creek gravel

[mechanic]

What do you do with the creek gravel you clean out of your creek and what machine do you use to clean it out?

 

[ToadHill]

I use my FEL and I use it for patching my road.

 

[lhfarm]

What do you do with the creek gravel you clean out of your creek and what machine do you use to clean it out?

A few weeks ago, we had a major storm that washed a section of my drive right where it tees with the county highway. The dry creek had overflowed and clogged the county's culvert. As an emergency fix, I used the FEL to scoop out some creek gravel. I couldn't get much in the bucket after the second load, so filled it with a shovel. It took several loads. Not fun, but too wet to get the tractor into the creek.

The section was 4 feet wide and varied in depth from a couple of inches to a foot. The creek gravel is working for now.

My father-in-law grew up on this land in the late teens and twenties. He and his brothers used to load creek gravel in horse drawn wagons and spread it on county roads as partial payment of property taxes. So I know at one time it was used on roads around here.

I think I may use my BH next spring where I can't get in with the loader and keep a small pile around for emergency drive repairs.

 

[MossRoad]

What do you do with the creek gravel you clean out of your creek and what machine do you use to clean it out?

One bad thing about gravel for roads is gravel is usually rounded and does not pack to itself very well. When tires go over it, it tends to push the gravel to the sides, making a center ridge and two side ridges. That's why people used crushed gravel as it tends to lock to itself better.

 

[wushaw]

One bad thing about gravel for roads is gravel is usually rounded and does not pack to itself very well. When tires go over it, it tends to push the gravel to the sides, making a center ridge and two side ridges. That's why people used crushed gravel as it tends to lock to itself better.

That is a fact, I buried a truck in creek gravel once;(

 

[450EXC]

I have used it as mulch around trees etc. Cannot use regular bark or wood mulch since the chickens would have a field day with it scratching around.

I sifted it through a 1/2" screen to get the silt and small stones out. Would need a motorized screen to do very much of it but the stones from my creek are all different colors and look nice.

 

[ToadHill]

Stone isn't really a good mulch for tree roots. One of the reasons to mulch is to keep the ground cool and moist. Stone heats up and can dry out the soil you are trying to keep moist.

 

[mahlers]

Depending on the type of rock in your area, creek gravel makes really nice walkways. Around here, we have sandstone, granite, jasper, quartz, and lots of green and red rocks (don't know what those are) and those make very decorative walks and garden borders. In the areas where the small rocks are mixed with sand, the old timers had been known to use it to make concrete - it must be good because there are 100 year old retaining walls still in use and in good shape.

 

[SPIKER]

I used my tractor & fel to pull out probably over a hundred ton in last 3~5 years, mostly all of it used to fill in under my barn where I'll pour concrete but the gravel I'm using is mostly flat sand stone with a small amount of granite round stuff mixed in. I ended up mixing in 100 ton more of compactable
sand/gravel mix with that. I also use it to build up wet spots on the property and in/out creek fords and on both sides of the bridge. this creek has gone dry 1 time in 8 years is all and owner I got it from said maybe 3 times in his life (late 60's guy who grew up there.) bottom of the creek is gravel on top of the base sand stone/shale bed rock and is some 20+ feet below surrounding ground level. I have almost gotten stuck at the fords in/out of the creek more than once. had to dump FEL load of gravel and use FEL to get back out, always drive IN and BACK out I learned. I use 2 wheel drive IN and 4 wheel drive OUT if it starts to RUT on the ford (usually right where the ramp is 2' higher than creek) I stop and let it dry out and move to different ford spot. (I have 4 fords now and may be able to get one or 2 more as time passes.)

Worst thing about it is there is a lot of leave/silt matter if it is taken from a deep spot, the 3 main ones I use are all gravel with bed rock and are easy to get with very low amount of bio-degradable material mixed in (sometimes a branch or such) but lots of small sand and small bits of chipped sand stone. and flakes that are off the bed rock that are flat in the 3~10 square inch size. these are great as toppers and I also in spring or after heavy floods can get LARGE 1~5 square foot chunks of the gray/sand stone with pretty root trails picked up off the bottom these are usually only about an inch or so thick is worst thing and they break pretty easy. I'm saving some of the better ones back for a patio but will have to come up with a good idea to support them from breaking, hopping sand only will work for this but who knows...

