Cleaning out a creek bed

   / Cleaning out a creek bed
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#21  
Hi Fishman,
I don't think I would want to swim in that water. I think the reason we don't have any fish is that almost all of the water is runoff from farm fields and contains a lot of pesticides and herbicides. That and the average depth is about 6-12". When we first bought the property we planned on putting in a pond for swimming purposes, but that plan kind of fell by the wayside for the time being. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
   / Cleaning out a creek bed
  • Thread Starter
#22  
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the request, I'm always looking for an excuse to go traipsing through the woods. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif While I was out there I figured I might as well take 3 pictures to show some of the mess I have to clean up. The first one is the one I'm working on now. Believe it or not, I've already pulled about half of it out, and this is what's left of this pile.
 

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   / Cleaning out a creek bed
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#23  
Mike, this picture is in our east woods, and shows two piles. The one in the foreground is just a pile of wood, but the one in the background has actually dammed up the creek. I was out there a couple of weeks ago and the water level was over a foot difference from one side to the other. I managed to move a big limb and lower the level a little. It may be hard to make out the dam, as I kept the resolution down for TBN. These two are about 50-60' apart.
 

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   / Cleaning out a creek bed
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#24  
Mike, this last one is about 40' east of the last one. Plus I have several more on east of these. I hope I get old enough to clean them all up.

By the way I know about daughters and water. When our daughter was in college, she got used to taking long hot showers in the dorm. So of course when she came home to visit we always had to go round and round about water conservation and the expense of heating all the water she used.
It's funny now that she is married and has to pay for her own hot water, she can get in and out of the shower in about 5 minutes flat. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 

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   / Cleaning out a creek bed #25  
Thanks for the pics. They showed exactly why you can't get the Tractor in there. Also showed why you would like to get something where you can stand on top and just heave it out there instead of having to go up and down that slope.

So, with the pics in mind, I do have one suggestion. I know you don't want to lose the trees but there are some that you might consider just because they are probably going to end up in the creek any way.

Look at the base of the tree and see if it has a bend in it. In particular, in picture number two I see one good sized one on the right hand side of the picture. That bend is formed when the ground the tree is holding onto is or has moved. It's a classic piece of evidence a geologist uses to guess at slope stability. The bigger the bend, the more movement of the slope. I've seen some where the trunk looks like it starts growing down and then makes a big curve upwards. There is also some fancy name for it but since I moved from Seattle WA five years ago I haven't had to worry about it and have promptly purged it from my memory banks /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif The tree on the left hand side of the pic doesn't show the big bend although it appears to be leaning so the bend might just be a few years away.

Anyway, I don't know if I explained myself or not but if you are willing to lose some trees, I would go after the ones with the bend.

Mike
 
   / Cleaning out a creek bed #26  
Bubba--

The creek obviously rocks 'n rolls pretty good, and surely most of the wood is dry enough to float if it's in a small enough piece; what about just getting down in there (waders, if necessary) with the chainsaw and carving things into lengths that'll go away with the next flash flood? Seems a lot easier than hauling it up on the bank and at least would separate the waterlogged from the not. Also, have you thought about having a bonfire or two about the size of each of those piles? It doesn't look from the pictures like there would be any woods-fire hazard, although I might have a little gas-powered pump ready . . . again, that would get rid of all but the nastiest bits. Just 2¢ worth . . .
 
   / Cleaning out a creek bed
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#27  
Hi Mike,
Sorry it took so long to get back to you, it's been busy around here. The second and third pictures I posted are in the east woods, and the point where they were taken is about 200' from the trail that goes through the woods. So if I want to get the tractor anywhere close I'm going to have to clear quite a few trees out of the way. That's good to know about the tree trunks. The strange thing is that I've got trees all over both of our woods that are on level ground quite a ways from any water that have bent trunks also. Some even look like they are roots from another tree that just turned upward and started growing. Must be a phenomenon of woodland growth, I guess. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Thanks for the help.
 
   / Cleaning out a creek bed
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#28  
Hi Rick,
I would guess that 50-60% of the wood in the creek is water logged. But that doesn't sound like a half bad idea to cut some of it up and let it float away. The only problem is I think I have the only woods on this creek now, and if there was a sudden bunch of cut wood floating downstream, it wouldn't take too long to see where it came from. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

As far as burning, the 2nd and 3rd pictures were taken in the middle of about 5 acres of woods with a nice coating of dry leaves on the ground, so I don't think I'm going to try that.

Thanks for the suggestion about letting it float away. I might just cut a few every so often so no one has a problem with a bunch of firewood coming at them all at once. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Cleaning out a creek bed #29  
Bubba:

I agree with the burn them where they lay now approach. I've done this and like he said get one of thosel ittle gass powered 2 cycle pumps. stick the hose down in the water and have it ready.

wait for a day like tomarrow is going to rain in the afternnon. get down there with a propane burn off torch. and a good heavy yard rake and some old pants.

rake the loose dead stuff up aginst the pile of logs best you can and spray it down with a bit of fuel & oil mix. add an old tire on top too. and wait untill it starts to sprinlke a bit. then fire it up. (it will burn up a lot but not all the way.) it may take two or three burnings to get one pile down to chunks that won't burn. this is the best time to do it most of that stuff will dry out when it is burning.

it probalby will fry the trees that it is all wrapped up around. but those trees will more than likely wash out sooner or later anyhow by the looks of that washed up piles.

remember to have that pump handy and maybe tell you're neighbors that you are going to do some cleaning and will be burning some back there so they don't freak out and call the fire dept. maybe even notify them just in case.

I have 3 smaller piles similar to you'res One I was going to burn today but winds were not right so I didn't burn just tilled some dirt and dredged some gravel. my creek is much nicer than your's for walking along. the bottom is almost 100% rock gravel. like you're the crawdads are amazing...

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
 
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