One more post tonight then it's bedtime for Bonzo. Here are some pictures of the equipment I am using. I will probably have to rent an excavator down the road somewhere, but I'm going to do all I can with what I have first. I am in no hurry to finish these ponds. We probably won't build our house for a year or two, and the ponds don't have to be finished by then. I'm planning to take my time and do it right. So if it takes me a week to gouge out with the dozer what an excavator can do in a day, I will have fun on the dozer for a week.
First is the tractor. It is just a 38 HP utility tractor with four wheel drive and hydrostatic drive. It's so easy to do blade work with compared to two wheel drive, manual shift tractors I have used in the past. This picture is taken where I was dumping a load of iron ore/dirt mixture on my homemade poor man's gravel sifter I built to sift gravel for my driveway. It's slow going, but does the job. Once I get a shop built and a welder purchased, I will probably build one out of metal with a shaker on it. I have to rake the material over the hardware cloth on this one. But I'm a patient man and can always use the exercise.
Next is the little Komatsu 40 HP dozer I purchased used. The undercarriage had all been replaced and the engine probably had an overhaul before it was exported from Japan as it doesn't smoke and has plenty of power. The hydraulics don't leak a drop anywhere. I love working on it. I never knew pushing dirt and trees was so much fun.
Here is the 2 yard dirt scraper I bought used. My little tractor is underpowered for it when it comes to scraping the solid clay, but it does an excellent job in a more sandy soil. The scraper also does a great job as a grader with the bucket set in the unload position. The box blade follows the hills and valleys a lot, but the scraper takes off the tops and fills in the holes due to its length. I think it will be very handy when I get to the finishing work on the dams. It's manually operated with a rope on the spring-loaded dump lever. I wouldn't want to use it all day long because of that, but it's fine for a while.
That's all for now. Next time I'll post pictures of the settling pond and bring it up to date as of last weekend. Right now, this old man needs some sleep.
