The gully to pond project

[pacerron]

I can start my TLB, but as soon as I move the shuttle to fwd or rev, a loud horn goes off. The only thing that will keep my TLB from starting is the shuttle out of neutral. I can start in any gear as long as the shuttle is neutral.

Nothin too fancy up here. Mine's just an ole stick shift with 12 synchronized gears forward and 12 reverse with a clutch. Kinda thrillin to yank the forward reverse lever/shuttle back and pop the clutch in 12th gear. Better hold on tight and have your mirror adjusted just right.

 

[ronjhall]

The photo below shows the two hoses that blew out. The first one circled in red shows an over-bend bubble at the fitting. This fitting should have been rotated forward. That's the way the other side is, and it has no bubble at all. I installed the new one correctly. The 2nd hose is the bottom one in the stress relief clamp. It just gave up from old age and fatigue since I regularly swing the backhoe boom to full left and right. It's going to be a challenge because I have to get big wrenches into tight spots.

EDIT:I have to tell a funny story on myself. Yesterday, I started the backhoe and noticed a red light on the panel did not go out. OH BOY! Just what I need. I didn't have my glasses on, but it looked like a low oil pressure light. . . now it's gettin' really bad! I got off the tractor and checked the oil. It was only down about 1/2 qt, but I refilled it anyway. I restarted the engine and the light was still there.:confused3: I was ready to just shut off the engine and walk back to the house when my hand bumped the parking brake handle and the light went off. Sheesh! I put on my glasses and could easily see that the light had a big "P" on it instead of the engine symbol. What a dope! . . . but a lucky dope.

My old boss would remind me that this problem would not exist if I had been wearing my prescription safety glasses.

 

[jinman]

I sure have a lotta-watta in my ponds. So far for this storm we have 1.5", and the ponds are looking good. I took a few photos from my 3rd floor balcony this morning. There's no way I am going down there to take close-up photos until it drys up some. I'd be slipping all over the place and the red clay sticks to your shoes like glue. Even so, I think I can tell that my new dam survived without the water going over. I'll be able to continue building it when the weather drys out for awhile.

The first picture below is the overall view from my balcony. You can easily see that the center of the dam needs to come up another foot. That's what I found out last week when I put a level line across the middle. It's still above overflow, so I'm not too worried. You can see that the water has risen behind the dam in the 2nd pond. I'll not be driving across the basin anymore. I'll have to find a new path. The 2nd photo shows a close-up of as much as can be seen from my balcony. The third photo shows the overflow from pond 1 to pond 2. I don't have the culvert pipe installed yet because I've been spending all my time hauling clay to the 2nd dam. The 1st pond is about 6" down from overflow. When I get my hoses replaced on my backhoe, I'll finish the culvert.

EDIT: Oh yes, remember those gullies I filled to make a road to haul clay? I didn't put any culverts in my road across the gullies, so I'd bet there's some repair work to do to my clay highway.

 

[beppington]

Jim - Are you concerned that once water starts flowing over the dam(s), they'll wash out & you'll have to retrieve the washed out soil? (or bring in new)

 

[jinman]

Water won't go over the almost finished dam because I have the trench for the culvert dug and it is lower than the dam (see photos). Also, the back of the dam is higher than the water side by at least a foot. I guess the trench could wash out if we really had a gully washer rainstorm, but we missed that with this storm. I should have the overflow culvert installed by this weekend.

On the 2nd dam in progress, yes I'm a bit worried about it overflowing and partially washing out, but that's a chance I'll have to take until I can get it completed and it's overflow culvert installed. I have not built the terraces to turn all the runoff into this pond yet. Only overflow from the first pond and a small runoff are feeding the 2nd pond. Even at that, the water depth is significant. I can't see me having any trouble with getting the ponds filled each spring with normal rainfall. I'm a bit worried that my 1st pond may need to be topped up during the hot summer months, but who can predict that with any certainty. In drought years, every pond is stressed.

