Alien Invasion - I want my pond back !

[Eric Salop]

Thanks for all the suggestions on keeping on top of the Alien in the future. I will follow some of these up as soon as I have the bulk of the stuff out of the pond.

 

[Eric Salop]

Alien on Tow

For a week or two I have been thinking of how to get a good grip on the Crassula to tow it away from the far bank and out of the deep water. When I tried using a grapple hook, it tore through the plant before it would move. Too much force concentrated in one small spot.

That got me thinking, the plant itself is very tough (I can stand on the surface without falling through), so if I could spread the force over a large enough area, I could use that to my advantage. So this was the plan ...

First take an 8' log to the far side of the pond and poke it underneath the Crassula. Easier said than done, but I managed to get it under eventually. Then use a pointed post to punch a hole through the weed and pass a length of rope around. Repeat again so that both ends of the timber have rope wrapped around.

Next, rope back to tractor and steadily pull.

Hydrostatic drive certainly makes pulling a lot more controlled, however after what I thought was some initial movement, things came to a standstill, with me not daring to pull any harder for fear of my weak link breaking. I stood on the brakes, keeping tension for another minute or so before the rope sagged again, then I eased forward an inch or two at a time, before climbing out to have a better look.

It was working !

It was a great feeling to see clear water open up again under the oak tree. Now all I have to do is work out the best way to get it all out of the water.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Alien on Tow

It was a great feeling to see clear water open up again under the oak tree. Now all I have to do is work out the best way to get it all out of the water.

Any way you could roll it up like a rug?

 

[Wagtail]

HUZZAH!!!!

 

[wngsprd]

Great news! It's like Continental Drift on a small scale.

 

[rd_macgregor]

In the western US, they clear brush from rangelands by dragging a very heavy chain between two bulldozers. I wonder if a long loop of cable around the weeds and anchored between two tractors (or anchored at one end and pulled by a tractor at the other) would work to clear the pond all in one go...or many the mass is too great for the pulling capacity/traction of a tractor??

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

You just need to figure out how to take smaller bites. Or is it bytes over there?

 

[jclaudii]

Looking good! Perhaps you can get some cable or chain at a scrap yard or power company.

 

[Redneck in training]

Would the plant exhaust all the nutrients it needs at some point and starve itself to death? When you remove crasula from the pond make sure that the dead plants or mineralized remnants don't get recycled back there.

 

[gharms]

Nice looking Iseki. Looks almost exactly like my MF 1648. Of course, my MF was built by Iseki!! Wow, quite some progress on fighting the alien!!!!