Mud, mud and more MUD !

[DR Buck]

Over a 3 day period, the ground thawed, 33 inches of snow melted and it rained.  :(    I've been here over 12 years and this is the worst I've seen the mud.   My place is pretty flat so there is not much run-off.   It just has to soak in the ground and the ground is saturated.

I've buried the tractor to the frame twice this week trying to get hay to the cows.  They're sinking half way up their legs in mud just walking in the pasture.

I need to move logs to the mill, but I'm afraid the tractor will sink to China.  ;)     The mill and most of the log deck are under the barn roof where it's dry.  But where the rain comes off the roof I already have a huge mud pit at the outer end of my log deck.    I may not be able to get logs to the mill before spring if the ground don't freeze again.  :   

[isawlogs]

Sorry to hear you have mud problems. It has been mild here also , not enough to melt , just staying under the freezing point , wich is good.
  How many cows you keep ???   If ya cant get logs to the mill , it will give you more time to take pics of the mud .

[BcWoodWorks]

Ahhh yeah; the old tractor up to the frame trick. Difficult, and only to be attempted by trained professionals.  :D

Sounds like a terrible mud spree you got going. Here in Northern California the rain has been coming down for days; with no end in sight. The mud is getting pretty bad; I'm almost shocked the big big BIG redwoods around the house haven't come down. Some pines have come down across the road, but no redwoods.

Never a better time for a "rock-lawn" eh Buck?  ;D

[DR Buck]

  How many cows you keep ???   If ya cant get logs to the mill , it will give you more time to take pics of the mud .

I've got 14 head right now.  The herd was up to 42 before the drought 3 yrs ago.  They're Black Angus.   I still haven't tried to increase the number again yet.   I've been selling off the calf crop each season.

Maybe if I get home before dark tomorrow I'll snap some pictures of the mud.   Otherwise it will be Saturday before I can do it.

[Cedarman]

About 15 years ago I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of clay bathroom tile rejects.  They would bring 25 tons at a time every day for over 3 month.  Well over 3000 tons of tile.  I used it to level the log yard.  We put regular rock on top.  With all the log trucks that have come in over the years we now have as much mud as ever.  It is just that we only sink 3".  I know what it is like to work in the mud.  I don't envy you guys with cattle as we used to have to feed in the mud too.  Then when everything is super muddy a big freeze comes and turns all the mud around the wheels to concrete.  Isn't winter great.
DR some of those southern log mats might come in handy.  I think Customsawyer knows how to make them.

[Bibbyman]

We had 4-5" of snow around Christmas and then bitter cold weather for a week that froze things up solid.  But it's been above freezing for a week now and no sun or wind to dry out the sloppy mess.  We've got a lot of gravel to work on but like Cedarman says,  some of it is covered with dirt.  I slop around in it and at the end of the day try to trowel is down with the bucket on the Terex each evening.  Then we have some places where the gravel is too thin for the soft ground under it.  I have a stockpile of gravel to patch the holes.  But now my stockpile has run out. 

It rained night before last and it's been 100% humidity before and since and now it's starting to rain again.  The whole southern half of the state is "green" with rain on the weather radar map and it's moving this way. It'll rain all day.  The county roads are in bad shape – much worse than our private drive.

I just heard the trash collection truck out making a pickup of our dumpster.  I guess he got out without getting stuck.  Of all the heavy things that come in and out of our road, the trash truck is the heaviest.

[Qweaver]

I hate mud but I love our soil here in West virginia.  Two days after the rain stops you can drive a loaded concrete truck on it.  In Texas we have black gumbo and as soon as you break through the first 3" of soil you are stuck up to the axles.  It's awful.  Put rock on it and a year later it has sunk out of sight. 

