The gully to pond project

[pacerron]

I can start my TLB, but as soon as I move the shuttle to fwd or rev, a loud horn goes off. The only thing that will keep my TLB from starting is the shuttle out of neutral. I can start in any gear as long as the shuttle is neutral.

Nothin too fancy up here. Mine's just an ole stick shift with 12 synchronized gears forward and 12 reverse with a clutch. Kinda thrillin to yank the forward reverse lever/shuttle back and pop the clutch in 12th gear. Better hold on tight and have your mirror adjusted just right.

 

[ronjhall]

The photo below shows the two hoses that blew out. The first one circled in red shows an over-bend bubble at the fitting. This fitting should have been rotated forward. That's the way the other side is, and it has no bubble at all. I installed the new one correctly. The 2nd hose is the bottom one in the stress relief clamp. It just gave up from old age and fatigue since I regularly swing the backhoe boom to full left and right. It's going to be a challenge because I have to get big wrenches into tight spots.

EDIT:I have to tell a funny story on myself. Yesterday, I started the backhoe and noticed a red light on the panel did not go out. OH BOY! Just what I need. I didn't have my glasses on, but it looked like a low oil pressure light. . . now it's gettin' really bad! I got off the tractor and checked the oil. It was only down about 1/2 qt, but I refilled it anyway. I restarted the engine and the light was still there.:confused3: I was ready to just shut off the engine and walk back to the house when my hand bumped the parking brake handle and the light went off. Sheesh! I put on my glasses and could easily see that the light had a big "P" on it instead of the engine symbol. What a dope! . . . but a lucky dope.

My old boss would remind me that this problem would not exist if I had been wearing my prescription safety glasses.

 

[jinman]

I sure have a lotta-watta in my ponds. So far for this storm we have 1.5", and the ponds are looking good. I took a few photos from my 3rd floor balcony this morning. There's no way I am going down there to take close-up photos until it drys up some. I'd be slipping all over the place and the red clay sticks to your shoes like glue. Even so, I think I can tell that my new dam survived without the water going over. I'll be able to continue building it when the weather drys out for awhile.

The first picture below is the overall view from my balcony. You can easily see that the center of the dam needs to come up another foot. That's what I found out last week when I put a level line across the middle. It's still above overflow, so I'm not too worried. You can see that the water has risen behind the dam in the 2nd pond. I'll not be driving across the basin anymore. I'll have to find a new path. The 2nd photo shows a close-up of as much as can be seen from my balcony. The third photo shows the overflow from pond 1 to pond 2. I don't have the culvert pipe installed yet because I've been spending all my time hauling clay to the 2nd dam. The 1st pond is about 6" down from overflow. When I get my hoses replaced on my backhoe, I'll finish the culvert.

EDIT: Oh yes, remember those gullies I filled to make a road to haul clay? I didn't put any culverts in my road across the gullies, so I'd bet there's some repair work to do to my clay highway.

 

[beppington]

Jim - Are you concerned that once water starts flowing over the dam(s), they'll wash out & you'll have to retrieve the washed out soil? (or bring in new)

 

[jinman]

Water won't go over the almost finished dam because I have the trench for the culvert dug and it is lower than the dam (see photos). Also, the back of the dam is higher than the water side by at least a foot. I guess the trench could wash out if we really had a gully washer rainstorm, but we missed that with this storm. I should have the overflow culvert installed by this weekend.

On the 2nd dam in progress, yes I'm a bit worried about it overflowing and partially washing out, but that's a chance I'll have to take until I can get it completed and it's overflow culvert installed. I have not built the terraces to turn all the runoff into this pond yet. Only overflow from the first pond and a small runoff are feeding the 2nd pond. Even at that, the water depth is significant. I can't see me having any trouble with getting the ponds filled each spring with normal rainfall. I'm a bit worried that my 1st pond may need to be topped up during the hot summer months, but who can predict that with any certainty. In drought years, every pond is stressed.

I just looked out at my pond again to see if it is dry enough to go exploring. What did I see? TURTLES! At least four turtles have made the trek from my lake area all the way up to my new ponds. My wife saw one of them walking through the grass on the way to the pond. They have to go 700 ft uphill to get here. How do turtles know where there's water?:confused3: They didn't mess around at all. They just walked straight to the water. Amazing!!!

 

[beppington]

I just looked out at my pond again to see if it is dry enough to go exploring. What did I see? TURTLES! At least four turtles have made the trek from my lake area all the way up to my new ponds. My wife saw one of them walking through the grass on the way to the pond. They have to go 700 ft uphill to get here. How do turtles know where there's water?:confused3: They didn't mess around at all. They just walked straight to the water. Amazing!!!

Wow, that is amazing! They must have built-in humidisensors! Or pond-ometers!

 

[txdon]

Jim we got 3.6" last night and there are washed out and flooded roads everywhere. My 6" overflow is in use for the first time in 4 years. The water is still about 4" from going over the spillway as seen in the second picture.

 

[jinman]

Don, that is so "Texas" to have drought one year and more water than you know what to do with the next. Gotta love it! I'm glad your pond overflow works as planned.

The advantage I have for my ponds is one overflows to the next, then the next, and so on until it ends up in the lake. Currently all the runoff from my property goes through the ponds where we had our picnic, but soon it will fill three ponds before getting there.:thumbsup:

BTW: I just checked and the gully road did not wash out. I had one gully top the road, but washout was only minor. A little repair and I'll be back in the clay haulin' b'ness.

 

[pacerron]

Jim we got 3.6" last night and there are washed out and flooded roads everywhere. My 6" overflow is in use for the first time in 4 years. The water is still about 4" from going over the spillway as seen in the second picture.

If you just had a big "ball valve" on the "T" below where the water is coming out, you probably would never have to worry about water getting as high as your spillway and have infinite depth control between the "T's"
Is the small pipe for connecting an aeration pump?
I was thinking that during the summer when there is no danger of an overflow you might cap the big pipe on the top and pump air back into your pond bottom that way.
Ron

 

[pacerron]

I just looked out at my pond again to see if it is dry enough to go exploring. What did I see? TURTLES! At least four turtles have made the trek from my lake area all the way up to my new ponds. My wife saw one of them walking through the grass on the way to the pond. They have to go 700 ft uphill to get here. How do turtles know where there's water?:confused3: They didn't mess around at all. They just walked straight to the water. Amazing!!!

They are probably just surveying your new dam for their new nesting site.
Is turtle soup on the menu at the Inman house?