Busy Wife This Weekend

mike69440 · Sep 6, 2009

Eddie,

I do not know if you you can give some pond advice regarding level control in freezing climates, but if you have no experience, I hope someone else can.

I will have two small ponds, the up stream one will be about 80' x 50' and 6' to 7' deep and another downstream about 30 x 50'
3-4' deep. The upstream one will be about 2 higher elevation higher than the downstream pond, the downstream pond will have a dam berm with spillway and a drainpipe with an outlet valve.

I am not worried about my drain line freezing on the downstream pond as the spillway and valve will always be flowing spilling over a waterfall.

I am concerned with the spill pipe at the exit of the upstream pond as the upper pond drain pipe is only buried 2-3 ft deep and the ditch will freeze between ponds. The lower pond gets inflow from the upper pond and also left side of the valley.

I came across the attached pond control valve. As it is rather expensive, is there a simpler solution?

The spoils from the pond I am using to level the pasture and also build a scenic overlook.

I wonder what kind of fish will survive in the pond? I imagine perch, catfish, maybe bass. I do not think there will be enough oxygen or food for trout.

As my current home has a 30' x 50' x 3' deep pond that large goldfish have survieved for years, I suspect the larger 6'-7' new pondwill support fish, as there will be some inflow/outflow thru the winter.

mike69440 · Sep 15, 2009

With the spoils from the pond I am grading the pasture and using the remainder to fill the space behind a retaining wall for a 鉄cenic Overlook of the property.

The scenic overlook is built atop jagged sloping ledge that has good loamy soil between the ripples of ledge.

I dug the loamy soil out as best I could with my excavator then moved it to a pipe with the L39.

As I moved the soil, every 4th load I would mix a load of horse manure in the pile.

As I move the soil, I pulled out as many stones as I could and would fill the L3400痴 bucket.

I dumped the stone behind the retaining wall.

By evening, I had a pipe of loamy soil over 9 tall. Hopefully this will be enough for the lawn. My idea of a lawn is one step smoother than a pasture.

Pictures attached.

mike69440 · Sep 20, 2009

Some more grading and retaining wall building.

All told, I estimate 1,000 yards mf material will come out for the ponds.

Digging is not so bad, but getting rid of the spoils takes time, 1/2 yard bucket at a time

I am preserving the adjacent wetland, so on average Each bucket is hauled about 350 Ft away.

EddieWalker · Sep 21, 2009

You two sure are having fun!!! I love the scale of your walls and how much rock you have available to use!!! Looks amazing.

Eddie

mike69440 · Oct 3, 2009

Just an observation.

Excavators sure do dig a lot faster than backhoes, especially when just digging a hole. I guess that why they are called excavators. I have come to fully appreciate their ability to dig.

For instance, give me a little KX-121 and I'd take on at least 2, maybe 3 M59's, even though the hoes spec close. Don't get me wrong, I love my little L39, a great little Swiss army knife. It will take a real long time to haul away that 100 or so yards of pond mud I dug out in a few hours yesterday with my Komatsu, and it would have taken forever to have excavated that pile if I were using the L39.

mike69440 · Oct 7, 2009

I am digging two connected ponds on my property, one shallow one 4' deep and another deeper 8' pond

I had a very scary moment with my excavator while working on my shallow pond. It was dark but I was still working, as I wanted to move a pile of excavated material 45' or 50' so I could get it out of the out of the riparian buffer zone around the pond to a dryer area where I could use my L39 to bucket the material to other areas of the property before the rain hit. The rain turns my wetlands into an inaccessible mud pit.

I wanted to do a bit of cleanup and grade the “shoreline” around the edge of the shallow pond with the dozer blade when drove the excavator a bit to close to the edge. As it was dark, I had the house turned so the hoe was facing the pond, using the floodlights on the boom. I had the dipper nearly retracted when I went in and the boom somewhat elevated so the center of gravity was about centered. When the machine went in I was almost thrown from the cab. I know that even the old PC75 has a seatbelt, somewhere down there. I was not using it. When the excavator tipped I tried working the tracks and the boom a bit only the slip in a bit more and have the dipper full retract under the machine weight. I heard the relief valve in the dipper cylinder circuit.
Oh Crap!, and stuck with more rain on the way! The drive motors were submerged. The dipper did not have the leverage to lift the machine. As I have stated earlier, the dipper on the Komatsu is not that strong.

Ok, what to do.

I dropped the boom as far as it would go while working the tracks. I actually was able to move the machine up and out about 6”.

Now for the scary part. What happens if I try to lift the boom and swing the house 180 so I can extend the hoe and shift the center of balance?

I managed to lift the hoe out of the water without tipping the excavator on its nose and swing the hoe around. This got the center of balance shifted so the machine had a chance of climbing out. I tried to use the hoe to help, but as the machine was still tipped so far back, I could hardly put any down pressure. The tracks had enough torque to spin, so like a conveyor belt they moved enough muck behind the machine to where I was able to get enough grab with the bucket to use the hoe’s hydraulics to help pull me out.

What else could I be doing to have this much fun?

Sorry not pics!

EddieWalker · Oct 9, 2009

Funny how these things always happen right after dark, or at least in my experience, that's when they happen to me. One of these days I'm going to learn to just stop what I'm doing when I can no longer see what I'm doing!!!!!! Sounds like common sence, but for some reason, I just don't get it until it's too late.

Nice to hear you got out without any damage. I kept expecting to read how it got worse for you. LOL

Eddie

mike69440 · Oct 17, 2009

Fall is definitely here.

I ran into solid ledge digging hole for our 1,000 gallon propane tank going in Wednesday. On the other end of the hole is my previously buried drainage pipe. I sure hope that tank is actually less than 17'.