I have been waiting patiently for a window with no rain, me off, and the pond drained. So for the last couple of years, the pond was mostly drained all the time. The Honda pump has over 1500 hours and is purring right along, via the 5 gallon walk behind mower gas tank. It runs for about 24 hours on a tank full.
I had concerns about taking out the island. Really about getting over to it. To do this, I made a ram down the old dam out to where I could dig out the silt on the dam side of the island.
I then backfilled with clay from the dam to make a causeway to the island. I used 3 inch thick RED Oak mud mats I cut on my Woodmizer.
You can see the mud mats behind the CAT in this photo...........
These were the 2nd version of mats, the first being 2 inches think and not cut for the mud mat use.
After lots of practice moving the mats with the thumb, I got comfortable on the island and dug, dug, dug. Without the mats, digging on the island was like sitting on jello. Each bucket and/or boom movement caused movement under tracks. Unnerving, sitting on 15,000 pounds really to topple over.
All told, I have right at 37 hours on the CAT taking out the island. Most of the dirt was moved 3 times, and the silt was moved 4 times. If I would have had a tracked dumper (outbid last week at RBAuction in HOU) it would have been dirt handling only once. I would dig, pile it up on the ramp/causeway, then travel up on the dam and dig that pile up and put it on the dam, where the Mahindra's wheels wouldn't bog down. The ramp, causeway, and island had my feet, while walking on them, bogging down, but the CAT kept going as long as I was on muds mats when moving spoils.
Scary..............moving dirt can get monotonous, especially in the late afternoon with a clear, sunny sky. I have the 48 inch cleanout bucket on the CAT. I always dig with the windshield up. I bought the stick in too close with the bucket not fully curled and heaped up with soggy clay. I was awakened to dirt hit my hands, feet, and fan. I realized I was moving in a one track turn towards the water drop off of 4 feet. I stomped on the pedal only to have it finally stop after all the clay had fell on the pedal and moved it enough, while other clay fell under the upended end of the pedal. I traveled back up onto the dam and shut down. So much clay was inside with me and the controls, I had clay balls inside my fan's wire cage. Sorry no pictures.
Anyway, here is how it looks today......
hugs, Brandi
Now when the ducks don't like one pond, they can fly over my driveway to the other one.:duck:
