Doing It In Mud

[oldballs]

Hi TBN'ers,

I have no pics, but thought posting about working in mud might bring up some interesting responses.

Yesterday my neighbor called me to bury an Alpaca that she had to put down. There was/is standing water in our fields from days after days of rain. I decided to give it a try with my B2620, since the rather large animal will bloat and be quite a mess in a few day.

I put a Middle Buster on the 3-pt to loosen the turf for scooping with the FEL. The short version is that it was quite a mess, but I got'er done. Hosing the mud off the tractor took just about as long as the main event.

Y'All having to deal with this lousy wet weather? And don't ask me about my garden.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Code54]

I hate when "mud" season kicks in. Had the tractor stuck several times over the hill. The R4 are great 90% of the time but on a hill in the mud they are horrible.
Last time I got the tractor stuck I asked my wife to come outside and press the hydro pedal so the wheels would turn in reverse while I gave it a pull with the excavator. Simple easy plan that almost went wrong. She hopped on the 50hp 4x4 tractor, throttled it up. I dropped the excavator blade, extended the excavator arm and hooked the chain on the bucket and hooped back up on the excavator. I did NOT put the seatbelt on since I was basically just giving a slight pull on the chain to get the tractor up the greasy hillside (not buried at all - the tractor tires just got loaded up and were on top of a thin layer of mud). Like an idiot I was learning forward and motioned for my wife to reverse the tractor so the wheels would be helping move the tractor and I was just about to take up the slack in the chain (Think HD chain - ½" thick links). Well she got the forward/reverse confused and hit the hydrostatic drive full bore forward DOWN the hill. The slack came right out of the chain and yanked hard on the extended excavator arm. This propelled me forward off my seat and I lucked out by catching both roll cage bars (one on each side) with my extended arms as I flew forward. I sort of hung out over the front blade with my feet hooked on the bottom front edge of the open cab and both arms slightly behind me and spread apart holding the cage. Thankfully she realized what she did and let off the go pedal before I fully ejected. After a few seconds I returned to my seat, cursed under my breath and yelled down to her, "other pedal dear....."

 

[3Ts]

Y'All having to deal with this lousy wet weather? And don't ask me about my garden.

Wet weather?! I don't have to worry about visitors, I have a mud moat. Nobody can get in to visit me unless they have 4 wheel drive and a winch. As for a garden, instead of corn and beans, I'm trying to decide what to raise, either catfish or tilapia?

Still working on repairs from the hail storm a couple of weeks ago, before I can get back to the projects I've postponed until hail damage is repaired and things dry out a little.

As much damage as we've had, I still feel fortunate because many people around here have it much worse than us.

 

[snymat68]

Mud? What mud? :laughing:
A week ago this was my back lawn.
Now taking applications fer mud wrastlin' girls. LOL

 

[3Ts]

So, how deep is that mud? Is that a building at the back of the picture or a retaining wall. It looks like there is a crack in the bricks.

 

[snymat68]

So, how deep is that mud? Is that a building at the back of the picture or a retaining wall. It looks like there is a crack in the bricks.

How deep? Depends which part. I had just dug 4 tranches for a ground system for some ham radio antennas, so anywhere between 6" and 2'. lol

That's the back of my house. Damage was done before we moved in. Matthews wall anchors had already been installed in the foundation to remedy.

 

[WranglerX]

No pictures but I tried crossing seasonal creek and made it across, did some work and coming back sank my MF GC 1715 right up to chassis, all it did was spin all four wheels and sink deeper.... Had to get jeep and winch it out... It was suck enough the it slid Jeep across the ground and I had to lock Jeep down in 4WD and block the wheels...

Dale

 

[Thomas]

Mud equals double work bring sour attitude.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I hate when "mud" season kicks in. Had the tractor stuck several times over the hill. The R4 are great 90% of the time but on a hill in the mud they are horrible.
Last time I got the tractor stuck I asked my wife to come outside and press the hydro pedal so the wheels would turn in reverse while I gave it a pull with the excavator. Simple easy plan that almost went wrong. She hopped on the 50hp 4x4 tractor, throttled it up. I dropped the excavator blade, extended the excavator arm and hooked the chain on the bucket and hooped back up on the excavator. I did NOT put the seatbelt on since I was basically just giving a slight pull on the chain to get the tractor up the greasy hillside (not buried at all - the tractor tires just got loaded up and were on top of a thin layer of mud). Like an idiot I was learning forward and motioned for my wife to reverse the tractor so the wheels would be helping move the tractor and I was just about to take up the slack in the chain (Think HD chain - ½" thick links). Well she got the forward/reverse confused and hit the hydrostatic drive full bore forward DOWN the hill. The slack came right out of the chain and yanked hard on the extended excavator arm. This propelled me forward off my seat and I lucked out by catching both roll cage bars (one on each side) with my extended arms as I flew forward. I sort of hung out over the front blade with my feet hooked on the bottom front edge of the open cab and both arms slightly behind me and spread apart holding the cage. Thankfully she realized what she did and let off the go pedal before I fully ejected. After a few seconds I returned to my seat, cursed under my breath and yelled down to her, "other pedal dear....."

You have far more self control than 90% of us! Thankful that you weren't killed, although I'm sure you did suffer some minor injuries.

 

[CobyRupert]

Last night I was towing a little cart around behind the ATV gathering up the wood I'd sawed up here and there last fall.
Thought it would be a good idea to venture down to the "low land" where spring floods washed away my culvert to check out when I'll be able to replace it.

Approaching the bottom, I'd forgotten that I'd turned off 4wd when I was on the paved driveway. I go about 6 feet, start coming to a stop, gun it to keep moving and floating on top, but end up and sinking right up to the belly skids. Thaaats when I realize 4WD was off. That was my first mistake.

My second mistake was not unhooking the trailer. The paddle-tread rear tires are good, I could slowly move through the muck if I gunned it. However the cart acted like a nice backboard for the 5 gallons of mud-per-second that rebounded off it back onto the 4-wheeler and the driver, but once moving it was a :"Can't stop now!" situation.

Needless to say, I got covered, had to strip on the porch. and will be spending some time cleaning the 50 pounds of mud off it in the coming days.