I just looked out at my pond again to see if it is dry enough to go exploring. What did I see? TURTLES! At least four turtles have made the trek from my lake area all the way up to my new ponds. My wife saw one of them walking through the grass on the way to the pond. They have to go 700 ft uphill to get here. How do turtles know where there's water?:confused3: They didn't mess around at all. They just walked straight to the water. Amazing!!!

 

[beppington]

I just looked out at my pond again to see if it is dry enough to go exploring. What did I see? TURTLES! At least four turtles have made the trek from my lake area all the way up to my new ponds. My wife saw one of them walking through the grass on the way to the pond. They have to go 700 ft uphill to get here. How do turtles know where there's water?:confused3: They didn't mess around at all. They just walked straight to the water. Amazing!!!

Wow, that is amazing! They must have built-in humidisensors! Or pond-ometers!

 

[txdon]

Jim we got 3.6" last night and there are washed out and flooded roads everywhere. My 6" overflow is in use for the first time in 4 years. The water is still about 4" from going over the spillway as seen in the second picture.

 

[jinman]

Don, that is so "Texas" to have drought one year and more water than you know what to do with the next. Gotta love it! I'm glad your pond overflow works as planned.

The advantage I have for my ponds is one overflows to the next, then the next, and so on until it ends up in the lake. Currently all the runoff from my property goes through the ponds where we had our picnic, but soon it will fill three ponds before getting there.:thumbsup:

BTW: I just checked and the gully road did not wash out. I had one gully top the road, but washout was only minor. A little repair and I'll be back in the clay haulin' b'ness.

 

[pacerron]

Jim we got 3.6" last night and there are washed out and flooded roads everywhere. My 6" overflow is in use for the first time in 4 years. The water is still about 4" from going over the spillway as seen in the second picture.

If you just had a big "ball valve" on the "T" below where the water is coming out, you probably would never have to worry about water getting as high as your spillway and have infinite depth control between the "T's"
Is the small pipe for connecting an aeration pump?
I was thinking that during the summer when there is no danger of an overflow you might cap the big pipe on the top and pump air back into your pond bottom that way.
Ron

 

[pacerron]

I just looked out at my pond again to see if it is dry enough to go exploring. What did I see? TURTLES! At least four turtles have made the trek from my lake area all the way up to my new ponds. My wife saw one of them walking through the grass on the way to the pond. They have to go 700 ft uphill to get here. How do turtles know where there's water?:confused3: They didn't mess around at all. They just walked straight to the water. Amazing!!!

They are probably just surveying your new dam for their new nesting site.
Is turtle soup on the menu at the Inman house?

 

[jinman]

No turtle soup here, Ron, but they make good targets.

The rain was really less than I thought. The two pictures below show the water only rose a little over 1 foot and the dam was never in danger. The dam shows little evidence of any erosion.

 

[pacerron]

The dam shows little evidence of any erosion.

We all really enjoy seeing the progress you are making but perhaps you should step back and have an extra cup of java in the morning and think about your safety before going back on that wet, slippery clay dam with buckets of dirt.
A few springs ago I decided to add some fill to the center of my dam. The grass surface felt firm and the tires were not getting damp at all. As I
was approaching the area where I was going to dump the load my back loaded wheel got in a little dip along the water side edge and the other rear wheel raised off the ground about a foot. Even though I immediately stopped and dropped the bucket on the ground; the front end began slipping toward the water too. I jumped off onto the dam and waited to see many thousands of dollars of equipment slide into the pond....
Fortunately that didn't happen but I sure wasn't getting back on as it might go anytime. I had to drive to town and lead a big tow truck, like used for semi wrecks, back to our place since it is in the middle of nowhere, all the time wondering if the tractor would still be on the dam or under water when we got back.
The tow truck operator was really a genius by the way he rigged multiple cables from his boom and he pulled the tractor back to the center of the dam width. He even backed the tractor off the dam for me.
Those of us that have had a lot of seat time think we can control any situation but some times we just aren't cautious enough when we want to get something done.
Please be careful.
Ron

 

[txdon]

Is the small pipe for connecting an aeration pump?
Ron

No, it's for a gated water depth gauge (clear tubbing) that was attached to the side of the large pipe when the pond was filling so I would know how high to build the bridge to the island. I didn't have a transit back then.

