Cleaning up the "Back 40"

[jwasbury]

I recently acquired a Kubota B2320 with a FEL and BH. In just a few weeks, this little machine has proven its usefulness around my 13.5 acre property in Bucks County, PA. One of my primary "excuses" for buying the tractor (and I don't need much of an excuse to buy tools) is that I want to clean up an abandoned pasture on my land, put in and maintain some trails, and improve the access to a pond that is tucked away on the back part of the old pasture. The ground water in my area is very high, and the old pasture is pretty wet. I've noted there are old trenches around the perimeter of the pasture area, along with a few swales across the center. These have not been maintained for probably 20 years or more. Speaking with my neighbor (who actually grew up in the house I own), He tells me there used to be a "good flow" through the property, and they kept horses in the pasture...this is dating back to the 1980s.

So, my mission is to clean up the old pasture which will require restoring the drainage trenches to get the land to dry out a bit. Eventually, I want to be able to hike over to our pond without putting on mud boots.

Here is the old entrance gate to the pasture area. There are two distinct trails which perhaps the prior owner had cut. I suspect that he had similar intentions to restore the area, but never got to it

This photo gives a sense of the existing trail. This one ends up at the pond. It gets very wet about halfway to the pond.

This is the place where it is most wet. The land it fairly flat, and with all the vegetation, it's difficult to assess subtle elevations in the land. This specific place has stayed pretty wet, despite the fact that it's been dry and hot over the last few weeks. When we had rain a few weeks back, I could see this is where much of the water naturally flows to, but it seems to lose some direction at this point and spreads out and pools here. I drove the tractor to this point and started spinning wheels. Back up and started a trench with the back hoe. This trench will bisect the pasture area. I can see where the water would flow to if this little stream bed weren't so silted up. I also found boards here as I dug with the backhoe. Prior owner probably put them there to drive some machinery across and they were left here, and then got covered with mud and grass...probably contributed to plugging up the works too.

The pond...also needs a bunch of work

The pasture is loaded with these dead scrub trees. It looks like they grew up ok, but then as the drainage trenches silted up, much of the pasture got too wet, and drowned these out. I'm cutting these down and skidding them out to a burn pile.

This is going to take a while, with me chipping away at it bit by bit, but I am enjoying the journey so far.

 

[GolfAddict]

Very nice write up!

Looks like a lot of work, but I'm sure it will all be worth it. I hope you'll keep posting your progress along the way. It would be fun to watch!

 

[jeff9366]

I can see you will utilize the Backhoe plenty.

 

[tractorshopper]

Cool stuff. Will be fun to watch this one.

 

[HarryN]

I'm doing exactly the same thing, except I don't have the backhoe yet!!
Look forward to seeing your pictures and progress. Keep up the good work....

 

[jwasbury]

Hey! Thanks everyone. I will update with progress and photos. I'm a big fan of these internet forums, and participate in a few that are related to other hobbies of mine. Its a great resource, and I hope to contribute some useful info, as well as entertainment. I also expect to learn some things from people who have "been there done that."

I am painfully aware that forums love photos - here's a few more

This shot taken from just across the drainage trench I started (shown in an earlier photo). This is in the direction of the pond. In the center of this photo, where the trail seems to "end" there are a couple of cedar trees. These are probably 10-15 feet from the edge of the pond.

The B2320 at work. Removed a bunch of the dead scrub trees from this area last weekend.

 

[HarryN]

For all the work you're going to be doing with the backhoe, I'll bet you'd love having a hydraulic thumb on it!

 

[dave1949]

You have a project there. Maybe enlarging the area of the pond would capture some of the drainage crossing the pasture. You could make an island in the middle to reduce the amount of material to excavate.

You may want to check your backhoe manual. They usually say to not pull heavy stuff chained to the bucket as it looks like you are doing in the pic. I have done it and I do think it is hard on the cylinders for some reason. Hard to say how heavy is too heavy.

 

[jhernan]

Great pictures. Thank you for posting them. It looks like a beautiful piece of land.

 

[wmonroe]

I have enjoyed this so far. Please keep updating as you progress.

 

[jwasbury]

YMaybe enlarging the area of the pond would capture some of the drainage crossing the pasture.

I have considered that the pond could be enlarged. Maybe some day.

You may want to check your backhoe manual. They usually say to not pull heavy stuff chained to the bucket as it looks like you are doing in the pic. I have done it and I do think it is hard on the cylinders for some reason. Hard to say how heavy is too heavy.

Thanks for the tip, though I'm not pulling anything with the hoe bucket. In that photo, I hadn't yet chained up the bundle of trees. I attached the chain around the hoe frame, but was carrying the excess length in the bucket.

Made some progress today. It's a good time to work because it's been pretty dry. The area I am working in is still pretty wet and soft, but it's about a dry as it gets.

Here's the accumulation of dead scrub trees I've skidded out. Much of this is from last week, but added to it today.

As I thought about my approach to this project earlier this week, I decided I needed to come up with a strategy. There's so much to do, it's easy to get side tracked clearing an area, or attacking the dead standing trees all over the place. I've got to focus on the primary issue which is drainage. If it gets too wet, I can't get the machine back here to work at all. So, I directed my efforts towards getting this drainage ditch hogged out...still required removing some dead wood.

