Shawn T. W.
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2025
- Messages
- 63
- Location
- SW Missouri Ozarks
- Tractor
- Massey Ferguson GC 1725 MB - Kubota L5030 - John Deere Z960M
Finishing the job, hopefully I'm finally done!
When I bought this place 3.5 years ago, the right of way on the private road did not convey, so they put in a new “driveway” out through the hayfield, but all they really did was scrape off about 4” of sod, and spread out 4” thick of 1” base, which is 1” rock down to basically sand or “fines” … they put it right through a swampy section of the field … I brought in just under a million pounds of rock and gravel, put in three culverts, and dug over 600’ of ditch, which I had never done before, all with my tiny little SCUT … I found out that there is a 2.5’ rise from the road, before it starts going downhill to my creek out back, so … the ditch got quite deep, which I “mowed” with my 5’ brush hog, but the sides were steep, especially near the utility pole, as I didn't want to get too close to that . . . I fiddled with it off and on when I was home and it was raining, trying to get it to drain and flow properly. Finally this spring I was satisfied, but it was nearly 3’ deep in places!
I got 200’ of 4’ flexible pipe, and already had some 6” pipe sections, that I used for “connections” by sliding the 4” into the 6” a foot or so, covering with a double layer of weed barrier, figured that it would let and ground water in there, drilled a few small holes in top of other sections covering with more weed barrier … made “ends” out of ¼” hardware cloth to keep snakes out … and started to reduce the sides down by scraping and pushing it on top of the piping … I ran out of time, but got most of it done …
I had trouble scraping it, as if it was soft enough to dig in, it would push the back sideways, even though I had filled tires, 70 steel wheel weights on each side, plus 200 Lbs of weight plates I made a way to mount to my BH frame ...
Only the top few inches were soft enough to scrape, once the sod out of the way, then it was too hard, after trying a few different things, I used my rototiller to dig it up, then I could move it with the rear blade!
Since I got a bigger tractor to pull a bigger mower, I needed to get this done, but had to trim some of the trees along the private road that overhung the field to clear my cab, so that was the first order of business.
Step ladder and chainsaw, forks to carry the branches away ...
A full load!
When I bought this place 3.5 years ago, the right of way on the private road did not convey, so they put in a new “driveway” out through the hayfield, but all they really did was scrape off about 4” of sod, and spread out 4” thick of 1” base, which is 1” rock down to basically sand or “fines” … they put it right through a swampy section of the field … I brought in just under a million pounds of rock and gravel, put in three culverts, and dug over 600’ of ditch, which I had never done before, all with my tiny little SCUT … I found out that there is a 2.5’ rise from the road, before it starts going downhill to my creek out back, so … the ditch got quite deep, which I “mowed” with my 5’ brush hog, but the sides were steep, especially near the utility pole, as I didn't want to get too close to that . . . I fiddled with it off and on when I was home and it was raining, trying to get it to drain and flow properly. Finally this spring I was satisfied, but it was nearly 3’ deep in places!
I got 200’ of 4’ flexible pipe, and already had some 6” pipe sections, that I used for “connections” by sliding the 4” into the 6” a foot or so, covering with a double layer of weed barrier, figured that it would let and ground water in there, drilled a few small holes in top of other sections covering with more weed barrier … made “ends” out of ¼” hardware cloth to keep snakes out … and started to reduce the sides down by scraping and pushing it on top of the piping … I ran out of time, but got most of it done …
I had trouble scraping it, as if it was soft enough to dig in, it would push the back sideways, even though I had filled tires, 70 steel wheel weights on each side, plus 200 Lbs of weight plates I made a way to mount to my BH frame ...
Only the top few inches were soft enough to scrape, once the sod out of the way, then it was too hard, after trying a few different things, I used my rototiller to dig it up, then I could move it with the rear blade!
Since I got a bigger tractor to pull a bigger mower, I needed to get this done, but had to trim some of the trees along the private road that overhung the field to clear my cab, so that was the first order of business.
Step ladder and chainsaw, forks to carry the branches away ...
A full load!
