Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[thistlebloom]

Yes, I read about your pond digging tractor adventures in your journal. Very interesting learning on the job type scenario. You did good!
We have a borrow pit out front that my husband always wanted to turn into a pond. But it's not viewable from anywhere but the driveway and the garden. I'm more practical and turned it into a giant plant debris/compost pit. It's nearly full!

 

[Bruce]

Yes but a pond you can't see still has benefits! The fish and frogs will eat the mosquito larvae and those plus other insects attract insect eating birds. Our prior home was in a very dense neighborhood with a ravine behind the houses on our side of the street. There is a decent sized brook that runs year round and a lot of flat land to hold puddles. The mosquitoes were AWFUL. Don't even think about going out in the small back yard unless the sun was heating up the yard. I was afraid we would have it even worse out here in the rural area with a pond right behind the barn. We RARELY see a mosquito, the insect eaters take care of them.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

I worked on the second bridge today. Here is the result:


As you can see, I still need to build up a ramp on the side nearest the camera. Maybe I can get that done tomorrow. My building the 2 bridges caused me to deeply rut the approaches to them. Maybe I should have waited until it dried out more. So now I am trying to decide if I should bring more dirt or perhaps make corduroy ramps where it is so muddy and deeply rutted. I'll figure something out. But what do you folks think?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

That is the same problem I have in all the low spots, clay mud, make deep tractor ruts. There is a section I really can't get to no matter how long I wait into the summer.

How long until it will dry out? I think I'd start with the "stay away until then" if it will dry, then you can just use the bucket to smooth out the ruts. Might want to drop some stone near the approaches?

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

I thought I would post since it has been a while since the last one. I haven't posted because I haven't been doing much -- it's been too wet out in the pastures. I leave big ruts with the tractor, so I am making things worse when I go out and work. So I took Mr @Bruce's advice to "stay away till then". But I do have some things to share. One is that it snowed here late Wednesday night, so we work up to this in the morning Thursday:


We had a day late last week where it was nice enough to try to work using the Gator and working on foot. So I focused on this area, starting at point A and making my way to the property boundary at point B. I had never seen this part of our property and wanted to see what it was like.

Here is what point A looked like, looking toward point B:

Here is what point B looks like, looking west into our neighbor's pasture:


I am now famous, or maybe I should say my tractor is famous. Google Earth recently updated its picture of our property and the satellite took the picture as I was out burning brush:


Finally, here is a picture of the full moon over Mt. Magazine I took yesterday evening:


Senile Texas Aggie

 

[thistlebloom]

Congratulations on your snow STA! You are now an honorary Northerner, lol. That's a beautiful view of the moon, and what pretty country too. Is that your land?

It's interesting to see what vehicles are in our driveway from different Google Earth shots. We can date them from when the kids lived here by which car they were driving then.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

You are now an honorary Northerner, lol.

Thank you, Miss Thistlebloom!

Is that your land?

We own the land to the edge of the pasture in the picture. Due east of us is land owned by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The three tracts we own make the shape of our land rather unusual. Here is a satellite picture from the tax appraiser's office of the three tracts we own, outlined in red, along with the surrounding tracts. The total acreage of the 3 tracts is around 160 acres.


Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Baymule]

All,

I worked on the second bridge today. Here is the result:
View attachment 69499

As you can see, I still need to build up a ramp on the side nearest the camera. Maybe I can get that done tomorrow. My building the 2 bridges caused me to deeply rut the approaches to them. Maybe I should have waited until it dried out more. So now I am trying to decide if I should bring more dirt or perhaps make corduroy ramps where it is so muddy and deeply rutted. I'll figure something out. But what do you folks think?

Senile Texas Aggie

Well, you asked for opinions, so here goes. That bridge is going to be an ongoing fix and repair frequently for it's or your lifetime. I'd ditch the timbers and put in a culvert large enough to handle run off from hard rains. I would use bags of cement stacked up around the culvert ends to prevent erosion on the dirt you place over the culvert. Done.

That bridge and timbers look like an ongoing unhappy situation. Better to get a few loads of dirt and place, seat and cover a culvert ONE time and be done with it. At our old property, there was a dry gully that ran through it. Dry until it rained, then it turned into a raging river, it was a pain to deal with. Naturally it cut across the front of the land and cut off access to the rest of it. We put in culverts, those went under water, so not much good. I admired the old underground steel gas tanks that had both ends cut out, but they were $3,000 and upwards. So when I found some for sale in Beaumont, for only $800, 100 miles away, we went right then and paid for one. Then it cost $300 to get it hauled home and dropped. A neighbor had a bulldozer, so we hired him to set it for $1,000 plus some other needed work. It was 7' tall and 24' long. It was huge and handled the raging torrents perfectly. Just for a size comparison, there is my horse walking across it. You don't need one this big, but you get the idea.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Thanks for the suggestion, Miss @Baymule! I may do something like that. In fact, I am considering renting a mini excavator for a week to do some work around our property. Here is the situation for our drainage:


Point A identifies an area that stays boggy a good bit and I would like to deepen the ditch there. Also, there is a small rise between the ditch and the shop (the white rectangle in the upper left) that currently forces the water draining from the shop area to travel down to and across the road that goes to the picnic area, resulting in erosion of the road. I would like to cut down that hill and build up the area closer to the shop.

Points B and C identify the two bridges I put in.

Point D identifies an area where water draining down from the ridge to the southwest goes into the pasture, keeping that area wet. If I could dig a ditch to divert that water to the drainage that goes under bridge B, then that would help keep the pasture dry. Similarly, there is an area at point E that drains into the pasture. If I could dig a ditch to cause the water to drain into the ditch that runs under the bridge at point C, then that would help the pasture dry out.

Point F identifies an area where the ditch has filled up with silt and caused a substantial amount of water to go into the pasture to the north (currently used for hay), causing it to erode. If I could clear out that ditch, then maybe the pasture would stop eroding.

Point G identifies a location when a small ditch drains water from south of that point. The water then drains into my pasture, keeping that area quite wet. If I could build up a berm to divert that water onto the Arkansas Game and Fish property, then I could keep the pasture dry.

I could also use the excavator to improve the drainage along the driveway, the way Miss @farmerjan recommended.

If I do rent an excavator, then I could easily install culverts at points C and D where the cross tie bridges are. The biggest thing holding me back is the cost -- about $1000 for a week. But it may well be worth it.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

I suspect it would be worth the money if you have all your projects and required materials set up in advance (and plenty of diesel fuel) .... and you can get a request for good weather all that week approved. Assuming you don't have experience with excavators, start with the easy projects so you'll be a semi-pro running the machine when you get to the hard parts.