Confused Newbie with Questions

[cgraham]

OK, here are some others:
Recession of the flood and miraculous reappearance of the bridge. The blocked bridge after I had winched a huge cottonwood off the front of it, the winch clearing more stuff (Ford Bronco, my present tractor Milemarker 10,500 lb hydraulic winch - great tool), Shots of the clean up and debris awaiting Kioti. Took a day to chain saw a way across the bridge. Another day and a half with the winch. I finally gave in and brought in a 26000 lb backhoe - it and me took a whole day to completely open up the bridge. Sorry no pic of the undercut bridge pilings - in next installment, hopefully with muddy Kioti.

Sorry, pics are not quite in order.
What do you think? I'm lucky to still have a bridge.

C

 

[roxynoodle]

Holy moly, you do have a job awaiting you! Once you have it all back in shape, is there anything you can do to help prevent some of the erosion from happening again? I'm not familiar with NM, but is there some sort of plant you could put in next to the road? Or is this just a nonstop natural occurance that you will have to live with? You made a good decision to buy a backhoe. I will be curious to hear how you like your LB1914. I have to admit that deal is a little tempting for a new tractor with loader for under $10k. I am happy with my Yanmar, but if this deal had happened sooner, I might have a Kioti instead. Never looked at them because the nearest dealer was a 2 hour drive.

 

[williekioti]

Yup, mothernature can be quite vengeful..... and yes you are VERY lucky to still have a bridge. Great pics! What kind of occurance was that flood, annual? Five year? Ten year? Amazing, your decking still looks intact and level. How often are you going to have to deal with that magnitude of flooding?

You've got your work cut out for you, but imagine the fun you'll have with your new "toy".

 

[cgraham]

"You've got your work cut out for you, but imagine the fun you'll have with your new "toy" "

Yes, plenty of dirt to play in, and you haven't seen the half of it. Good thing I got a 24" hoe bucket. Lots of dirt and rocks to move; then limbs to move to the woodpile - certainly enough firewood for the forseeable future.

I'm going to try to position some very large rocks on the upstream side to deflect flow from the bank (for moderate floods - the BIG ones won't notice them. Then backfill with rocks, wire mesh and cement. THAT might do some good

I have not seen such a flood since we bought the place in 1980 (when the bridge was built). The oldtimer who brought the 26000 backhoe didn't seem too surprised, though. I'd call it a 50 year flood, but maybe I'll be surprised next year! Lesser floods have been eating away at the dirt bank protecting the bridge founations for years. This flood REALLY got perilously close. I have seen 2 floods ove the bridge, but no problems, and not so high. One of them took out the concrete road bridge downstream by eroding it's underpinnings. So I had my concerns.

We have had an unprecedentedly wet summer, and all the soils were saturated already, so this storm directly over the watershed just ran off down the creek. Our average annual desert rainfall is 13". I think we had that much in the month preceding the storm, which itself dropped several inches.

I had some salt cedar (Tamarack) growing on either side of the bridge (I think fronds of it could be seen in one of the first pics, but the water just folded it over the bridge - I had to cut my way through it to get out. Salt cedar was originally introduced to control erosion, but ironically has become a pest species, driving out native plants. I don't think a flood of this magnitude would be affected by it, but it can hang debris. I might try to plant a little for the root system, but keep it cut back more than before.

I did have some decking ripped off the bridge - already fixed.

Hope you enjoyed the story - I appreciate the interest.

Then there is the 1/2 mi driveway to rebuild when I run out of bridge work!

C

 

[cgraham]

The LB1941 is finally here and has done some work!

There should be a cold one here for everyone who offered a helpful post on this and on a related thread on towing - thanks guys.

The tractor came from Artrac in Clarksville, AR, thanks to Chip Uren there who was completely helpful during the entire deal -RECOMMENDED!

C

 

[bearhawk]

Sweet !

Now for the .. ahh ... work, ya that's it. Work.

 

[williekioti]

Nice pic. I like the "cup" holder, but where's the ice? I think you may need little help with that load.

 

[ToadHill]

If you ever get to the road work, look for a york rake, it's the best thing I've found for road maint.