thanks ashwood, good info.
well, I just settled on my new home in Washington NC, and in the twelve acres of woods I tromped through behind the house, I found not only the one expected pond/mini swamp but also two more smaller ones. Plus I now realize I have a big ditch to maintain that runs right behind the barn all the way across the property.
Never done a ditch before in my life but I guess I'm going to learn. And I sure don't want the local variety ditcher headed through it; would all land on the barn...or go through it.
Plus there's a little bridge over the ditch, wood, can't be more than two feet of clearance under it, if that. Actually before I take the tractor over it, I'm laying 1x12's down on it; muck underneath so can't support from the bottom.
so here you see it's all gotten more complicated, and there will surely be lots of scooping going on.
I'm thinking renting and not scratch up my own Kubota on the ditch.
And there's a huge Cat rental place very close by. Little mini excavator for a week would be a real grin. Unless i got it stuck...
The Kubota could likely pull it out and I have plenty of chains and the like. Whole area is utterly overgrown with second growth trees, vines,
a jungle in places, no kidding. Those vines ripped me up and welcomed me to my own property with my own blood. Those vines are like green saw chain. Nasty.
Think I'll stay in a cab...
going to be quite an adventure for me.
Ditches are big, it's all new to me. I'm even in a designated "ditch district", quite the built in infrastructure to move the water away from the fields.
But then where does it go??? Perhaps into my pond...
I'm going to clear the woods out all around the pond, just to let some light in and let the geese see it. And maybe to see where the water is moving through the property. Clearing trees is something I have experience with, ditches,
well no. I'm going to search ditches and see if I can find Ditch 101 on TBN.
actually, before I do anything, I'll take some pics, post them here and get some real dimensions of the ditch. Seems three feet deep by at least six feet wide...that would flow a lot of water, but if the place it's flowing to is flooded and/or headed your way. that's why a man needs a boat.
I'll have my sixteen footer tied to the rear porch.
and it all starts with what your hand grips and whether those buttons are ergonomic. I'm sure on a Cat they are.
