tractchores
Veteran Member
I'm not sure if sinkhole is the right word for what I found. I was in the woods on my property chipping up downed limbs. Next to a packed gravel pad on the side of my garage there is a drainage area, nothing special - just an area that in the past had been wet and now is bare dirt with trees in it. Anyway I was going to drive the tractor in there to do some chipping, but walked through it first because I forgot the saw in the garage. walking back I fell through what was solid ground, one leg went in past the knee and I didn't hit bottom. I fell over and extracted myself. I got lucky only one leg went through. I put a piece of wood in and the cavity is at least 5' deep and is filled with water.
I felt around and it's tough to tell where the edges are, but I pushed a pole through a few areas and found that the void extends in one direction at least 4 feet, its hard to tell how wide it is. Had I driven the tractor on it I would have been in serious trouble, maybe a flip over or at least a very bad time. The weird part is the drainage ditch has been dry for a while now and I had been in it with the tractor last summer to clean it out, so this must be new. The soil is predominantly clay with lots of rocks, the area is relatively level with a slight slope and there's a slightly sunken area, which used to be the wet area, though the hole is now on the edge of the old wet area (now its dry despite lots of rain).
Anyone know what may have caused it? Any ideas what to do about it? I'm thinking of finding secure ground and then breaking through the top with the BH to see how big it is and maybe filling it with gravel. How do I prevent it from occuring again? It would have been seriously dangerous on either the tractor or if I had fallen through with both feet.
I felt around and it's tough to tell where the edges are, but I pushed a pole through a few areas and found that the void extends in one direction at least 4 feet, its hard to tell how wide it is. Had I driven the tractor on it I would have been in serious trouble, maybe a flip over or at least a very bad time. The weird part is the drainage ditch has been dry for a while now and I had been in it with the tractor last summer to clean it out, so this must be new. The soil is predominantly clay with lots of rocks, the area is relatively level with a slight slope and there's a slightly sunken area, which used to be the wet area, though the hole is now on the edge of the old wet area (now its dry despite lots of rain).
Anyone know what may have caused it? Any ideas what to do about it? I'm thinking of finding secure ground and then breaking through the top with the BH to see how big it is and maybe filling it with gravel. How do I prevent it from occuring again? It would have been seriously dangerous on either the tractor or if I had fallen through with both feet.
Water seems to be the root cause of sinkholes so I guess the solution is to eliminate the source of the water. I know, easier said than done. 