Lesson Learned on being nice

[Eric_Phillips]

Well we finally got a good snow so I thought I would be nice and snow blow a path for my wife to dump the manure for her horses. Well she spent thousands of dollars last summer on a contractor to make her a riding ring. So after he tore up a whole acre of pasture and screwed up the swale I had to drain the area he presumably regraded it all to drain better. That is why there was standing water out there again this fall and everywhere he backfilled was literally about 1-2' deep mud. Well I thought since it had been in the teens for several days that it would be frozen, my mistake. So the shortest way to the manure pile is across this area. I started out with my Gravely snow blower and once I realized my problem it was too late. With almost no ground clearance It was buried to the axles in no time. Ok so get the Farmtrac out and pull it out. Needless to say it is now next too the Gravely half way up to the axles in mud and not going anywhere. I think they are destined to live there until mid summer when it will hopefully dry out a little. I have a feeling I will be lucky if the handles of the gravely are still sticking out of the mud by then and the Farmtrac isn't lower than than the axles. I have a friend with an 85hp JD that is about 6 miles away. This summer we may be able to drive it over and use about 50' of chain to keep it on dry ground and pull the other two out. Thanks for letting me rant.

Eric

 

[Ezlivn]

Dude that sux!! Like the ole saying...."Nice guys finish last"!!
Good luck to ya man!

 

[Coyote machine]

Sorry to hear you are stuck. Can you get the guy who caused the mess to pull you out, on his dime? Since he created your quagmire the least he can do is get you out of it. Waiting till spring may be an option but not a good one for your equipment ,which I'm sure you will need to use before spring?!
Push back !

 

[jake98]

Eric, are you sure it's right to blame a guy that did some grading for you for your bog-land?
Jake

 

[Mark_in_NH]

Why would you want leave your equipment sitting buried in mud and wait until spring ?
Grab a length or 2 of chain and get hold of a 4x4 truck, can your friend with the big JD come help you now ? Heck call a wrecker if thats what it is going to take.

 

[jake98]

Mark, it doesn't take a wrecker to get a snow-blower out of the mud.

 

[rambler]

Eric, are you sure it's right to blame a guy that did some grading for you for your bog-land?
Jake

Probably not right, but it sounds like he did a much less than expected job of it, and it feels good to rant on people that did you wrong, whether it is exactly 'fair' or not.

Without the snow there now, the cold snap we are getting should freeze the ground out that way now. I would try real hard to get the wheels free of being trapped in mud, and you should be able to tow them out - or even walk the loader tractor out on it's own - as the ground freezes up here.

Snow is a good insulator, while we have had minus 30 degrees the past 2 days, I'm not at all worried about the pipes or ground freezing very deep, because we have had close to 2 feet of snow first, keeping the deep frost out of the ground. Other years when it is only down to zero, without snow that frost can go 3-4 feet deep in a hurry.

--->Paul

 

[GPintheMitten]

Well, I think you should get your snow shoes on and walk out there and put a rope or something on the equipment so you can find it next spring when it is sunk below the mud.

 

[The Haymaker]

While he may have messed up the swale, I'd not blame him for the mud. If the area is wet, it's gonna take some time for that new ground to compact and stabilize enough to hold up equipment, I'd say a year unless you get some serious grass-matt to take hold.

Ditto on the snow being a good ground insulator. We've been COLD here for a month, below freezing during the day and 0 at night. yet, while cleaning up the storm today I still had to be careful not to peel up unfrozen sod.

So, add a layer of insulating snow on top of the huge reservoir of heat the earth holds, and the mud will stay, well, mud, for quite some time unless there are some extreme low temps for long periods of time. That's why the ground heaves and water mains freeze on cold snowless winters vs. winters with early, heavy, snowfall.

Anyway, no way would I leave my equipment out to sit until spring. I'd dig and blast if I had to. Let it sit there for long, and blasting will be the answer. The ground you've peeled the snow from is going to freeze quickly.

 

[deepNdirt]

I believe i would get my equipment out of there, if you don't your going to be having Horse dung piling up on one side of the other while blocking this so called path to the disposal area, and then what you going to have to dig out of