The gully to pond project

[jinman]

Right after I took the last photo, I turned to my left and took another photo of the area where I've been collecting topsoil. This really is a challenge with a backhoe because you can't turn 180 degrees like an excavator. I have a line of trees along my shoreline here, so I left an area about 10' wide to make a pile with the hoe and then use the loader to relocate materials. It's a lot of work, but it goes fast because I don't have to transport very far.



After using up most of my shoreline to make piles of dirt, I brought my other tractor and dump trailer to haul the dirt back up to the top of the hill.



I also took the opportunity to fill in one low spot so I'll have a larger turning/parking area above the lake level.



I found that I could just leave the gates open on the back of my dump trailer while hauling. I can fill the dump trailer to its maximum towable load and not have to fool with the doors while loading/dumping. This saves me getting on/off the tractor a couple of times per load and really makes thing run smoothly. as you can see in the photo below, the road goes uphill. If I get the trailer too heavy, my tractor will spin tires trying to pull the load uphill. The trailer will hold 7.5 yards, but I try to keep it around 4.5 to 5 yards per trip. That amount of wet soil is REALLY heavy.



Looking at the soil in the photo below, you can really see the soils difference. The soil on the left contains red clay while the silt I recovered in another spot is mostly sandy loam. The organics content is very high as evidenced by the odor.

 

[jinman]

When I get to the top of the hill, I'm putting the topsoil onto the fill dirt I dug out of my ponds. After the soil drys a little, I'll spread it all over this area and then seed in grass. The dump trailer attached to the tractor is just a dream to use to spread the materials for drying. It's working just as I expected when I first got the trailer.



I'm leaving one spot open where the water drains. I've sloped the filled area so water will not go over the edge, but moves to the center swale and then flows off over rip-rap and ends up in my first pond.





One of these days, we'll get some rain and I can go back to showing some ponds instead of just all the dry land around them. Until then, I'm just 'stuck on stupid' while waiting for rain.

 

[ben2go]

Between your thread and Eddie Walker's,I am learning a lot.

 

[RDrancher]

Thanks for the update Jim. Great photos!

 

[bindian]

Jim,
I know it's hard digging out in a muddy area with a BH. When moving dirt out with the loader, keep your butt higher than the nose of the tractor.............don't ask me how I know that! Have you thought about using mud matts to put the rear tires and outriggers on when digging? But you need a hydraulic thumb to make moving them easier. Don't remember if you have one.

I have been following an excavation company's operator's thread on using mud matts for his full size excavators and mini ex. They specialize in building and mucking out ponds. The mini ex uses treated or oak 2x8s bolted together with cross 2x8s. I gather you can buy them, but not sure if they have the smaller ones. I think they are called oil field matts also. Youtube has some neat videos by letsdig18 on getting excavators unstuck with mud matts.
hugs, Brandi

 

[ronjhall]

Now you have a good project for the trailer. You need someone to unload trailer while digging.

 

[20 20]

Looking Good Jinman I started another pond this year on our other land, it has been tough 3-4 foot of lose dirt and mud for the top layer. Had to drop trees to make a landing in order to drive out with the excavator.

I have been following an excavation company's operator's thread on using mud matts for his full size excavators and mini ex. They specialize in building and mucking out ponds. The mini ex uses treated or oak 2x8s bolted together with cross 2x8s. I gather you can buy them, but not sure if they have the smaller ones. I think they are called oil field matts also. Youtube has some neat videos by letsdig18 on getting excavators unstuck with mud matts.
hugs, Brandi

I built a set of matts for my baby mini they work great. The biggest issue with a smaller mini is center of gravity they can be tippy and if they're not squared and mostly level on the matt they like to slide around. A bigger machine is easier to operate as far as tipping, I've owned and operated a few over the years. I made my pads out of rough cut 4X4's and threaded rod. I've used them a lot and they seem to be holding up decent. They sure come in handy when in a muck filled pond or swamp.

 

[jinman]

Now you have a good project for the trailer. You need someone to unload trailer while digging.

Ron: I filled and hauled 18 trailer loads in 2-1/2 hours. That's not too bad. Since the dirt was piled up, loading and doing a turn-around went very fast. The time consuming thing was driving the tractor with the load. With only one trailer, I would have to wait between trips anyhow, so I might as well have been driving. With an excavator, I could dig and load the trailer by turning 180 degrees, but with the TLB, getting dirt to the trailer is a multi-step process.

I could pull in next to lowest range (low rabbit) for most of the road up the hill, but in a couple of places I had to shift down to low/turtle range. Using my GPS, I measured the change in elevation at 75' of rise over 1200 feet of run. That's a bit over a 6% grade on the average with some spots being a 10% grade and others a bit less than 6%. A smaller tractor would not have been able to pull the trailer. I got some wheel slip even on my gravel road.

Brandi and 20 20: I could use muck mats a few times with my TLB, but my problems always happen when using the loader bucket instead of using the backhoe, and often where I don't expect it to be slippery. Sometimes I dig into muddy muck, and it gets spread on top of the ground. When I get a full bucket load (almost 2 yards heaped) the weight of that wet soil is so much that mud on top of firm soil is like driving on banana peels. The whole machine slips and slides around. It doesn't happen often. I think I only had to dump one FEL load because I could not move. I can get to plenty of soil without any danger of sinking if I just use my head and think about what I'm doing. I've had a rental TLB stuck several years ago and the memory of how hard it was to get that machine out of the muck is still fresh in my mind. That memory and 4WD keeps me safe.

 

[bindian]

Brandi and 20 20: I could use muck mats a few times with my TLB, but my problems always happen when using the loader bucket instead of using the backhoe, and often where I don't expect it to be slippery. Sometimes I dig into muddy muck, and it gets spread on top of the ground. When I get a full bucket load (almost 2 yards heaped) the weight of that wet soil is so much that mud on top of firm soil is like driving on banana peels. The whole machine slips and slides around. It doesn't happen often. I think I only had to dump one FEL load because I could not move. I can get to plenty of soil without any danger of sinking if I just use my head and think about what I'm doing. I've had a rental TLB stuck several years ago and the memory of how hard it was to get that machine out of the muck is still fresh in my mind. That memory and 4WD keeps me safe.

Jim,
This is the exact reason I finished my last pond with a Bobcat T700.

I am going to talk to Bobcat, tomorrow, about an invitation I got in the mail for a free demo on an excavator. I will try it out on mucking out new silt in the pond. I think I would consider buying a Bobcat excavator, but not a Bobcat track loader, after renting the T700.
hugs, Brandi

 

[hunterridgefarm]

:thumbsup:Nice work Jim.

I could really use a TBL