[treedog]

I feel ur pain!  I,ve been running the family farm for almost 20 years now and have never seen it this wet before for so long.  Muck up feilds everywhere u go.  Alot of hay just ends up in the mud, which magnifies the muck!  Calling for rain 3 out of next 4 days too!  Where in the heck is the RAIN July & August. Not even thinking about loading logs on mill, just too wet!! >:(

[Bibbyman]

The lot is soft and the garbage truck had to turn around in the softest spot. 



The Terex is pretty handy for troweling down ruts over soft spots.

[Tom]

Rain hit us last night and we are inundated.  The rolling thunder last so long that it sounds like trucks on the highway. The driveway was just getting dry enough to fix too.  Now the whole place is soft again.  Troweling doesn't work too good here, other than to make it look better.  There is nothing under the mud but more mud. A Terex or tractor would go down until it got enough surface tension to float.  Trucks and cars drag their undercarriages after about two passes.  Four wheel drive just gets you into deeper trouble.
When we get rain like this, following on ground soaking rain earlier, we are better sitting inside and taking advantage of the one exiting pass to get to work and get home.

I wondere what the wildlife thinks of deluges like this.  I'll bet the ducks are even under cover.

[DanG]

We got the same here, Tom.  Ol' Jim called and said his six-inch guage overflowed before daylight, and the rain didn't stop until after noon. We've got water on top of mud on top of mud.  Don't need to trowel, as the mud is thin enough to seek its own level!

Prediction is, its gonna rain again Sunday! :-\

At least it ain't cold anymore.  High today is supposed to be 74.

[Bibbyman]

I got an update from our local news source - my mom - that the garbage truck got stuck on the country road not far from here.

There is a guy getting gravel out of our creek.  He has a large stock pile up our drive. I went up this morning with the Terex to get a couple of buckets full to patch holes.  One of the truck drivers was there to get haul out gravel to their screener.  I asked him to back haul me a load of screened rock.  He looked a little sheepish.  Said the county came in the last two days and got everything they had.  He was fighting the stock pile because it was frozen.

[Tom]

Does your creek replenish the gravel, or are they leaving you a hole in the ground?

Is it something folks ask you for, or is it considered public property?

[okmulch]

It's plenty wet here in Stillwater too!  After the 12 inches of snow and then rain every third day now it is warming up and not drying up. You should try to move a 40000 pound grinder around these fields we clean up cedar in. We have to set up camp in a high and dry place and cart trees to it to grind. Luckily the track loaders we have do not sink much and do not tear up the landowners ground to much either. Two weeks ago a  large volvo over the road semi with a 54 foot trailer came into load 150 yds of mulch. He got into the field just fine and loaded just fine gave him his paperwork and his truck sank. My big four wheel drive tractor could not pull him out. The ground had thawed in the spot of the truck  by the time he was loaded. What made it worse was we were only 20 feet from the main drive where he would be fine. We had to unload the truck , unhook from the trailer and then the tractor could pull him out. I then hooked the tractor up to the trailer (since the tractor has air brake hookups) pulled the trailer out , rehooked the semi and then reloaded  the mulch. Long day but saved on a wrecker bill and the load still shipped without any damage.

[Bibbyman]

Does your creek replenish the gravel, or are they leaving you a hole in the ground?

Is it something folks ask you for, or is it considered public property?

A couple of good hard rains and all the gravel is back.  Not public.  Most of the gravel is on our property but he has also got permission from two other land owners up and down the stream.  He has to get a permit from the state DNR or someone who come and inspect every now and then.

[Tom]

Would it be advantagous for someone with a stream like that to occassionaly take out the gravel and stockpile it somewhere on the farm for future use or sale?  It sees that it would allow you to gain more gravel from the source. ???

[DR Buck]

The driveway was just getting dry enough to fix too.

