Bruce's Journal

[Latestarter]

Looks like you're making some real progress there! I hope you get some serious fall rain and winter snow for melt to fill it this coming spring. Looks like if the drought will hold for you for just a bit more, you'll have a pretty \deep pond once again when it fills. Might even be able to put some real fish in there like cats or small mouth bass or both.

 

[Mini Horses]

I am happy you are finding out how great a loaded tractor can be. Plus, "new" got the needed repairs quickly with no more expense -- this could have been used and your $$. I truly weighed the cost of new and used but because this equipment is often not well managed, the possible cost to me just made it a no-brainer. Besides, most do not come with backhoe as used. That was the case with one exceptional unit I checked into -- none to fit it.

Well keep those projects moving along! Looks great.

 

[greybeard]

That pile of sediment/muck should be some very rich soil for gardening once the water dries out of it some. It may smell pretty 'ripe' for awhile tho.

 

[Bruce]

Definitely smells a bit ripe now. Not sure how good it would be in the garden with all that clay in it though.

 

[CntryBoy777]

That is all we have in the garden here...clay....we are always adding compost and manure to it....fish emulsion is a high quality fertilizer....

 

[Latestarter]

The best loam is a combination of clay, sand, and silt... I'd have to agree that it would make for some very rich planting soil, even if you did have to add some other soil to get the mix right.

 

[RollingAcres]

 

[Bruce]

The pond seems to be lots of clay and silt. I'd have to go get a ton of sand. OK, I'd have to have it delivered, I can't carry a ton of sand in my Prius

Progress after yesterday


The left side started to calve and brought some water down from the "upper pond". With some tadpoles. DW and DD1 were screaming for me to stop. Said there were tadpoles going down. So I pushed some "stuff" to stem the flow. Put me in the doghouse since apparently I was driving over the tadpoles. DW made a small dam on the left side of the now "lower pond" and we rescued some tadpoles that were flopping on the mud. We added some water to make it a bit deeper. Didn't see any fish flowing, but then I've not seen any fish dead or alive since I made the "upper pond". Notice in the pictures above how far the calved area on the left is from the "upper pond"

After today. I'm working on making a channel from the lower pond to the upper so it will drain down and I can work on the north end. Note how SMALL the distance is from the "upper pond", no calving Takes a LONG time one 16" bucket at a time.


The tractor after a day playing in the muck


And an hour later after washing the crud off. Not worried about splatters but I figure all the moving parts should not be locked in dried up clay.


When the guy dropped the tractor off I asked about 1st service interval. He said 50 hours, it will take you a long time to get there. There are now 40 hours on the engine.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Ya sure seem to be Moving right along with that project!!....if they are so worried about the tadpoles, then they ought to tend to them.....sounds like the Best thing to do.....that sounds like a good plan....on getting to the north end to work....Great Job!!.....

 

[RollingAcres]

Put me in the doghouse since apparently I was driving over the tadpoles.

tadpoles killer!