How to Mow or Walk on Mud?

[glennmac]

I must mow the Oozama Ver Boten. I need help figuring out how.

The Oozama is low area of icky, oozy, wetty, vegetative muddiness that extends like a band, laterally, completely across my property. Imagine that my property is a football field. I have a creek that crosses it at the 25 yard line. From the 25 to 35 yard line the ground is soft but mowable and slightly down sloping. The Oozama is a band-like depression or swale that covers the area between the 35 and 50 yard lines. After the 50 yard line my land slopes upward with nice firm soil into wooded hills. But I literally can't get to the back half of my land without crossing the Oozama.

What grows in the Oozama are very invasive 12' phragmites (reeds) in the less wet areas (the 35-40 and 45-50 yard lines) and cattails in the wetter, middle area (the 40 to 45 yard lines). I have gotten my tractor stuck 7 times trying to mow in these areas. I succeeded in mowing all the phragmites and cattails this winter--and now desparately want to keep mowing them so they will die. When they grow, they are so tall I can't even see the back half of my land, which I have spent so much time and money brush and trail cutting. But I can't risk my 2910 anymore.

So maybe I will walk in with a weed whacker. But my legs sink in the muck, too. In fact, there is clealy more pressure per square inch from my feet than from the rear tires of my tractor.

Hence the challenge. There must be something I can put on my feet. Snow shoes? Boards? Skis? Some kind of special shoe?

Alternatively, do you think it would work to put a giant piece of plywood on the muck and then drive the tractor on it with my cutter protruding from the back.

The long term solution is drainage but that is complicated. The mid term solution is higher flotation tires on my 2910. I have found some, but can't figure out wheels and spacers.

Has anyone here walked on mud, if not on water?

 

[tc35dforme]

glennmac,

Your best bet is to learn to deal with at least a portion of the muck field. If the wet is from a ground source ( like it sounds ) you won't win !! You can attempt to contain and control it but it will stay wet. Containment might require digging a trench and placing a drain pipe ( perforated ) to allow the water to easily leave the area.

You may find it better to fill a portion ( environmental issues ?? ). Best option here is to make freinds with a contractor who has access to a quantity of free stone like from a blasting project. Now you can systemattically place a layer of fill let it settle, and refill, and settle, and refill until it stabilizes. You need to be sure the water does have a route out and you'll need to be patient. After the stone has stabilized, a good healthy layer of overdressing with 3-4 feet of clay dirt will cap it and then loam and seed if you want.

Just remember that wetlands are usually sacred and also a a great attraction for wildlife.

Maybe fill for a road and enjoy the rest.

 

[SimS]

Glenn;
I saw this the other day when trying to figure out my mud problem. Check it out. http://www.lime.org/mud.pdf[url] Sim

 

[Knight9]

Glenn,

If you are willing to work by hand, but just don't want to sink in the mud while you walk, try the . You can also go to <A target="_blank" HREF=https://secure.forestry-suppliers.com/securecat.htm>Forestry Suppliers. Just search for "mud". /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

And hey, if money is no object and you want to use your tractor then check out <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mattracks.com/html/track-tor-assist.htm>Tractor Assist</A> /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Good luck,
Kevin

 

[Egon]

Glen:
Remember some time back when the fellow posted a picture of old tires fastend together that he used for crossing a soft wet area? Perhaps something like that would work. The piece of plywood is the same concept that equipment like hoes use to cross over and dig trenches in soft areas only they are built much heavier and usually called swamp pads.
There are also some small crawler tractors out that have very wide pads for working in just such areas.
when it all comes back to getting it done pick a warm day, wear old sneakers and shorts and get busy with the weedwacker. Have some cold Heinekens awaiting in the fridge for when the job is completed.

Egon

 

[njrqs]

Glen

Gee the Oozama is giving you grief hey?

How long has it been like that??

How about getting a chopper to fly upside down across the Oozama /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Napalm ?? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Cheers

 

[hayden]

Glenn,

If the short term goal is to get the growth under control, would it be possible to cover the area with tarps, landscaping fabric, or road fabric? This would block out the light and kill off what's under it. If you catch it before the spring growth takes off, it might work. But the area might be too big for this to be practical - I don't know.

Longer term, drainage is the only thing that will solve the problem. Is the area a bowl with no natural run-off path, or is there a path fro the water to follow, but it's just not running enough? I know this is a longer term problem, but this spring I'm enjoying the results of a sub-ground set of drains I put in last year in my yard. The area used to be unusable until around July 4th, and mowing would leave mud tracks through the grass. The problem is completely gone now!!! I can't recommend it enough, but there has to be a path to lower ground to run the pipe for it to work.

I'd proceed carefully with the high-float tires unless you have some solid way to predict whether they will really work. It would be a shame to buy them only to place the 8th call to the towing company.

Good luck.

 

[glennmac]

Hey, thanks.

Kevin gets the short-term practicality award for those boot things. I just knew that others in the human race want to walk on mud. Neil gets the creativity award.

The wetness in my opinion is caused by inadeqate drainage of surface water that runs down the hills at the far end of my land. There is a creek channel that comes down from the hills that naturally should be a tributary of the primary creek that crosses my property at the 25 yard line. In fact, I can see this is so on 1990 satellite photos on that landsat site. I believe this tributary creek got all silted up from construction way up on the hill beyond my property.

The water comes down the hill and then spreads out laterally in both directions, at the point where the "tributary" bed disappears, causing the Oozama. The area is too large to cover with fabric. I dont really want to use chemicals. Nor do I want just a roadbed made from tires or gravel or whatever. I do have a sort of road and ramp path to get to the other side of the Oozama, although that sometimes can be dicey, too.

I believe the problem can be essentially solved by a combination of digging a new channel to the main creek from the silted-up tributary; and/or putting drain pipes under the ground to run into the main creek.

There are two problems with the long range solution. One is cost and the right machinery. I would need a backhoe. Second is the legal wetlands morass. It is probably technically a wetland, but believe me there aint no interesting wildlife in the Oozama above the insect level. Deer and fox and lots of birds (and, most importantly, the human beings called me and my family) come in there when I can keep it mowed. Nevertheless, I would have to spend lots of time and money here in the Constitution State to dig things up, probably.

By the way, re my submarining records, I only had to call the tow trucks four times. I got out three times myself--with various assists from my son, my Honda, and sundry boards, car jacks, car ramps, chains and ropes. I hate it.

 

[snowman]

Glennmac;

It sounds like you have the same type of problem I have - my front 3 acres is kind of at the bottom of a few hundred acres of field runoff; only really dries up towards the end of summer.

Mine isn't as bad as yours though. My biggest problem is that heavy rains would cause so much water going through all of this that it would wash out my driveway.

I used my FEL last week to dig a channel to funnel the water where I wanted it to go. I was surprised how easy the FEL dug in (no toothbar). I only dug it about a foot deep and built up a little berm along one side to help guide the water. I mention this because you may not need a backhoe (I had thought about doing this for along time and had thought that I would need a backhoe too).

My point is that, if your problem is mainly just runoff, digging a small channel with your FEL at the entry point may help alot.

 

[BB_TX]

Sounds like it may be a good place to dig a pond at the upper end. You could use the dirt to fill and level the lower end and form a channel to funnel off the water. You get a nice pond, level ground you can mow, and a nice view of a pond and your woods.