Pond cleaning with excavator

[Jim D]

Shimmy,

Thanks for a good thread. I'm trying to figure out the picture 'the first of nine' above. The bar of material in the middle, was that being pulled out of the pond?

 

[Shimmy1]

Shimmy,

Thanks for a good thread. I'm trying to figure out the picture 'the first of nine' above. The bar of material in the middle, was that being pulled out of the pond?

Needs to be pulled out. I think previous guy gave up on it. Ground may have gotten too soft? It's froze now, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[cheddarbob56]

Looks like a perfect job for my 60' Long reach

 

[Shimmy1]

Looks like a perfect job for my 60' Long reach

Not sure it would like the frost tho......

 

[Shimmy1]

One down, had to recruit my buddy to bring a second hoe. Itty bitty D6 did NOT like the mud. Went really good. Done by beer-thirty today.

 

[cheddarbob56]

Yah I'm afraid you are right if that crap was very froze it wouldn't like it.

 

[Shimmy1]

Yah I'm afraid you are right if that crap was very froze it wouldn't like it.

All edges and sides had 6-8" of frost, some places more. Waiting this long was deliberate on my part though. I don't think I could have done the job without the sides being frozen to carry the hoe. 6" is enough for support, but not too much to do a decent job around the top edges.

 

[Shimmy1]

Pond 2 ended up being a no go. Customer decided to leave it because it had about 2½' of water left in it. Pond 3 should be done by noon tomorrow. Going pretty good. Averaging about $3000 per hole.

 

[Shimmy1]

After these I won't bother y'all with any more pics unless things go sideways. Pond 3 sure turned out nice I think.

 

[cheddarbob56]

Looks Great Shimmy! very fine job. I can understand you waiting for some frost to be able to reach them with a standard boom. It gets a little scary when you have to get close to the slop

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .

Fine work you have done there Shimmy1.

Coming from an entirely different environment I find it surprising your country washes to the extent the ponds accumulate so much silt.

I assume the drainage comes from cropped/cultivated country and, if so, are fields worked on the contour and do you use contour banks in the steeper areas?

It may be of interest that in the "old days" over here such ponds (or "tanks" as we call them) were always provided with a smaller hole in front called the "silt tank" which allowed some of the sediment to settle before running through a pipe (or several pipes) into the main storage.

The silt tank was desilted probably a couple of times to the main tanks once. this maintenance was a normal regular and ongoing part of property management, not so much any more and it is only done in times of crisis.

Cheers.

 

[Bumpsteer]

Scrub,
Biggest problem is the cattle, their hooves keep pushing the sides down as they waller in the mud to get a drink.

Ed

 

[Shimmy1]

Scrub,
Biggest problem is the cattle, their hooves keep pushing the sides down as they waller in the mud to get a drink.

Ed

That's it. And, most of these "tanks" were dug in the sixties so over 50 years without being cleaned out is probably pretty good.

 

[Twisted]

Cleaning ponds is always an adventure. I always try to pump them first and them attack appropriately. My best was when I ran a track off while side-hilling in 3' of muck. All I had at the time for equipment was a 45,000# hoe so there was some manual labor involved. I cut and carried by hand about a cord of green poplar to build mats then walked it out on one track and the bucket. The rest was easy.

I can't believe everyone doesn't do this work!

 

[Delmer]

Yair . . .

Fine work you have done there Shimmy1.

Coming from an entirely different environment I find it surprising your country washes to the extent the ponds accumulate so much silt.

I assume the drainage comes from cropped/cultivated country and, if so, are fields worked on the contour and do you use contour banks in the steeper areas?

Those ponds weren't built very big to start with. Usually they don't have to store water though the dry season, just a hole big enough to reach the water table.

I don't think Shimmy does much contour strip cropping. Have you seen some of Shimmy's posts about the minimum grades that he runs under "making the water run"? Insanely flat country from my perspective. Even in Central WI flat swamp land there's plenty of drop if you dig the ditch. Around here, they used to say the fences were to stop the milk cans from rolling down to the valley. Have to be careful with round bales too.

 

[Shimmy1]

Cleaning ponds is always an adventure. I always try to pump them first and them attack appropriately. My best was when I ran a track off while side-hilling in 3' of muck. All I had at the time for equipment was a 45,000# hoe so there was some manual labor involved. I cut and carried by hand about a cord of green poplar to build mats then walked it out on one track and the bucket. The rest was easy.

I can't believe everyone doesn't do this work!

We got a pump lined up today. Pond 4 we dipped the water out with the hoe. Took a little over an hour. With both hoes. Since I have no help this weekend, tomorrow I'm going to get the next one pumped out, maybe do a little prep for Monday. We got 4" of snow today, so I'm thinking the fun in this pond cleaning bit is all over. Bring on the slippin' and slidin'.

 

[movindirt]

Yair . . .

Fine work you have done there Shimmy1.

Coming from an entirely different environment I find it surprising your country washes to the extent the ponds accumulate so much silt.

I assume the drainage comes from cropped/cultivated country and, if so, are fields worked on the contour and do you use contour banks in the steeper areas?

It may be of interest that in the "old days" over here such ponds (or "tanks" as we call them) were always provided with a smaller hole in front called the "silt tank" which allowed some of the sediment to settle before running through a pipe (or several pipes) into the main storage.

The silt tank was desilted probably a couple of times to the main tanks once. this maintenance was a normal regular and ongoing part of property management, not so much any more and it is only done in times of crisis.

Cheers.

Thats interesting Scrub, how big were the "tanks" in comparison to the size of the pond?

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .

Thats interesting Scrub, how big were the "tanks" in comparison to the size of the pond?

You got me there movindirt, good question I'll see if I can find a picture, just guessing I'd say perhaps ten to fifteen percent of the main excavation with much flatter batters (slopes).

In the "old days" on well run places the tanks were often fenced and the stock were watered at a trough fed by windmill pumped water from a "turkey nest" or high earth walled tank that was built as part of the installation . . . precisely to avoid damage to the slopes and bogging up the edges.

Cam85 might chime in about size of silt tank to main tank, I don't get around in that western country much any more.

What do you reckon Cam85?

Cheers.

 

[kevin37b]

You do nice work , always dressed up . Kevin .

 

[dozerman400]

Nice work! If you want to try another way? After pumping the water out try digging a barrow pit (deep) or trenches next to pond putting the dry stuff on top then put all the slop in the barrow pit about 1/2 way up or so and cap it with dry stuff. I have done a lot of ponds on golf courses and farm land this way, much more fun grading dryer stuff.