Doing It In Mud

oldballs · May 9, 2019

Hi TBN'ers,

I have no pics, but thought posting about working in mud might bring up some interesting responses.

Yesterday my neighbor called me to bury an Alpaca that she had to put down. There was/is standing water in our fields from days after days of rain. I decided to give it a try with my B2620, since the rather large animal will bloat and be quite a mess in a few day.

I put a Middle Buster on the 3-pt to loosen the turf for scooping with the FEL. The short version is that it was quite a mess, but I got'er done. Hosing the mud off the tractor took just about as long as the main event.

Y'All having to deal with this lousy wet weather? And don't ask me about my garden.

Cheers,
Mike

Code54 · May 9, 2019

I hate when "mud" season kicks in. Had the tractor stuck several times over the hill. The R4 are great 90% of the time but on a hill in the mud they are horrible.
Last time I got the tractor stuck I asked my wife to come outside and press the hydro pedal so the wheels would turn in reverse while I gave it a pull with the excavator. Simple easy plan that almost went wrong. She hopped on the 50hp 4x4 tractor, throttled it up. I dropped the excavator blade, extended the excavator arm and hooked the chain on the bucket and hooped back up on the excavator. I did NOT put the seatbelt on since I was basically just giving a slight pull on the chain to get the tractor up the greasy hillside (not buried at all - the tractor tires just got loaded up and were on top of a thin layer of mud). Like an idiot I was learning forward and motioned for my wife to reverse the tractor so the wheels would be helping move the tractor and I was just about to take up the slack in the chain (Think HD chain - ½" thick links). Well she got the forward/reverse confused and hit the hydrostatic drive full bore forward DOWN the hill. The slack came right out of the chain and yanked hard on the extended excavator arm. This propelled me forward off my seat and I lucked out by catching both roll cage bars (one on each side) with my extended arms as I flew forward. I sort of hung out over the front blade with my feet hooked on the bottom front edge of the open cab and both arms slightly behind me and spread apart holding the cage. Thankfully she realized what she did and let off the go pedal before I fully ejected. After a few seconds I returned to my seat, cursed under my breath and yelled down to her, "other pedal dear....."

3Ts · May 9, 2019

Y'All having to deal with this lousy wet weather? And don't ask me about my garden.

Wet weather?! I don't have to worry about visitors, I have a mud moat. Nobody can get in to visit me unless they have 4 wheel drive and a winch. As for a garden, instead of corn and beans, I'm trying to decide what to raise, either catfish or tilapia?

Still working on repairs from the hail storm a couple of weeks ago, before I can get back to the projects I've postponed until hail damage is repaired and things dry out a little.

As much damage as we've had, I still feel fortunate because many people around here have it much worse than us.

snymat68 · May 9, 2019

Mud? What mud? :laughing:
A week ago this was my back lawn.
Now taking applications fer mud wrastlin' girls. LOL

3Ts · May 9, 2019

So, how deep is that mud? Is that a building at the back of the picture or a retaining wall. It looks like there is a crack in the bricks.

snymat68 · May 9, 2019

3Ts said:
So, how deep is that mud? Is that a building at the back of the picture or a retaining wall. It looks like there is a crack in the bricks.

How deep? Depends which part. I had just dug 4 tranches for a ground system for some ham radio antennas, so anywhere between 6" and 2'. lol

That's the back of my house. Damage was done before we moved in. Matthews wall anchors had already been installed in the foundation to remedy.

WranglerX · May 9, 2019

No pictures but I tried crossing seasonal creek and made it across, did some work and coming back sank my MF GC 1715 right up to chassis, all it did was spin all four wheels and sink deeper.... Had to get jeep and winch it out... It was suck enough the it slid Jeep across the ground and I had to lock Jeep down in 4WD and block the wheels...

Dale

Thomas · May 10, 2019

Mud equals double work bring sour attitude.

