So I got a text this afternoon...

[Heath1973]

I got a text from a guy that I had gave a estimate on digging out some stumps and clean up work around his horse farm. He asks if I am busy, I was but it wasn't anything I couldn't put off for a while. Anyhow, he asks if I can pull out a mini excavator, it's not to terribly far from me so off I go. Partially to see the show, and the biggest part was the $$$$. So this guy is trying to bush hog a field, gets the tractor stuck, rents a mini ex, to retrieve the tractor, calls me to retrieve the mini, his tractor, and the bush hog..... Well I got them all out, only broke 1 chain and it was his. Now if I could figure out how to get my pics up side right!!!

 

[Queeg]

Open windows paint. open picture in paint. In the image section at the top tool bar. use rotate.. easiest way.

 

[RonG]

Hold your camera level when you take the picture)Ron G

 

[Coastiebro]

Im going to try taking my next pictures upside down so they are right side up to view. Matt

 

[hetkind]

I have a habit of breaking cheap chain with heavy equipment also. I find the grade 70 transport chain to be a good compromise between utility and cost, but not for overhead lifting. For overhead lifting, I try to use commercially made slings.

Howard

 

[Willie B]

Sounds like the sort of fellow who will provide a long term source of entertainment, and revenue.

I have a friend I met in 1969. His most famous escapade was after years of riding with me in a long series of four wheel drive vehicles, he bought a new 1987 Chevy 3500. It was beautiful in the morning. We were sober, I swear. We drove through narrow log roads lined with blackberry brush, over fallen trees, op brook beds. The scratches on a new truck he assured me, gave it character.

Late in the day in October we came upon a new pond. There were tire tracks across the bottom. I pointed out they were put there before the water was. Undaunted he believed he could drive across it. I wanted out! I got out, and proposed he get his front wheels in, and back out. He drove in about 6" deep with front wheels, backed out, put it in drive, and floored it. Seconds later his dead truck was windshield deep in cold water. As he rolled down his window, and asked what he should do.

My truck was 40 miles away. The tow truck driver wasn't a diplomat. He couldn't stop laughing. Bruce's wife was sympathetic, sad for his misfortune, as though his parked truck had been run into by a hit and run driver. My wife was furious! Why did you let him do it?!!! We spent two days draining fluids. Finally running well, he switched fuel tanks, commenting that it wasn't full before. That seemed to be the end, it wouldn't start again. More draining ensued. Ultimately, he took his seat indoors every night for a long time.

He drove it several years.

Willie

 

[Willie B]

I have a habit of breaking cheap chain with heavy equipment also. I find the grade 70 transport chain to be a good compromise between utility and cost, but not for overhead lifting. For overhead lifting, I try to use commercially made slings.

Howard

I have a 30' 6" wide tow strap rated at 60,000 LB breaking strength. With or without cable, or chain as a supplement it cushions a tug. It is a wonderfully gentle way to pull a stuck vehicle out. Often the tow vehicle is smaller than the stuck one. A series of tugs moving it only inches at a time work great with less damage, or none. Youngest son with a Toyota pickup uses a 3" one with similar results.

 

[kckc]

oh that poor guy with all those machines stuck...

 

[CM1995]

That's the kind of sloppy low ground that has no bottom, when you get stuck and try to get yourself out all you do is get in deeper. Good job getting all that out. I wonderi why he rented a mini to pull the tractor out..

What I do to take pictures that load onto HEF without any rotating or editing is hold your phone long ways and take the picture. Then I send it to my Gmail account and it will resize it automatically. Save the pic on my laptop and upload to the site. I am using and iPhone to take pics.

 

[Bumpsteer]

I see pics like that from time to time.......our mud here has a bottom.

Ed

 

[CM1995]

We run into alluvial soils here from time to time, there is a bottom eventually but it may be 10-30' down.

Last year we had two projects where we encountered alluvial soils. One was an underground retention system where at 5' deep it was the consistence of pudding. We had to lay down strips of 7/16 OSB so we could walk across it to roll the geo-grid out. You'd sink up to your knees walking across it.

The other was a parking lot. Excavated 4' down and you could tap the ground with the track hoe bucket and it would make a wave like a waterbed. 4' of geo-grid and stone finally stabilized it.

 

[hetkind]

I don't know...dewatering is often a first step on a job. And I hate dewatering by hand when it is too sloppy to get equipment in.

Howard

 

[Willie B]

Any flat land in VT is beside a river. Wet land other than that can be drained. It'll likely draw protest from the animal/environmental activists who consider the mosquito, and black fly to be endangered species.

I have a gently sloping meadow where ledge is only down an average of 2'. Rain from 1/4 mile of forest lying above it can't sink into the ground. For a week after each rain it stays wet enough to rut with tractor traffic. I acquired several hundreds of feet of 2"ID pipe used for underground fiber optic cable. My plan is to ditch, slits in the pipe, lay it on ledge, cover with crushed stone, and landscape cloth. If anybody has a better idea, I'd welcome their input.

Willie

 

[lantraxco]

Make yourself a nice trout stream in the middle?

 

[hetkind]

Your dewatering is good, but instead of slitting pipe, I would get the 4" black perforated drainage hose, with the sock, I think I am paying $65 per 100' length.

Any flat land in VT is beside a river. Wet land other than that can be drained. It'll likely draw protest from the animal/environmental activists who consider the mosquito, and black fly to be endangered species.

I have a gently sloping meadow where ledge is only down an average of 2'. Rain from 1/4 mile of forest lying above it can't sink into the ground. For a week after each rain it stays wet enough to rut with tractor traffic. I acquired several hundreds of feet of 2"ID pipe used for underground fiber optic cable. My plan is to ditch, slits in the pipe, lay it on ledge, cover with crushed stone, and landscape cloth. If anybody has a better idea, I'd welcome their input.

Willie

 

[Willie B]

Your dewatering is good, but instead of slitting pipe, I would get the 4" black perforated drainage hose, with the sock, I think I am paying $65 per 100' length.

With the sock I'm guessing here, I've seen product in rolls with little slits. I imagine you're talking about an outer layer of filter fabric? I haven't seen such a product. I'll look into it. Any idea what it is called?

Willie

 

[hetkind]

With the sock I'm guessing here, I've seen product in rolls with little slits. I imagine you're talking about an outer layer of filter fabric? I haven't seen such a product. I'll look into it. Any idea what it is called?

Willie

The outer layer of filter fabric is basically geotextile cloth.

Lowes sells the "Drain Sleeve" brand, http://www.lowes.com/pd_154746-71461-34141-6___?productId=3199149&pl=1&Ntt=pipe+sock

but locally they sell the pipe with the sleeve already on it. There is a drainage supply yard in town that sells the pipe with the sleeve already on it also.

A call to your local hardware store or lumberyard and they can order it for you.

Then again, my local hardware store sells culverts, straw and Stihl chain saws, gravel is another 6 miles away at the quarry.

Howard