Tom, Two questions.  If you fix your driveway:

1) How you gonna keep out the unwanted visitors?
2) Where are the gators gonna go?    :D :D :D

[Tom]

The unwanted visitors don't complain of the driveway, and the gators always go pretty much anywhere they want.  Why, I'd get out of the bathtub if one wanted to use it. :D

[woodmills1]

And I though snow and ice were bad...............but with the foot of blasted ledge and 6 inches of reprocessed asphalt I am workin lika gentleman...exceptin I took an inch off the reprocessed plowing while it wasn't frozen....go back to....ifin it wasa easy everyone woulda be doin it

[Bibbyman]

Would it be advantagous for someone with a stream like that to occassionaly take out the gravel and stockpile it somewhere on the farm for future use or sale?  It sees that it would allow you to gain more gravel from the source. ???

We're in a unique spot where the river (good size stream) coming from north the north makes a sharp bend at the west side of the farm and then cuts across the flood plain and hits the bluff on the east side of the farm and makes a sharp bend back south.  This "meandering" leaves great deposits of gravel.  If not relieved, then the stream tries to jump its banks and cut new channels or at least erodes the banks.  

We've had a number of gravel haulers get gravel out of our stream for the past 25 years.  They tend to come and go.  The payoff for us is having a pretty much all weather road across our farm and our 1/2 mile of private drive well graveled.  Plus all the gravel we need around out sawmill and lot.




Expanding our lot... maybe as many as 100 loads of gravel.





Stream out of its banks last spring.  Bringing more gravel back onto the bars.






Last summer the gravel hauler brough up about 40 loads of gravel to fill behind the sawmill.  Being able to get around there with the Terexs "priceless".

[ErikC]

 One of my often-visited ranches puts in a seasonal bridge, and buys several truckloads of gravel from another rancher 10-15 miles downstream. He has access to several enormous gravel bars on his ranch, and there isn't really any at the other ranch because of the terrain. Every year they joke about paying him to truck the same gravel back upstream for them. Just rentin' it I guess :D

[SPIKER]

I wish I had a little better access to my stream, as I can also haul out gravel to do my drive I have pulled maybe 50 ton out of it in the last 8 years.   Most of it going to back fill nearly 3 feet of pole barn lower corner.

The MUD is not too bad here yet but I have not tried to do much either.  I drove the pathfinder into the garage this week as the exhaust broke.   It was froze enough to ride on top without rutting anything.   It feels like SAP collecting time though as the buds seem to be filling out on the red maples already.   I have been too busy this week to get anything done at the farm.

Mark

[Bibbyman]

It was just about to get where you could walk around some places and not have gumbo stick to your feet.  It was still too wet to think about getting off the gravel with a machine.  Then it started raining again.  Looks like it's going to rain all night and into the morning.

Our firewood inventory for the house is starting to run low.  We use the boxes we made to fill with wood and then take them around the south side of the house with the Terex and put them on our long front porch.  I can get 4 boxes on the porch at a time.  The bitter cold spell we had took a lot of wood but the yard was frozen so I could resupply when one box got empty.  But now we're down to half a box - maybe a few more days' worth - and it don't look like it's going to dry out or freeze up. 

My backup plan is to stack wood in the Mule and bring it around to the south side and fill boxes until it dries up or freezes up again.  A good load in the Mule would probably last us a couple of days if it don't get real cold again.

[Magicman]

I was happy for sawdust yesterday.  We ended up "paving" the whole saw site before the day/job was done.

At least it wasn't cold.  I worked in a Tee shirt.

[DR Buck]

It's raining again !!!! >:(     But I did get out yesterday while the sun was out and get some pictures of the mess I'm dealing with. 

[Ironwood]

Man that is a mess. Hopefully it will firm up soon (dry or freeze).

I dont feel too bad now,  just  have a small area that gets a little messy during frost coming out of the ground.

            Ironwood

[beenthere]

No question it is a mess.

Seems time to make some roads or lanes, and stick to them during the muddy times.

Or not. 

[Magicman]

I just thought mine was bad....     I don't wanta trade..... ;D

[DR Buck]

No question it is a mess.