Gem99ultra · May 10, 2019

Code54 said:
I hate when "mud" season kicks in. Had the tractor stuck several times over the hill. The R4 are great 90% of the time but on a hill in the mud they are horrible.
Last time I got the tractor stuck I asked my wife to come outside and press the hydro pedal so the wheels would turn in reverse while I gave it a pull with the excavator. Simple easy plan that almost went wrong. She hopped on the 50hp 4x4 tractor, throttled it up. I dropped the excavator blade, extended the excavator arm and hooked the chain on the bucket and hooped back up on the excavator. I did NOT put the seatbelt on since I was basically just giving a slight pull on the chain to get the tractor up the greasy hillside (not buried at all - the tractor tires just got loaded up and were on top of a thin layer of mud). Like an idiot I was learning forward and motioned for my wife to reverse the tractor so the wheels would be helping move the tractor and I was just about to take up the slack in the chain (Think HD chain - ½" thick links). Well she got the forward/reverse confused and hit the hydrostatic drive full bore forward DOWN the hill. The slack came right out of the chain and yanked hard on the extended excavator arm. This propelled me forward off my seat and I lucked out by catching both roll cage bars (one on each side) with my extended arms as I flew forward. I sort of hung out over the front blade with my feet hooked on the bottom front edge of the open cab and both arms slightly behind me and spread apart holding the cage. Thankfully she realized what she did and let off the go pedal before I fully ejected. After a few seconds I returned to my seat, cursed under my breath and yelled down to her, "other pedal dear....."

You have far more self control than 90% of us! Thankful that you weren't killed, although I'm sure you did suffer some minor injuries.

CobyRupert · May 10, 2019

Last night I was towing a little cart around behind the ATV gathering up the wood I'd sawed up here and there last fall.
Thought it would be a good idea to venture down to the "low land" where spring floods washed away my culvert to check out when I'll be able to replace it.

Approaching the bottom, I'd forgotten that I'd turned off 4wd when I was on the paved driveway. I go about 6 feet, start coming to a stop, gun it to keep moving and floating on top, but end up and sinking right up to the belly skids. Thaaats when I realize 4WD was off. That was my first mistake.

My second mistake was not unhooking the trailer. The paddle-tread rear tires are good, I could slowly move through the muck if I gunned it. However the cart acted like a nice backboard for the 5 gallons of mud-per-second that rebounded off it back onto the 4-wheeler and the driver, but once moving it was a :"Can't stop now!" situation.

Needless to say, I got covered, had to strip on the porch. and will be spending some time cleaning the 50 pounds of mud off it in the coming days.

abunchofidiots · May 10, 2019

After three hours of self recovery with building a log grid under the tractor.... and another hour pressure washing..... I'm avoiding the mud for a while.

oldballs · May 10, 2019

What got me is how heavy and sticky the muddy turf/ground was. I could hardly move it when trying to finish covering the animal with a shovel. Sometimes the muck would stick in the FEL and barely shake out. Maybe a backhoe could have done a better job.

Mainahs70 · May 10, 2019

New home construction. At the entrance to my dooryard I had 40 feet of deep gravely slop. Was using tractor to transport fireplace mortar and block from driveway to house and had gotten it stuck twice before but got it out after unloading bucket and using it to push myself out. The third time I was mired good. Had to use excavator to pull it out. First pic was after I had gotten it unstuck the second time. Second pic was the time the excavator pulled me out. Gotta remember that even with studded chains its not a skidder.

Code54 · May 10, 2019

Gem99ultra said:
You have far more self control than 90% of us! Thankful that you weren't killed, although I'm sure you did suffer some minor injuries.

Thanks! A little later It was pretty funny, but at the time I really didn't see the humor in it. Have to admit I was a bit sore the next day, this getting older is no fun!

Diggin It · May 10, 2019

oldballs said:
Hi TBN'ers,

I have no pics, but thought posting about working in mud might bring up some interesting responses.

Yesterday my neighbor called me to bury an Alpaca that she had to put down. There was/is standing water in our fields from days after days of rain. I decided to give it a try with my B2620, since the rather large animal will bloat and be quite a mess in a few day.

Had to do a little bigger hole .... for a cow. Surface was dry, but the ground is overly wet from months of too much rain. Wet clay tends to pack like PlayDoh in a BH bucket, and it doesn't like to fall out, even with the help of a shovel.

TimberHole · May 11, 2019

My ground is in the bottoms and it is currently under about 8’ of water. It will be a mess when the river goes down.

coldsteelva · May 13, 2019

Mainahs...you need to round up and lay down some of those FIELD PALLETS to build yourself a temporary haul road.

suburbanfarmer · May 20, 2019

The rain is delaying everything. I got my tractor stuck with just turning it around near a low spot. I had to use to logs under the bucket to raise it up and then a come-along to winch it out. Took 3+ hours
Thinking of fabricating a receiver hitch that I can hook up to my 3pt hitch receiver.

bigtiller · May 20, 2019

suburbanfarmer said:
The rain is delaying everything. I got my tractor stuck with just turning it around near a low spot. I had to use to logs under the bucket to raise it up and then a come-along to winch it out. Took 3+ hours
Thinking of fabricating a receiver hitch that I can hook up to my 3pt hitch receiver.

Making your own would be a fun project but your Deere dealer will sell you one that is green and i-Match compatible for about $150

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