Jim, looks like you are doing something right with such little erosion on the dam.

 

[jinman]

Those of us that have had a lot of seat time think we can control any situation but some times we just aren't cautious enough when we want to get something done.
Please be careful.
Ron

Ron, that's good advice. I've found that with a 20k lb TLB, you better know what you are doing when it is dry, much less when it is wet. This tractor is so heavy that it creates ruts from just driving across dry topsoil. My road becomes washboarded often and I have to add materials or grade with the loader bucket. I regularly take my 4wd TLB into spots where a 2WD model would be helplessly stuck. I cannot over-emphasize the effect of having 1-1/2 yards of damp materials in the bucket while driving down a steep slope. Front wheel braking is just as important as 4wd.

If you look at the dam's surface, you can see that it slopes down from the front lip at almost the same angle as the slope of the hillside. I am working to get a wide flat area on top of the dam, but incoming storms made me think I should build up the front lip to prevent overflow. With a sloped dam, there have been some pucker events, but I'm pretty proud of how overly cautious I am. I know that the cost of an 18-wheeler type wrecker is not something I want to pay. I don't even want to think of the cost of an ambulance.

 

[pacerron]

Ron, that's good advice. I've found that with a 20k lb TLB, you better know what you are doing when it is dry, much less when it is wet. This tractor is so heavy that it creates ruts from just driving across dry topsoil. My road becomes washboarded often and I have to add materials or grade with the loader bucket. I regularly take my 4wd TLB into spots where a 2WD model would be helplessly stuck. I cannot over-emphasize the effect of having 1-1/2 yards of damp materials in the bucket while driving down a steep slope. Front wheel braking is just as important as 4wd.

If you look at the dam's surface, you can see that it slopes down from the front lip at almost the same angle as the slope of the hillside. I am working to get a wide flat area on top of the dam, but incoming storms made me think I should build up the front lip to prevent overflow. With a sloped dam, there have been some pucker events, but I'm pretty proud of how overly cautious I am. I know that the cost of an 18-wheeler type wrecker is not something I want to pay. I don't even want to think of the cost of an ambulance.

Jim,
Glad you took my "motherin" the right way.

There are only 3 types of equipment operators:
1. Careful
2. Crippled
3. Creamated

Maybe related to the above...
1. Half deaf
2. Hemroidial
Anybody think of any others?
Ron

 

[beppington]

Jim,
Glad you took my "motherin" the right way.

There are only 3 types of equipment operators:
1. Careful
2. Crippled
3. Creamated

Maybe related to the above...
1. Half deaf
2. Hemroidial
Anybody think of any others?
Ron

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.

 

[jinman]

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.

They also say that every landing you walk away from is a good landing, but I'm not so sure of that when it comes to tractoring. I've walked away from some stuck tractors that were not what I'd call good.

 

[jinman]

AARGH! Double AARGH! I just had to let it out. Wow! I hate changing big hydraulic hoses in tight spots. You have to use huge wrenches (30mm to 44mm) and there is just no room for them. Often, you have to remove hoses just so you can get to the one you are working on. Once you get the wrench in place, you find you a whole 1/4" play to work with. Sheesh! I would just shoot myself if I had to do this for a living.:mur: I won't go into all the messy details, but I got my old hoses off and my new ones on with no leaks and no knuckles busted. That's a major achievement for me. I'm thrilled to be back in business and hope that the three toughest hoses that I've now replaced will be good for many more hours of stick time.

BTW: Here's my tip. If you have a busted hose, you can cut it right behind the fitting using an angle grinder and then use a large socket and extra long extension to remove the fitting. That won't help you install the new one, but it will get the old one broke loose in an emergency.

Okay, my hydraulic hose rant is over and I'm back to hauling clay. Happy days are here again.

 

[jinman]

Jim,
If you did it for a living you would have a tool box worth more than your Wife's car with all kinds of neat custom tools bent, angled, and ground down for this kind of thing.

Brandi, if I did this for a livin', I'd have a few fingers and arms ground down and bent to fit.:laughing: