Land leveling question - ~2.5 acres that undulates

[Therios Pendragon]

I am well known here for asking stupid questions... so here is another one.

I have a total of 5 acres. 2.5 acres are pretty much light undulating swamp grass, blackberries, and various brush pockets.

It sucks to mow or do anything else. There are 15' circular depressions that are about 2' deep. These are what I call "pucker holes" and MAN are they!!

I would really love to level this place. I don't even know where to start. I would think that this is NOT a job for my Yanmar 1500D. I would assume that there is a much better device and tractor.

Anyway, how would one go about doing this? I can pretty much understand the laser leveling devices but can those work on the gradual slope? Or do they only work true level.

As my property pretty much slopes 10 to 15 feet over the 700' length.

Anyone nearby wanna come over and show me how it is done? How much would something like this cost me if I go out and try to find someone to do it?

It is pretty much good dirt here... there are rocks deep but this whole area used to be a grass farm and the soil is pretty awesome. I would love to be able to use it for something worthwhile. Even Charlie the Wonder Horse won't eat the swamp grass! And right now I continually battle the dang Tansy Ragwort!

 

[westcliffe01]

Would it be feasible to "cut" the high areas and push the dirt into the low areas ? You would stay on top of the higher areas and just push the dirt towards all the low lying areas ajacent to them. You don't want to be digging any holes, just scraping off layers that are high and moving towards low. Gradually, the side of the dips will get smaller and the size of the levelled area will get bigger. I suspect that it will appear slow going to begin with but will get faster and faster as the volume in the low lying areas gets filled in.

Rip the high area you want to "cut" first, to loosen it up and "discover" any major obstacles. Then depending on what equipment you have and how hard the soil is, you may have to till it to get it loose enough to work with the loader.

Going at it with a heavy machine will clearly be the quicker way to get the job done. But if cost is an issue and you have the time, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to do it with your tractor. In the not too distant past people used shovels, but the pace of life is different now...

 

[newbury]

Sounds like you need to set up a box blade training class.

 

[Therios Pendragon]

I have a 48" box blade with 4 rippers that I have been learning on. I a cutting down to level a 70' circle. I have about 8' total slope in this area. It is a challenge to work it out. It is a lot of trial and error.

I just never thought that a box blade would have a learning curve. This whole tractor thing is such a blast. I thought that I would just get on this thing and be able to do everything that I had dreamed about for the month leading up to the actual tractor delivery.

Thanks for the responses already. I really do appreciate it.

 

[SpringHollow]

I have an excavation contractor down the road from me and for large jobs, i have him come with his equipment. It is amazing what a bulldozer can do in a couple of hours that would have taken me weeks. I figure it even cost less if you take into account fuel and maintenance/wear.

Ken

 

[Reg]

I am tempted to suggest a plow.
If your tractor is small then a one bottom.
Start near the center/bottom and plow a short strip, come back the other way and plow another strip towards it.
Keep doing this, add strips across at each end, etc,
Maybe even run ever widening clockwise circles ?

Just turning up strips of soil and moving them a few inches to the right doesn't sound like much, but at least it is simple to figure out and see what is happening.

A box blade would be better, takes a bit of practice, takes more horse power.

 

[LBrown59]

There are 15' circular depressions that are about 2' deep.

What caused these or how did they get there?

Sounds like you need to set up a box blade training class.

 

[RadarTech]

hmm Circular depressions..
are there any corn or wheat fields in the area?

do you see strange lights?
were the previous owners mysteriously missing?

come on--- this could be a great lead for a tabloid....



J

 

[Scooby074]

Sounds like a good slope. Do you have any pics?

It sounds like you want to bring your lawn up to the same grade as your house? If so your going to need fill and lots of it. A rough and likely incorrect calculation i made would be 20000 cu yards to raise your whole 2.5 ac, 10 10ft!!

If you just want to level out the lower areas of your lawn then it would be significantly less.

A great way for you to deal with this would be to make a series of terraces.

if you have a contractor drop the fill on your yard, all youd have to do is spread it around. Now a bulldozer excels in this, but with time you could do it. I have a thread going on TBN where i raised approx 7000 sq feet up an average of 4 feet. Not quite the same scope as you, but it proves with time you can do it.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/147391-never-have-too-much-lawn.html



If all you want to do is take out the depressions, tilling and backdragging or raking can work well.

 

[wedge40]

They're not sink holes are they? The depressions?

Wedge