Here you can see the scene as of last week. I had dug out a section, and this photo is facing the direction that the water flows.

After removing some more dead wood, I was able to continue digging the trench on the "downstream side"

And ultimately connect it to what I previously dug.

I need to do another length or two to connect this "downstream" side to an existing water shed. Then I have some more trenching to do on the "upstream" side and I expect I be getting some good flow when we get some rain.

 

[redman135]

Are the dead trees worth using for firewood?

 

[EddieWalker]

Looks like a lot of fun. When I started clearing my land, I was doing something very similar. Then I discovered the grapple and my life was changed forever. There is nothing like being able to pick up the debris and carry it to the burn pile without every getting off the seat!!!!!

Eddie

 

[BlacknTan]

Great thread!!

I'll be following it with great interest!

 

[boggen]

be careful on the to much clearing and cleaning stuff up at one time. if EPA comes along you might get into some fines.

soil erosion, it a concern, and suddenly having a bunch of dirt/soil being sent down stream via ditches/etc...

different states, different counties, etc... may have additional rules/regs.

some may just want a drawn up plan, of doing this or that, to reduce soil errosion, and perhaps a time table.

 

[Cacinok]

be careful on the to much clearing and cleaning stuff up at one time. if EPA comes along you might get into some fines.

soil erosion, it a concern, and suddenly having a bunch of dirt/soil being sent down stream via ditches/etc...

different states, different counties, etc... may have additional rules/regs.

some may just want a drawn up plan, of doing this or that, to reduce soil errosion, and perhaps a time table.

My understanding is that the drainage ditches run to his pond only, not into a creek.

Jwasbury, looks like a fun time and great property. Standing water is a great problem to have compared to the lack of water problem around this area.

 

[Cherokee140]

Shame when you are trying to clean your own property up and you have to worry about the EPA. What has the country become.

 

[jwasbury]

Re: EPA/enviro-police. 13.5 acres in Bucks Co. PA is not a place where you "can do whatever you want." If I were excavating out an Olympic sized pool over a couple days, no doubt I would get into trouble. That's not what is happening here.

I'm working slowly (no more than a few hours per week), and I have no plans to completely clear the area. It was a pasture before, and I'm not even looking to bring it back to that point. The water that does run across my land follows an obvious path, and has done so for decades. I do not intend to alter this path, but merely wish to remove accumulated detritus that is slowing or stopping the flow that should be happening. In the initial trenching, I found boards that were silted over...apparently a "bridge" for a prior owner to cross the watershed that I am trying to refurbish. Those boards are certainly not a natural occurrence, and they altered the water flow characteristics of this land. I've look at satellite imagery of my property, and you can see the area I am trenching was clearly an active watershed in say the last 10 years, before someone plugged it up.

So, while I appreciate and understand environmental concerns and those who are tasked with policing such matters, I'm not losing any sleep over this.

Back to the pics...

Here you can see one of existing perimeter trenches. These were dug ages ago and follow the back edge of my land along the stone "fences" that are really nothing more than piled up rocks from when this land was cleared for agriculture back in the late 1800's. The trenches are full of sticks, rotten leaves, etc. I cleaned up some sections with hand tools, but want to hog them out a bit with the hoe. When we have rain, these treches do carry much water and you can see in this photo how the ground is still moist there

Taken from same spot as above, but I rotated 90 degrees left. Water from the trench heads this way.

Same location again, but another 90 degrees rotation to the left. Now looking down the property edge...there's a trench here too, but needs serious restoration.

This shot is the same direction as the 2nd one is the series above, but I moved forward 10ft or so. Here you can see the path the water takes, and this ultimately flows into the trenches I've dug. After a lot of rain, this is basically a stream.

We've had a couple inches of rain this week, so I will see how all the work done this far is "working"

 

[Carl_NH]

This looks like a long term project - it will be great to follow as it progresses from scrub to reclaimed land.

As others suggested - get the thumb for the BH and I think for your property a tooth bar and a few hooks on your bucket would be very useful too. Then attachments - do you have a brush hog now or in the plans? A small one 48" would seem to be about right to start to clear the trails and between the trees too.

Nice project and thanks for sharing all the photos!

 

[jwasbury]

Time for an update. I haven't done a whole lot with the trenching project in the last few weeks, but the Kubota has been put to good use cleaning up around the property. There was an old snowmobile/utility trailer that was sinking into the earth and rusting away next to my shed. Hauled that out to my driveway and cut it up...so it could be hauled away by a scrap metal recycler. With that done, I could dive into a project that I've wanted to do since I bought this place. A section of the back yard had been fenced in many years ago and there was a small barn/shed in that area which at one time housed goats, chickens, etc. The barn/shed was falling down when I bought this place. Demolishing that thing was the very first project I did with the tractor the first day I got it (sorry, no pics). The fenced area was overgrown with thorny brush. Today I cleared pretty much all of out.

Before. The fence line followed the edge of the grass. I removed that section of fencing last fall. You can barely make out the corner post all overgrown with brush to the right of center:

a little further back

in process with help from Nigel the Rottie-Mutt

almost there

and done for today