Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam It's not always about the fish

I am enhancing a wetland. Berms are not tall but in many places 100 feet wide. Working in the trees is taking a lot of extra time. It should be great for water fowl.

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Cool Stacy...What part of north central MO? I spent most of my youth living in Boonville and still have a lot of family there.

I would imagine that I'm about 60 miles northwest of Booneville. Or 40 west of Moberly to Brunswick and then about 10 miles north north west.

I put the land in the WRP program in the late 1990's. This particular piece I planted tree's on. I also had one parcel that I built a 100 acre duck lake on and another with a 45 acre duck lake. I would imagine the one I'm doing now will be around 20-25 acres.

Today was the first time I've run a dozer. I don't need it for the wetland but I thought it might be a good time to get used to it. I plan to use it when I build my lake. I hate to embarrass myself in front of a lot of spectators. I purchased the dozer from a farmer in North Dakota. [url=][/url]

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Stacy -- that is a pretty great looking toy. It takes a little practice to get proficient, if you haven't spent much time in something similar. If you haven't spent much seat time in a machine like that, find a construction project where they are using machines of similar size. Carefully watching old greybeards operating these things can be invaluable.

Just don't get carried away. Sitting in that cab can make you feel very powerful and invincible. I hope you don't decide to "remodel" the house. The front porch or kitchen can be removed in less than a minute.

I keep thinking I need to again get a machine to do a little landscaping. I keep looking at CAT 953s and 963s.

I'm not a professional dirt mover. But, I've bought some pretty rough looking machines, used them for several projects while cleaning them up, and then selling them for a lot more than I paid for them.

And then there are the ones that you have to sell by the pound. Dozers of any kind can eat cash at about the same rate as corvettes.

Thanks for the advice and the chuckle Catmandoo. I also recently bought a 64,000 pound excavator. I'm quick to admit that I am not proficient. But Lord willing I will be fairly Efficient soon. ......... I've had more fun running large track loaders than any other equipment I've ever run. I had a John Deere 750 series ll last fall. It only had 900 hours on it when it was totaled by a fire. 180 horse 50,000 pounds will push out a big tree. I did not have a good experience with my insurance company.

Dave, I told my wife it's not hard to make a 40 or $50,000 mistake buying a dozer. This machine had $50,000 spent on it in the last 500 hours It has just over 4000 hours on it.

There will be times when the Duck lake is drained. So I dug a small pond so the deer would always have a drink.

. I hope to be ready to put the stop log structure in on Tuesd

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catmandoo..my brother bought a used skid-steer for our
place and I've yet to try it out. I want to learn how to use
it, but I am fairly claustrophobic and have hesitated thus
far, about all I could do was get in it, pull the cab down,
and then I needed out! lol...i'm sure sooner or later I will learn how to use it.

Zep, The first time I closed the door on my compact track loader, It really bothered me But after just a little use I felt comfortable.

I'd like to get a Deere CT315, but I have never run a compact track loader. My brother runs all kinds of equipment so I need to drag him around looking at machines the next time he visits. My loader on my compact tractor just isn't enough and digging is really hard on it.

We put to stop-log and 84 foot of 12" SDR 35 pipe on Tuesday.

I've cut through five tile lines. I think The tile was installed in the 1930s. I hope we've compacted enough gumbo around the tile that it will not cause us problems.

This farm was once owned by, David Rankin, the biggest farmer in the United States. That is, he was the biggest farmer in the late 1800s and little early 1900s. He grew 18,000 acres of corn a year and fed all of it.

RAH, I love my compact track loader. It has 97 hp and will really do a lot of work fast. But if you're going to spend quite a bit of money on one (35k-50k) You might want to consider a steel track loader

Please blame my stupid phone For any spelling Or grammar errors. Also blamed it for the capital letters where they do not need to be capital letters

The CT315 is only 45HP but it is a new model. I saw some very low hour used ones for the low 30s. I bought a very old track loader from the 60's and ended up selling it for scrap after it through a rod through the side of the engine. I did not accomplish enogh to justify the money that I spent on it, and a replacement engine could not be had. I used to do all my own mechanical work, but I just do not want to spend my time doing that any more. My dilemma is paying someone to do work vs. buying a machine(s). I'd like a compact excavator and a compact track loader, but they still won't be sufficient to build a couple pond projects that I want. They will however be very useful for some wetland and trail projects, and in burying some very large piles of concrete with rebar "rat nests". I have over a hundred acres of habitat restoration ahead of me and plans for the next 200 years.

P.S. I love those AgriDrain water control structures!