Opening up a spring with a track-hoe

[txdon]

After a few days of box blading I have a back hole access. I set a 12' concrete curbing for the BH outriggers. As you can tell the water is constantly rising and I have about 2 weeks to finish this project.

The muck is still wet after a week and final grading is still on hold.

Time to take the box blade off and put on the BH to set the culverts on edge.

Temp - 104
Maybe tomorrow morning.......

 

[Mousefield]

Just think, all that work so the dog in the middle picture can go for a swim. :laughing:
Nice pics and thanks for the update.

 

[txdon]

The dog is in the first picture also, but the water is deeper in the middle so he has to actually swim. All the cows were drinking out of it yesterday, so it now has officially two uses.

 

[pacerron]

The dog is in the first picture also, but the water is deeper in the middle so he has to actually swim. All the cows were drinking out of it yesterday, so it now has officially two uses.

Don,
It looks like you should have plenty of time to do your backhoe work unless something goes haywire. You were asking about a pump the other day. I can't tell from your pictures if the area that has trees next to the pond has any dips or holes close by that are lower than your water level. If so you might be able to rig a siphon real cheap to keep the water level down so you can finish.
Here is a link to a number of videos. I only looked at the first one, as I imagine the others are similar, but that is how I would lower or drain my pond if need be. Siphon to drain the pond - YouTube
Looks like your doing great so far; have you got stuck yet? If you or a neighbor have another tractor and some chain it might be a good precaution to run a chain from your FEL bucket to another tractor before you dig too deep with the hoe in case of a cave in or slippage. Your stabilizer feet could slip off the concrete, bury it, or roll it if you get into some hard pan on the way down to 6-7 feet.
Good luck and keep posting the photos. Your dog is like ours; a great supervisor but not much of a worker!
Ron

 

[beppington]

That is really cool Don! Hope I can do something like that one day.

 

[bindian]

The dog is in the first picture also, but the water is deeper in the middle so he has to actually swim. All the cows were drinking out of it yesterday, so it now has officially two uses.

Don,
I keep hearing about "the dog". What is his name?
Keep sending photos.:thumbsup: I am getting excited to see you digging.:licking:
hugs, Brandi

 

[Boeing]

I was interested in this post as I have a spring fed stream at the top of a nearby ridge. I seperates two ridges and has made a nice creek bed. The stream is fairly strong year round for about 100 yards. Then is slows, narrows, and literally disappears. The stream bed goes down the entire property, full of round rocks worn from running water but the water is now UNDERGROUND; somewhere
Any suggestions about HOW to coax this stream to stay on top of the ground and continue it's old path? It's a beautiful stream up top, about 8' wide, 12" deep and gurgleing over bolders making small water falls etc.
If I could get it to stay above ground I might try a "Brandi" pond :laughing:

 

[txdon]

The dog is a stray that wondered on our place last year and has not left. The DNA test show she is part:
Cocker Spaniel
German Shorthaired Pointer
Greyhound
Poodle
Bichon Frise
Great Dane
She like to bark at snakes and has an awesome coyote howl, (bilingual).
We thought she was a Whippet and name her Whipper (Whip for short).

There is no place lower than the spring pond. I think I will have enough time now that I have watched the water's slow rise for a week.

Stuck??? How do you define stuck? If I can push myself out with the FEL I don't think of it as being stuck.....So I haven't gotten stuck yet. I will try to find an anchor to chain the tractor to in case there is a major cave in. Thanks for the suggestion! The soil under the curbing is saturated. I picked that side of the culvert because it was the lowest and had the least amount of cave ins from springs.


The curbing was a mistake I made on the paver driveway. I angled it too much and the circle was too tight so I had to cut out 12' and re-pour it. I'm glad I found a use for it. I'll start a thread on the circular paver driveway when it gets cooler.

Boeing, your stream sound really nice, but I would not know how to keep it from percolating back into the ground. ??

 

[bindian]

I was interested in this post as I have a spring fed stream at the top of a nearby ridge. I seperates two ridges and has made a nice creek bed. The stream is fairly strong year round for about 100 yards. Then is slows, narrows, and literally disappears. The stream bed goes down the entire property, full of round rocks worn from running water but the water is now UNDERGROUND; somewhere
Any suggestions about HOW to coax this stream to stay on top of the ground and continue it's old path? It's a beautiful stream up top, about 8' wide, 12" deep and gurgleing over bolders making small water falls etc.
If I could get it to stay above ground I might try a "Brandi" pond :laughing:

Boeing,
Check out this link. It shows you how to get water from the ground.

hugs, Brandi

 

[jinman]

Don, that project is really coming out nicely. What you said about silt drying reminded me of what the fellow who cleaned out my pond said to me about my huge silt pile. He said that in two or three years it might actually dry out. He was right, it took about two years, but my pile is over 10' high. Your's will dry much quicker, but it shows you just how long clay can hold water.