Cleaning a Muck Filled Pond Before its Dry

charlz · Apr 28, 2012

I would be interested to see some pics of the process.

scesnick · Apr 28, 2012

I will get wifey to take some pics.

radioman · Apr 28, 2012

from your first post- I was gonna say, stay on bank/dry ground no matter what unless you are experienced getting yourself out of when stuck. I was also going to post how deep you need to dig out and what is underneath the muck then oringinal pond. is it just a clay liner over sand or all clay severl feet deep or more? I am just concerned on making it too deep removing all the clay out.

Now from your lateer post about pond 6 feet deep, sounds much more comfortable on reaching bottom of muck. How deep is this muck anyway?

scesnick · Apr 28, 2012

radioman said:
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Now from your lateer post about pond 6 feet deep, sounds much more comfortable on reaching bottom of muck. How deep is this muck anyway?

Well, i believe it varies but where I started it was oly bout 2 ft deep and then it had a nice solid clay base. i think it will get deeper the closer i get to the small stream that runs into the pond though.

cant stay on the bank and dig much at all. The excavator doesn't reach out there all that far.
I will post some pics when i get started.

rekees4300 · Apr 28, 2012

scesnick said:
If anyone else has any advice I'm all ears....

Never underestimate the power of muck! That stuff can take a couple years to dry out and that's after it has been removed from the pond. I wouldn't get anywhere near the muck with the tractor as it will be useless. I'd just keep the excavator on terra firma at waters edge. Remove whatever you can reach with the arm then call it a day.

scesnick · Apr 28, 2012

rekees4300 said:
I'd just keep the excavator on terra firma at waters edge. Remove whatever you can reach with the arm then call it a day.

That wouldn't amount to a whole lot. the pond s fairly big and the excavtor isn't. Her eis a goggle pic of the pond.

Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland - Google Maps

Pete Judd · Apr 28, 2012

Please take pic's and vid's of your progress. Nothing better than watching other people have to get stuff unstuck. I have unstuck enough things in my life, that it is now time to watch other people have to do it.

Garybake · Apr 29, 2012

scesnick said:
That wouldn't amount to a whole lot. the pond s fairly big and the excavtor isn't. Her eis a goggle pic of the pond.

That looks more like a small lake than a pond compared to the houses. Think you will be waiting awfully long for it to dry up some ecspecially with a stream feeding it. Good Luck Scesnick. Take pics!

Pete Judd said:
Please take pic's and vid's of your progress. Nothing better than watching other people have to get stuff unstuck. I have unstuck enough things in my life, that it is now time to watch other people have to do it.

Ahh a fellow sadist!

I too enjoy watching! Ecspecially the wrecker drivers in the MI winter snow drifts chaining stranded cars to pull free. God knows how many times I had snow down my back scrambling under others cars to help stranded motorist unstuck only to get a "Thanks Buddy" when returning to my warm vehicle wet and cold with my cold chains freezing to my wet fingers. Memmories!

Taylortractornut · Apr 29, 2012

I m the the go to guy at work on how to unstuck equipment lol. You name It Ive Had it down I can get a D5 and D6 out of a hole with a log and a cheap chain lol. Be careful as It can be deciving. First Id go around the pond scraping down to good ground. Let that dry for a few days or a week then start back where you started out at and sit on the good dry solid ground. Then start going around it again. Remeber when digging on a slope keep the tracks facing down hill where you can back straight out. If its on a slop cross tracking as you ad vance you could walk out of a track and in a pond situation thats a double suck.

Just go back at the end of the day and remove your muck piles off the dry ground out to the bank for tractor removal. ANother tip to being safe at this is keeping a few logs with you. Get 3 10 or 12 inch loads a few feew wider than you machine and out them ahead of you or near the edge of where you are working to add floation. Ive seen dad go across a bigt swamp here in 94 after the Ice storm took out the power lines across a swamp. He was in a 790 Deere. Ive used this method alot on a 300 Komatsu and 320 Cat.

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scesnick · May 2, 2012

OK, I got the pond all drained and and got the tractor down in it and right away noticed that it wasn't all that full of muck. it was just made shollow I guess. So, i got the excavator that my friend was gracious enough to rent to me for next to nothing and dug down into the bottom.
It looks to me that it is noting but clay. I only dug down about three feet and I still hit nothing but clay. I don't want to go any further down than that. That will make it 10-12 ft deep when full.

Well, I quickly found out that there is no less than three springs running into the pond. It fills up rather quickly. as in one day. The pond was dry about 20 hours before these pics were taken.
I also found out that my Kubota MX5100 will take somewhere around 3 months to dig this pond to the depth I want. so, my buddy who I got the excavator off is also lending me for a minimal fee a HUGE Pay loader a Cat 980 I don't have pics of it yet. It is sitting at the bottom of my road right now about 2 miles away..I do know I am gonna have to buy that guy a beer !

Here are some pics.
First one and last one from my porch, other self explanitory.