Mark M

 

[mjfox6]

FYI, you may need a permit to legally use motorized equipment to dig in a creek.

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

FYI, you may need a permit to legally use motorized equipment to dig in a creek.

You are probably right, but what big brother don't know won't hurt him, especially when the creek runs right thru my property. That is probably a controversial statement to some, but just my opinion.

 

[mahlers]

Technically, I never drive a motorized vehicle into the creek - I back up so that my rear wheels are just short of the water, and then I use the backhoe to gather the gravel

 

[Tractors4u]

You are probably right, but what big brother don't know won't hurt him, especially when the creek runs right thru my property. That is probably a controversial statement to some, but just my opinion.

My 250 ft driveway is almost entirely made up of creek gravel from the creek on my property. It is only 12-18 inches deep so I just take the tractor into the creek and scoop away. I tend to have pretty good luck with the gravel. The various size gravel and the sand mix and pack well.

 

[SPIKER]

here is a pic or two of my creek when flooded, I took some pics of it yesterday showing how low in winter and bottom but they didn't turn out on camera, lost them somehow?

anyhow also is a close up of one of the larger flat rocks I was talking about as well


( I pulled this rock (still wet) out of the creek as an example of the bottom material, these rocks are part of the actual local bedrock where the creek is cut into it. the creek is a "Run off creek" that gets its year long flow from a 3~4 acre horse pond up hill. in heavy rains it floods as there is some 400 acres runoff going through this valley of mine. but usually only the seepage/springs flow in summer enough to keep the bottom running at a trickle in august to rain storm fast moving floods as shown below.



I also don't drive in all that much only when creek is dry can you get into it so no damage and all rock bottom makes it easy to get into/ out of. usually I'm using a lot of the gravel along the creek sides to STOP the flooding shown in one of the pics. all that water left some 4~8" of sand gravel mix into my nice park like lawn which sets up and to the left of the top pic and or up and to the right of the bottom pic. also if you click on the pics they will full size in new window. the center of the flow there looks like is a bush in above pic is actually a rock some 5' long and 4' wide flat top but rounded sides & bottom which sets ~1' high in the creek bottom gravel, as it sets now it is almost 2' exposed and still going bigger I tried to remove it but no luck it is too BIG.



I can't get into the section above to get any gravel as I'm standing on my bridge showing the top pic running down stream from bridge and bottom pic is Up stream of the bridge. I can usually get into the creek bottom where all that water is in the middle pic and push/pick up gravel heading towards the bridge (maybe 20' worth of movement is all.) and leave a pile of gravel under the bridge and sometime I have to pull that back as it is washing away under the bridge support on the side up stream for the bridge that arc the creek is making is leaving the bank eroded on the uphill side right of the bridge.


mark

 

[SPIKER]

Today I was out there checking my SAP in the buckets and when I stepped across the creek on my place I took a few pics to show the bottom gravel type that I have and as you can see the flow is from runoff/melt that is going on as it was mid 30's today. clean & clear water most of the year unless they are plowing up stream and or in a high runoff/flood situation.


here are the pics click on thumbnail to see full size of the material I get mostly sand stone as you can see...


hand for ref of size of much of the stone, but a LOT of fines and sand in with it.



the pics above that show the flooding are to my back when looking at these pics and about 20 or so feet down stream is the first one...



shows how clear the water is, when it is down you can find lots of stuff in the creek bottom, no FISH (unless they escape from the pond up hill) but often crawdads and a few salamanders can be found when the woods get real dry under the bigger rocks. just the small common ones never found any of the bigger rare ones. where I keep the bottom deeper (I can keep about 6" ot a foot in about 2 places by damming and or digging down the loose gravel) I'll get some frogs but the coon tend to visit those locations a LOT so they don't last all that long. the woman thinks I'm crazy when I scoop up every one of them and put them in a bucket until I'm done working in there lol. but as soon as it gets dark the skitters come out like mad and you can hear them frogs going after the bugs hehehe

markm