Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Dry Season Pond Maintenance -- and Tractor Bathing

Each year about this time I try to do a lot of pond maintenance. The water is almost always low, the springs and wet spots are almost dry. I clean out the settling ponds with the backhoe or a landscaping rake.

This is the lowest this pond has ever been in our six seasons with it. It is about three feet below normal. I started cleaning up the shoreline and mucky areas last weekend with the landscape rake. Once around the pond, and it was too slippery to go around a second time. So, I waited a week. This afternoon I went around again. This will give an idea of how low the pond is below normal.


The two dark areas, on the left and right, are catfish caves. They are well underwater about 10 months out of the year.


As I was almost done. I guess I backed in a little too far.




Come-alongs, chokers, and logging chains sure good to have around.

Once I got it out, my poor little baby tractor was kind muddy.


It was taken to the barn for a shampoo and blow dry -- leaf blowers are wonderful.

My grand daughter thought the whole thing was rather humorous.



Happy tractorin'
Ken

Wow, Ken, that really is low compared to when I was there. My small pond is probably down a foot to a foot and a half. I don't know how it's been historically since we've only had the farm for a year, but last year it never got even near this low.

Glad you got the tractor out! That looks like it was probably quite an adventure!

Ken,

Too bad you do not have a quick attach on your FEL.

One thing you could do then is weld a 3pt quick hitch to a quick attach plate and use 3pt implements on your FEL. You could also make an extension to give you further reach for such tasks. Then you could keep your tractor on solid ground for such tasks.

I plan on rigging one up in the near future.

Glad you got out OK.

Todd,

When you finally pull the trigger on your tractor, make sure you get a quick attach on the FEL.

Best couple hundred bucks I ever spent. I change stuff all the time and it only takes seconds.

Good input. I was looking at that feature on the Kubota when I last went to the dealership. Neat functionality and not much of a price difference.

It looks like the tractor came close to being the coolest and most expensive structure in your pond Ken.

Naw! I still had at least another three feet before serious danger. But, I am seriously thinking of installing a winch on the front of the tractor.

I don't get seriously mired with either the truck or the tractor very often, but when I do . . .

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I did the same thing yesterday. There is still a major clump of nastiness where the main water source dumps into the pond. I tried to take it out. I failed. In the famous words of Yogi Berra -- "Déjà vu all over again."

Good muckn'
Ken

TWICE? They say the third time is the charm!!!!

Now you've got me worried. I was hoping to have enough time to get the backhoe down to the pond this coming weekend before the autumn rains begin.

I guess, on the positive side, the backhoe would be better fish structure than a landscape rake.

Ken

Hey, it could be worse. You could be a mugging victim in the UK!

Ken:

I picked up a pertty stout winch from harbor freight that is portable and attaches to a battery with alligator clips. I think it's rated @ somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 pounds depending on the type of pull. <$100.00 It comes with a quick mount that you slip over a trailer ball. It's come in handy many a time!

Hey Todd, quite a few of my friends have been recently mugged in the UK. Luckily, I've been too cheap to bail them out.

Scott, I've often wondered whether those winches were worth having.

DD1, I bought it so I could slide large pieces of firewood onto the trailer and cut them down to size at the house. The nearest town piles downed trees in the Maintenance yard and allows people to come and get the wood. Most people have smaller saws (it seems) and all that was left were maple and a few pieces of Mulberry that were 36" to over 50" thick. If I cut them 80" long they fit on the trailer width wise.

When I cut the Mulberry down, each cookie that was 16" thick weighed 330#.

It worked fine for that. One deep cycle battery, and I was good to go. It has a control on a lead that is about 12' long, so a person can get out of the way when winching.

Glad I don't need one for firewood. I have somewhere just North of a zillion post oak trees. If it's a large tree I leave it. There are plenty that I can cut on and not have to do much splitting.