Seems time to make some roads or lanes, and stick to them during the muddy times.

Or not. 

Some of them are lanes.  The gravel has been swallowed up by the mud and clay.   The 3rd and 8th picture down  as well as in front of the log deck are sections that had about 25 tons of gravel put on it two years ago.

[ErikC]

 Looks all too familiar, but yours is worse I'm glad to say :D There's no easy way sometimes, is there?

[isawlogs]

Buck .. I'll keep my snow , me , if I had to deal with mud like that in the middle of winter, I'd move   :D :

[pineywoods]

Looks like a Louisiana super highway  ;D You obviously don't know about pole roads  :

[Bibbyman]

Another victim of the snow, rain and subfreezing weather;  the blacktop road going into town in starting to break up rather badly in the last couple of days.  There are some large potholes and large sections where the backtop has crumbled and sunk.  I guess the bed under it has thawn and is giving way. 

The road was pretty well beat up before winter started and needs a complete resurfacing but they won't attempt it in the winter and when it warms up enough, they'll just patch it again.  I bet the road gets a 100 times more traffic now than it did in the early 60's when it was built. 

[Faron]

Same problem here.  By the time we fight the mud and get the cattle cared for, I am about beat.  I have work I need done at the mill, but the day hasn't been long enough, or my stamina high enough, to get much done.  We made a good move in December, as it turns out.  We bought a Bush Hog Trail Hand utility ATV to use in feeding cattle.  I can load 700 lbs of feed on it, and take it where it needs to go.  We have cattle on farms up to 10 miles from here.  I'm using our old hog wagon to haul it, and a round bale.  Another bale goes on a wooden frame on the pickup, and away we go!  I am feeding hay on a rock pad, and so far I have been able to get in and out with the bales.  It is just nasty, damp, cold, and depressing. :

[Cedarman]

Back when I worked in the oil service industry we would sometimes drive our big truck onto a big steel bathtub and get pulled to the oil rig by a D9.  Mud up to the tops of the tracks. Once we were done, then a trip back to the road.  Talk about mud.  Being pulled like that is the smoothest ride I have ever been on.

[thecfarm]

I hate to make ruts on my land.Did not do much work in the woods or really anywheres due to all of the rain we had all summer.I'm lucky,I can choice not to get out there and make a mess.Nothing needs to be feed and nothing needs to be sawed.

[Bibbyman]

There is a flood warning on the Missouri River at Chamois, Mo. - thats a little south and down river from us.  We drove down to West Plains this morning and ever major river was running bank full and one was getting out a little.

[DR Buck]

There is a flood warning on the Missouri River at Chamois, Mo. - thats a little south and down river from us.  We drove down to West Plains this morning and ever major river was running bank full and one was getting out a little.

Another day....more rain.   :(     Just heard flood warnings on the radio on the way home.  The Rappahannack  River is over it's banks and Tin Pot Run has flooded a number of local roads.  They even listed our road as closed to flooding.  I just drive around the road closed signs.  My driveway is only 1/4 mile from where they close the road and the flooding takes place about 1 mile further down.

[customsawyer]

It won't be long and you guys will be talking about how dry it is. At least you don't have to change your air filters much. :D

[Coon]

I think ya need to carry a paddle with ya everywhere ya go, Dr_Buck.  That way you wouldn't be up the creek without a paddle.   :D 

Brad.

[pigman]

Went out and fed my cows today and all the mud was gone. It just disappeared.   Maybe it was because of the 10°F we had last night and the high of 15° F today. ;D Those ruts the tractor made last week sure were rough to drive over today.

[Magicman]

Cold weather paving  ???

[DR Buck]

Went out and fed my cows today and all the mud was gone. It just disappeared.   Maybe it was because of the 10°F we had last night and the high of 15° F today. ;D Those ruts the tractor made last week sure were rough to drive over today.

Cold weather paving  ???

