Pond cleaning

[Catscratch]

They told him they would be running two machines for three days to clean it out. Idk what they are using. I know on the one I’m currently cleaning out it has pretty close to 4’ of muck at the bottom. We need rain bad but now that I’m in the middle of this little project it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to much if it held off a bit yet.

Leave your machine in the pond overnight, I'll leave the windows down on the truck, and I'll have the wife wash her car... maybe we can get a rain!

 

[T-Max]

Sometimes I see my wife gathering up sensitive items I have left strewn about the yard. She always says she is picking them up so they don't get rained on. As soon as she goes inside I grab them and scatter them about again...

 

[b116757]

Got stuck this morning got a neighbor coming over with a four-wheel-drive tractor tomorrow. If that doesn’t work I’ll likely move my other crawler from the other farm so I have them both together.

 

[MadMadHoosier]

Got stuck this morning got a neighbor coming over with a four-wheel-drive tractor tomorrow. If that doesn’t work I’ll likely move my other crawler from the other farm so I have them both together.

Is there a tree behind you? An old timer showed me a trick to get yourself out easy with a couple logging chains. Worked with a VERY stuck excavator that could not pull itself out with the bucket. But you need an immovable object behind you.

 

[b116757]

Nothing behind me for quite a ways. I’m not even 100% if my 40’ of 1/2” chain is going to be enough to keep him out of the pond but it is pretty dry. I thought I was under the muck starting from the edge that appears not to have been the case and once the front dropped I was done.

 

[b116757]

I have a lot of chain but I’m not sure I have 265’ worth.

 

[MadMadHoosier]

That's too bad. Anyway, if you had something to pull from, the trick is to hook the chain into the rearmost outside edge of the tracks. Then when you start backing out the chain comes tight as the tracks rotate down and under, and gives the tracks something to pull against. I was worried the chain would break the track edge, but it climbed right out without feeling like much pressure at all. Essentially the chain capturing the track takes the place of traction that is missing from the ground.

 

[b116757]

My row crop guy pulled me out this morning with a 200hp Cat Challenger. I did have 70’ of 1/2” chain laying around he didn’t even get in the pond.

 

[b116757]

Blew a hydraulic line under the floor board/seat area and we finally seeing a week of rain in the forecast likely be a while before I start taking access covers off to see what happened.

 

[b116757]

I finished this pond cleaning and planted bluegill and fathead minnows in it last spring this spring I may add bass

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That looks really good - how deep did it end up and what did you do with the dirt you pulled out of there?

 

[b116757]

I just lined the backside of the existing pond dam with the majority of it. You can see a lot of it in that one photo with my crawler in the middle. I think it only ended up being about 7’ deep I would of loved to have gotten deeper but it rained on me and put about a 1’ of water in the bottom so I threw in the towel on it.