Adding a PTO driven Wood Chipper to our Homestead

We just finished our first four years in Tennessee. Rural living has become therapeutic. But living in the back of the woods comes with more responsibilities for land management. And having chronic congestive heart failure makes what used to be easy more difficult. Or maybe age has something to do with that too😄.

Understandably, our seasonal storms in the rural country leave a mess behind. The town next to us is still cleaning up from the most recent tornado. But after our historic Arctic Ice storm (aka Winter Storm Fern) in January, which proved to be a catastrophic event. Many trees and foliage froze to death, including people who perished. That devastation left behind an eyesore of carnage, dead trees, and tree debris, along with a potential fire hazard.

With cleanup crew costs over our budget, we began researching more cost-effective solutions. We discovered that investing in a non-commercial wood chipper would save money in the long run and help us handle future land management efficiently. Thank You, Lord, for that monetary gift, aka tax refund.

So, our decision was: do we buy a self-contained, gas-powered chipper that needs to be pulled by a vehicle? Or a PTO driven chipper for the back of our Tractor? We chose the latter. After more hours of research, we purchased this WC68 PTO Wood Chipper by Woodland Mills. This should work very well behind our L4701 Kubota, attached by a Quick-Hitch I purchased a couple of years ago.

Since I had lots of after-storm clean-up and tree debris, I decided to give this new chipper a try. So far, I am well pleased; it is everything I expected. Below is my ridiculously amateur video. But I highly recommend the videos below mine that were professionally done by Woodland Mills.

My amateur video of today’s test run

Woodland Mills full product walk-around of a WC88

Woodland Mills WC68 Wood Chipper Full Product Walkaround

#homestead #homesteading #ruraltennessee #landmanagement #stormcleanup #treedebris #countrylife