Habitat out loud

[SD51555]

The big dig is underway. I got 14+ hours in yesterday and then I hit a hydraulic fitting with a stump and lost all my fluid. Sounds like I may be up and running again early afternoon. Should still be able to finish if I can get going again.

My trail raising went really well.

Got the smaller of the two ponds mostly dug yesterday. Need to wait for my brother to get there to move the dirt so I can keep going.

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[Daydreamer]

The big dig is underway. I got 14+ hours in yesterday and then I hit a hydraulic fitting with a stump and lost all my fluid. Sounds like I may be up and running again early afternoon. Should still be able to finish if I can get going again.

My trail raising went really well.

Got the smaller of the two ponds mostly dug yesterday. Need to wait for my brother to get there to move the dirt so I can keep going.

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Well, we're waiting???

 

[TenPoint]

 

[SD51555]

I’m not back yet. I barely had enough in the tank to get my carcass out of the woods. I was covered in sweat, gypsum, hay, there were snakes. There is a video coming…


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[Wind Gypsy]

Well, we're waiting???

 

[SD51555]

View attachment 55004

The big dig should premier in about 30 minutes….


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[b116757]

The big dig should premier in about 30 minutes….


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[SD51555]

 

[SD51555]

The processing at Rumble is frustratingly slow.

 

[Foggy47]

The processing at Rumble is frustratingly slow.

A LIKLEY STORY.

 

[SD51555]

Done!

Enjoy!

The Biggest Dig 2023

5 days on the hoe to fix everything.

rumble.com

 

[TenPoint]

 

[Daydreamer]

Done!

Enjoy!

The Biggest Dig 2023

5 days on the hoe to fix everything.

rumble.com

Lookin good. Has your 5 day boner subsided yet?
It'll be interesting to see what happens to the water level in that pond over time. You definitely put that machine through the paces.
I can just about see your thought process when looking at that stump in the yard to practice on. "I'll just take a few minutes to rip this thing outta here, an hour later after the yard is ripped up. Nailed it"

 

[SD51555]

Lookin good. Has your 5 day boner subsided yet?
It'll be interesting to see what happens to the water level in that pond over time. You definitely put that machine through the paces.
I can just about see your thought process when looking at that stump in the yard to practice on. "I'll just take a few minutes to rip this thing outta here, an hour later after the yard is ripped up. Nailed it"

I'm ok now. Was still pretty wound up last night.

That stump was something else. It was an ash tree, and it was dead for about 3 years. I didn't figure it'd take that much digging to get out.

I'm getting a skid steer for one day this weekend to finish up a few things and pivot to planting for the fall.

 

[b116757]

Nice project

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Top notch video skills there, nice work. Those trails look great and you should be able to get around pretty easily now.

How deep and wide is the pond? It was tough to tell in the video, but it looks like it should hold quite a bit of water.

What's the going rate per day to rent an excavator like that? That looks like a lot of fun.

 

[SD51555]

Top notch video skills there, nice work. Those trails look great and you should be able to get around pretty easily now.

How deep and wide is the pond? It was tough to tell in the video, but it looks like it should hold quite a bit of water.

What's the going rate per day to rent an excavator like that? That looks like a lot of fun.

Trail work is never done. I fixed trail for about 6 hours this year, and I could spend another week or two just fixing ruts, pulling stumps, filling low spots, blasting out sharp turns, and widening the narrows. It's in a really good spot now, but it's never finished. I'm going to work on the entrance to my south food plot this weekend. It's all uneven because of tree roots, and it's just a neck twister going through there no matter how slow you go.

The pond you saw is the small one. That one is maybe 6' deep and 25-30' in diameter. It had water seeping in already. I didn't get any footage of the bigger pond in the video. I got behind due to breakdowns and rain. Once it started going well again, I just dug like hell as fast as I could before something else went wrong and didn't mess with the camera.

That was a Bobcat E50. The 40-hour rate on it all in was $1900 (rate, delivery, fuel, tax). I got two days credited back. One I didn't use, one for me having to repair it myself because they didn't have people to come fix it. That is hands down the best value in equipment that I've found. I went back and reviewed the video and counted how long it took to execute a scoop and 90 degree swing and dump and return. I got it down to 11 seconds once I got my rhythm back. That little machine can move a boat load of material when it's going that fast.

I didn't even show all the things I fixed because it would have been repetitive in the video. I just wish the rental outfit was ran better. That thing came out completely dirty, already beat to snot. The bushings are all pancaked, the front glass was busted out on a prior job and there was still broken glass on the floor and in the cup holder. It was a real hooker, but it got the job done despite all the heartburn from the breakdown, delays, and rain.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Try to take some big pond pics next time you are up at your place, I'm interested in seeing how that pond turns out. I'm also interested to see how much water the smaller pond holds, especially on a dry year like this. Ponds are awesome and every property should have one (or more). Your shallow pond could be a mud minnow magnet if you can stock them in there. Mud minnows are the best walleye bait I've ever used - they are as tough as nails and the walleyes go crazy for them. Having a shallow pond with mud minnows is like owning your own bait shop.

$1900 for 40 hours is a great price. Is that 40 hours of actual run time I assume? I believe I end up paying $100-$150/hr for most of the bulldozer and excavator work I hire out.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Try to take some big pond pics next time you are up at your place, I'm interested in seeing how that pond turns out. I'm also interested to see how much water the smaller pond holds, especially on a dry year like this. Ponds are awesome and every property should have one (or more). Your shallow pond could be a mud minnow magnet if you can stock them in there. Mud minnows are the best walleye bait I've ever used - they are as tough as nails and the walleyes go crazy for them. Having a shallow pond with mud minnows is like owning your own bait shop.

$1900 for 40 hours is a great price. Is that 40 hours of actual run time I assume? I believe I end up paying $100-$150/hr for most of the bulldozer and excavator work I hire out.

Is that operated hourly rates? because a good operator could probably do in less than 20 what I could in 40 and I'd not have to burn PTO to do it. I imagine the main rub of someone else doing it is getting things done exactly how you want them done and not messing everything up! SD's project seems like work that would be hard to explain clearly to someone else.

 

[SD51555]

Try to take some big pond pics next time you are up at your place, I'm interested in seeing how that pond turns out. I'm also interested to see how much water the smaller pond holds, especially on a dry year like this. Ponds are awesome and every property should have one (or more). Your shallow pond could be a mud minnow magnet if you can stock them in there. Mud minnows are the best walleye bait I've ever used - they are as tough as nails and the walleyes go crazy for them. Having a shallow pond with mud minnows is like owning your own bait shop.

$1900 for 40 hours is a great price. Is that 40 hours of actual run time I assume? I believe I end up paying $100-$150/hr for most of the bulldozer and excavator work I hire out.

Yeah, that is hours on the machine. You get 7 days to burn up 40 hours. The more I think about this, a person could probably dig a fish pond with an E50 if there was a small bulldozer there to push dirt away. The swamps up around me are full of mud minnows and dace minnows. Towards the end of next month, I'll start trapping to see if I can get some breeders to go in the big pond. The smaller one may end up being dry.