and let them fall where they may along the path. Then I can use it for snow clearing the driveway and gravel area. I've actually used my gravel scraper to help spread the chips a little but it doesn't work very well. I lead with the grapple to knock over the large pile and then pull with the scraper. It works but isn't elegant.

[@newhampshire-bob1604]

Soon Mike you will be complaining that you can’t get any tractor time! Hmmm, maybe that will be a good thing!

[@donbrutcher4501]

Get all those loads of chips you can get. You'll be surprised how many uses you will find for them.

[@richardpoe2461]

I have a question that I have always wanted to ask you? You have had your New Holland tractor a long time. If you needed to replace it, would you buy another one?

[@TractorMike]

Send me an e-mail at [e-mail] and I'll tell you my thoughts.

[@oxford821]

Won’t the wood chips breakdown and turn your trail into all mud?

[@FarmerDrew]

I've got 3 riparian acres, and it works with a thick subgrade of chips. With a thick enough coverage, it'll raise the trail above water table

[@only1travisj]

When did you record this? Aren't Morrells a spring time thing?

[@TractorMike]

Sorry, that was confusing. It was recorded in December. We have had a couple morels in those areas for a few springs. Hopefully, we didn't mess things up for our morels!

[@only1travisj]

@@TractorMike no worries. I lived near woods most of my life and went morel hunting for the first time in 2021. I didn't find any. So that's why I was asking and why I was easily confused. I hope it wasn't taken that I was chalenging you, I was truly just confirming I am looking at the right times. Have a good day and happy new year.

[@only1travisj]

This is my new project for a "retirement". 144.5 acres of mostly woods. One would think I could find a morel or two. We do have a lot of turkeys a d was told they eat morels. kzbin.info/door/EC8ghWoDsFMS5OzxGYFczQ

[@hl8256]

Well Mike , I believe she beat ya, and she's cute too so you lose .lol