Dirt Moving Diggin' a pond with my CK20s

[k0ua]

Good job, I am amazed that that weight size class of tractor was able to get the job done. Two thing might have made it go a little easier for you, one would have been a 500-600 lb ballast barrel on the back, that would have given you the weight you needed (no more rears in the air:shocked and it would have been short enough, not to have a clearance problem and perhaps a tooth-bar would have made the digging just a tad easier. But you seemed to get it done without the tooth-bar anyway. Of course you have actual dirt/clay, not just all rock like here. All in all a well put together vido.. I liked the chicken too!

James K0UA

 

[Gary Fowler]

Building a pond is about the most fun thing you can do on a tractor. That was the absolute first thing I did with my LS. The problem here is that at about 4 feet below grade we hit shale rock so you cant go any deeper and actually have to cover it over with clay to make it hold water. So we have to levee it up on the sides to get that much water. But it sure is fun on the tractor digging out that dirt and piling it up.
Now what have you considered doing with all that dirt around your pond that isnt needed for holding water?

 

[TSO]

TSO, great job, great video & good music. I particularly like the chicken cameo in the beginning....nice touch:laughing: I think you need a bumper sticker on that machine..."JUST DO IT!"...no hand wrenching, no big plans, no question and answer....just do it. Keep us posted when it fills up!

LOL - yeah, that cracked me up when I saw it for the first time... they were hanging around the banks waiting for me to dump fresh dirt so they could search for worms/grubs, etc. I didn't realize that one had found the camera :laughing:

Good job, I am amazed that that weight size class of tractor was able to get the job done. Two thing might have made it go a little easier for you, one would have been a 500-600 lb ballast barrel on the back, that would have given you the weight you needed (no more rears in the air:shocked and it would have been short enough, not to have a clearance problem and perhaps a tooth-bar would have made the digging just a tad easier. But you seemed to get it done without the tooth-bar anyway. Of course you have actual dirt/clay, not just all rock like here. All in all a well put together vido.. I liked the chicken too! James K0UA

I completely agree with you. I would love to have a bolt-on tooth bar, but I'm much too cheap to buy one (they're not cheap!) and I'm waiting until I get a welder and learn to weld... I would enjoy making it myself. And my buddy and I were just talking about making some ballast boxes for the 3-pt. I've got something in mind, just have to make it. And as for the rock/clay... I did not, in any way, expect this dig to be that easy :thumbsup: -- I figured I would get a foot or 2 down until I started hitting a bunch of field-stones. But scoop after scoop, I didn't run into anything, so I figured "What the ****" I'll just keep going

Building a pond is about the most fun thing you can do on a tractor. That was the absolute first thing I did with my LS. The problem here is that at about 4 feet below grade we hit shale rock so you cant go any deeper and actually have to cover it over with clay to make it hold water. So we have to levee it up on the sides to get that much water. But it sure is fun on the tractor digging out that dirt and piling it up.
Now what have you considered doing with all that dirt around your pond that isnt needed for holding water?

It was definitely fun --- I have about 50+ stumps that I have to either burn or dig out, so I'll be using the dirt to fill in the holes (mostly - with topsoil on top). I have a couple other projects that I'll need fill dirt on too, so I'll just keep it in piles until I find time to use it. I just wish I had a dump trailer to move it with...

 

[TSO]

Well, we just had a "January Thaw" and melted all our snow, in addition to a few inches of rain. All in all, the pond is almost 1/3 full. The "deep" end in the picture is already 4 feet deep, so there's another 4-5 feet to go up in the deep end. Maybe it'll even be full by the end of Spring?

 

[lakngulf]

Looking good!!

 

[Gary Fowler]

That is going to be a nice looking pond when it fills and gets some grass on the banks. Depending on your flood gate elevation, you may have to do a little touch up on dike elevations as it fills.
My pond that I dug when I first got my LS had been going down, down, down all summer and was about 2 feet deep (it has a flat bottom) prior to us starting to get some rain. It was about 3 feet deep when we left for Christmas holiday at which time we got 3-4" of soaking rain + 6+" of snow. When I returned on the 27th, the pond was full to overflowing. I actually had to put a little more dirt in some low spots on the levees as the water was level or creeping over in some spots. Now I think I have it where it is pretty level all the way around on the lower end and about 3" above the flood gate minimum. I built mine by eyeball and didnt have a transit to set the elevations with, but it turned out pretty good on the bottom end. I got the sides a little high but it works. . It is spring fed when normal rainfall occurs and the overflow runs slowly all winter and spring and sometimes into summer. All our ponds are near capacity now which we havent seen since Jan 2012. Fish should be happy even if the geese arent.
The photos show the pond when finished, when full and one showing what I sometimes find when digging. Luckily only one basketball sized rock was found when digging this little pond although the one in my Avatar came from the digging of one not more than 400 feet away. The little mounds of dirt is where I had to dump some dirt in a few low spots to build up the dike. When it dries up a bit, I will smooth them out, right now the dike is so soft one can barely walk on it much less put a tractor on it.

 

[Gary Fowler]

By the way, the kidney shaped pond should be very aesthetically pleasing. I didnt really think about shaping when I built mine.

 

[kevin37b]

Good video . As an operator doing this without a track machine would have been impossible . Just shows what a wuss I am . Your perserverance with that tractor was impressive .Nice job .

 

[xring100]

Nice job how many hours did you log on the tractor completing that project when you where done i noticed you mentioned 40 hours at one point. Another question would be how much fuel

Dave

 

[TSO]

Thanks Gary, man I wish I had a bigger tractor like yours, I'd like to start "haying" but I might have to upgrade first. You definitely have alot more rocks than I do, but I think it's just because this used to be farm land, and they already removed most of the rocks. I agree with you on the banks of the pond. I'm wondering where the high spots are going to be also. I'm planning to add an overflow drain out of the back, when I get to it. As for the "kidney" shape, I originally planned it as an oval, but the trees kinda forced me to shape it that way when I made it bigger. I'm glad now because it looks pretty cool. Here's a pic of the larger dirt pile that I took out of the pond. The other pile is about 1/2 this size.

Good video . As an operator doing this without a track machine would have been impossible . Just shows what a wuss I am . Your perserverance with that tractor was impressive .Nice job .

LOL - I don't know how much of it was "perserverance" .... more like stubborn bull-headed'ness!

Nice job how many hours did you log on the tractor completing that project when you where done i noticed you mentioned 40 hours at one point. Another question would be how much fuel

Dave

Yeah, I think right around 40 hours. I have like 210 on it now. I didn't keep track of the fuel consumption, but I would guess maybe 40 gallons ??? This little tractor likes it's RPM's at 2500 for the PTO, but when doing the heavy digging, I had her around 3100. She never lost power that way, but I'm sure it sucked more fuel.