jwasbury
New member
I recently acquired a Kubota B2320 with a FEL and BH. In just a few weeks, this little machine has proven its usefulness around my 13.5 acre property in Bucks County, PA. One of my primary "excuses" for buying the tractor (and I don't need much of an excuse to buy tools) is that I want to clean up an abandoned pasture on my land, put in and maintain some trails, and improve the access to a pond that is tucked away on the back part of the old pasture. The ground water in my area is very high, and the old pasture is pretty wet. I've noted there are old trenches around the perimeter of the pasture area, along with a few swales across the center. These have not been maintained for probably 20 years or more. Speaking with my neighbor (who actually grew up in the house I own), He tells me there used to be a "good flow" through the property, and they kept horses in the pasture...this is dating back to the 1980s.
So, my mission is to clean up the old pasture which will require restoring the drainage trenches to get the land to dry out a bit. Eventually, I want to be able to hike over to our pond without putting on mud boots.
Here is the old entrance gate to the pasture area. There are two distinct trails which perhaps the prior owner had cut. I suspect that he had similar intentions to restore the area, but never got to it
This photo gives a sense of the existing trail. This one ends up at the pond. It gets very wet about halfway to the pond.
This is the place where it is most wet. The land it fairly flat, and with all the vegetation, it's difficult to assess subtle elevations in the land. This specific place has stayed pretty wet, despite the fact that it's been dry and hot over the last few weeks. When we had rain a few weeks back, I could see this is where much of the water naturally flows to, but it seems to lose some direction at this point and spreads out and pools here. I drove the tractor to this point and started spinning wheels. Back up and started a trench with the back hoe. This trench will bisect the pasture area. I can see where the water would flow to if this little stream bed weren't so silted up. I also found boards here as I dug with the backhoe. Prior owner probably put them there to drive some machinery across and they were left here, and then got covered with mud and grass...probably contributed to plugging up the works too.
The pond...also needs a bunch of work
The pasture is loaded with these dead scrub trees. It looks like they grew up ok, but then as the drainage trenches silted up, much of the pasture got too wet, and drowned these out. I'm cutting these down and skidding them out to a burn pile.
This is going to take a while, with me chipping away at it bit by bit, but I am enjoying the journey so far.
So, my mission is to clean up the old pasture which will require restoring the drainage trenches to get the land to dry out a bit. Eventually, I want to be able to hike over to our pond without putting on mud boots.
Here is the old entrance gate to the pasture area. There are two distinct trails which perhaps the prior owner had cut. I suspect that he had similar intentions to restore the area, but never got to it
This photo gives a sense of the existing trail. This one ends up at the pond. It gets very wet about halfway to the pond.
This is the place where it is most wet. The land it fairly flat, and with all the vegetation, it's difficult to assess subtle elevations in the land. This specific place has stayed pretty wet, despite the fact that it's been dry and hot over the last few weeks. When we had rain a few weeks back, I could see this is where much of the water naturally flows to, but it seems to lose some direction at this point and spreads out and pools here. I drove the tractor to this point and started spinning wheels. Back up and started a trench with the back hoe. This trench will bisect the pasture area. I can see where the water would flow to if this little stream bed weren't so silted up. I also found boards here as I dug with the backhoe. Prior owner probably put them there to drive some machinery across and they were left here, and then got covered with mud and grass...probably contributed to plugging up the works too.
The pond...also needs a bunch of work
The pasture is loaded with these dead scrub trees. It looks like they grew up ok, but then as the drainage trenches silted up, much of the pasture got too wet, and drowned these out. I'm cutting these down and skidding them out to a burn pile.
This is going to take a while, with me chipping away at it bit by bit, but I am enjoying the journey so far.
