Instant Pond

[bindian]

...........and here is what I rented to help the Big RED Beast muck the pond. A Bobcat E42 mini excavator with a 30 inch ditching bucket. I wanted a larger ex, but this is the biggest Bobcat of Houston (Conroe branch) rents anymore. I gotta buy a 15,000-16,000 pound excavator for Big RED Beast Excavators!
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

So I dug out a deep channel around the island and dug both ends down to between 10-11 feet, where I hit water. I then cleaned up the slopes ASAP. I almost finished resloping the dam's water side this afternoon, when a severe thunderstorm chased me inside. I took the Mahindra way down the slope numerous times to get all the loose dirt. Wonder how much brake pads or shoes are left?
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

My last day off was Tuesday the 3rd. I wanted to get everything finish graded and rye grass seed out and harrowed under. As it turned out, we had thunder bumpers to the East, then North, the West of us, so I decided we needed to get our homemade silt fence up and all the rip rap, that we could spare from the small pond, in place. Now I need to high tail it to Weldingisfun's goat ranch, in the Hill Country, and get more white rock.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Sooooooooo, I had the usual suspects in this endeavor.........Luke and Booger. Luke did manage to get a closeup of me also. Luke is scary with a camera. He starts taking photos as he walks out the back door and is taking photos as he is walking (Yes, they are blurry) and takes about 80-90 photos when I just want a handful. I'm lucky it is digital and doesn't use film!
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Last night I bolted the cutting edge (from a KK Box Blade that I bought new a few years ago) to 1/4 inch steel plate 6 foot long. I have a "glove" like bracket for it to mount to my BH bucket's teeth, but I have been waiting on welding it to have the 10 inch wide steel plate bend to 35 degrees to match up with the upper cutting edge. My local welding shop fixed their press brake and can (now) bend 1/4 inch plate, but not 6 foot long, so I made the "moldboard" back mount out of two, 3 foot long pieces.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

I clamped the Grader Blade on for now between the deployed thumb and the bucket teeth. I had to keep bucket curl pressure on while grading, but it worked well. When it gets all welded, I'll have a clevis or chain hook welded on back of the bucket to keep the grader blade secured on the teeth.

After a few minutes of spasming with the angles of the dam, I got it working right and really fine finish graded and knocked off the square shoulder of the dam's crown. I then finished the backside of the dam and started packing down with tire tracks. You would think this takes a while with just the width of the tires doing the packing, but with two front tires, you can pack 6 feet in width, then move over another 6 foot because of the other side's tires.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Here is the (almost) finished pond.........for today.
hugs, Brandi

 

[rustyshakelford]

Looks good. I'm renting a 31k lb hoe right now from tex star rental in magnolia. They are great and you can move a bunch of dirt. I'm finally getting around to my pad. It's been a long time coming. You'll have to come out sometime soon to check out the change! I'm working on a little pond myself. Will probably be bending your ear for some advice before to long.

Brett

 

[tony Cecil]

Have you ever figured out a water source? I too have been working on my embankment this past summer.....Yours is looking fine, but I have at least another years worth of work....Like you, I enjoy it....Tony

 

[bindian]

I got chased off the tractor a little after two this afternoon by a thunderstorm..........that was unforecast! Over an hour later and over 3 inches in the rain gage. Right now it is about 6 inches and holding from overflow.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Have you ever figured out a water source? I too have been working on my embankment this past summer.....Yours is looking fine, but I have at least another years worth of work....Like you, I enjoy it....Tony

Tony, I just have rain and surface runoff feeding the pond.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Brett,
How much is that Excavator costing you, if you don't mind me asking?
hugs, Brandi

 

[EddieWalker]

You sure have the best luck and timing with filling your ponds!!!!!

Eddie

 

[dave1949]

You sure have the best luck and timing with filling your ponds!!!!!

Eddie

That's what I was thinking too. IIRC when Brandi originally dug the pond, it filled that night with a big rain.

Looks nice Brandi.

 

[farmgirl19]

Looks really good, bindian! I'm sure Booger's "supervision" was most welcome too!

 

[jinman]

Dear Brandi, please come dig out my pond so I can get some rain. Your friend, Jim.

How lucky can you get? I've been waiting on rains for over a year and can't get a good downpour. We've only had one 3-inch rain in a whole year.

 

[bindian]

Thanks Y'all. Last year when I built the pond, I was about 90 percent finished when an afternoon downpour dumped 2.5 inches in it. The ground was wetter then than last week. It took a lot of silt in the bottom then. As of yesterday, I still needed to put a bulkhead in to the right of my Mahindra in this photo. That half of the dam over to the overflow pipe still needed some cleanup grading and packing. The area where my tractor is sitting had not been packed, except where I kept running back and forth moving dirt. So that area of the dam had over 3 inches of unpacked dirt.

So I still need to finish fine grading in that area, round the dam crown to the left of the tractor where a little pile of dirt is.


I have some 6-8 inch cedar posts and treated 2x12s for the bulkhead for the tree near the dam. Just need time to install them. I also need to move drainage for runoff water from behind the dam to the other side of the tree just to the right of the Big RED Beast in the photo. Right now the water drains between the dam and tree.........but with widening the dam a little, it needs a bulkhead and a new slope to runoff over. This photo below shows the tree and where I want to put the bulkhead. I move drainage from the right of the tree in this photo to the left side of the tree. Which is a lot more dirt digging.
hugs, Brandi

 

[MotorSeven]

Excellent idea to grade with your BH bucket.....:thumbsup:

 

[bindian]

Dear Brandi, please come dig out my pond so I can get some rain. Your friend, Jim.

How lucky can you get? I've been waiting on rains for over a year and can't get a good downpour. We've only had one 3-inch rain in a whole year.

I'll give you a quote after I dig out FG's pond. But I think her's will need a dozer.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Excellent idea to grade with your BH bucket.....:thumbsup:

Thanks Rick. I've had the idea for years and have kept putting it off. I liked how you can reclamp the thumb on an extreme angle. So the mounting chain to the back of the bucket will have slack built into it so the blade will settle on the prevailing angle......and grade that angle..........I hope.
It's all apart now. Tomorrow morning it all goes to the welding shop. The beauty of the mount design is it should fit any 24 inch or narrower bucket, as long as you secure the chain. So it could also fit an excavator.
hugs, Brandi