Yea.  Ground here refroze today.   I'm facing some pretty rough riding tomorrow when I go out to feed and move some logs to the mill.

[WH_Conley]

I aint goin out. Logs cable skidded when still soft, look like concrete now, cheaper to sit in house. Don't cost near as many blades. Sure getting hungry though. :(

[Bibbyman]

I aint goin out. Logs cable skidded when still soft, look like concrete now, cheaper to sit in house. Don't cost near as many blades. Sure getting hungry though. :(

We sawed Thursday morning to finish up a small order.  Ran into a small flint rock about the size of a pea that was frozen in behind a little knot about the size of my bent knuckle. ZIP! There went a blade!

[moonhill]

I have hit rocks frozen in ice not even in contact with the log, suspended in air/water.  A real drag for sure when you have to de-ice the logs, before takeoff.   

Tim

[Magicman]

Mud is bad enough, but frozen mud and ice...... :-\

My "hidden" rocks are generally in pine rosin that has hardened on the log ends.

[DR Buck]

Mud is bad enough, but frozen mud and ice...... :-\

I had a new mud related experience today.  I went out to move logs and the tractor was froze to the ground. 

It sank into the mud  under the edge of the shed where I park it and the mud froze around the front wheels and locked them down.   Even in low gear 4 wheel drive the tractor wouldn't budge.  :(   I took a digging bar and broke the mud off the backside of the front wheels and got one of them to start spinning.  After about half an hour I was finally able to drag the other wheel out of the frozen mud and after going about 15 or 20 feet it started to turn as well.   I made sure all of the mud was broke off before I parked it again. 

[Reddog]

You folks need to post pictures of these learning experiences. Then we would have some thing to at.

[isawlogs]

    :D :D :D                  

[woodmills1]

I haven't been out for 2 days except to fill the stove and dump construction debris for the new bedroom remodel

[Coon]

  :D  :D    :D   Been ther done that..  I had a snowmobile track freeze in about 3 or 4 inches of slushy ice out on the middle of a lake.  We were out to the lake for the weekend to the ice shacks to do some fishin'.  We decided to move the shacks over to another location.  I went ahead of the other guys and predrilled all the holes in the ice.  This ice was real thick and heavy with the snow on the top so with every hole you drilled you had some water push out on top of the ice creating slush. A fairly large area became slushy.  The day was bright and sunny so this slush took some time to freeze up.  Well we eventually got our shacks moved over, setup and we were catching quit a few fish. I had no need to even start my snowmobile for the next two days.  There was 8 people between three shacks.  Each shack was 8x16 and had fold down beds and a nice wood heater.  It was sunday afternoon before I payed any attention to my sled.  I started it and let it warm up for a while.  Went to take off......... and nothing.....belt was just a smokin before I shut the machine down for I had just discovered the track frozen in three  or four  inches of frozen slush. Needless to say there were more than a few choice words said.   We actually wrecked the snowmobile track when we chiseled the ice to free it.  Those were some expensive fish that weekend and a very good lesson learned.   :D   I just have to laugh at how dumb of a mistake I made.  :D  :D  I still get asked about that one every now and again.   :D  :D

Brad.

[woodmills1]

up till I got the drive fixed this year I would regularly freeze the dump truck to the ground :(

and for all the years with my LT40 I warned ya all to get the feet up before a freezin....did I do that with the new 70....no!    got it up and out of the freeze a week ago when it was rainen and 40, but the remote feed wire packet wouldn't come outta the frozen ice and sawdust ....hadda settle for liftin in place not a new placement.

LIVE and LEARN

and BTW  ifin it wasa easy they would all be doin it :D :D

[stonebroke]

Mud is bad enough, but frozen mud and ice...... :-\

I had a new mud related experience today.  I went out to move logs and the tractor was froze to the ground. 

It sank into the mud  under the edge of the shed where I park it and the mud froze around the front wheels and locked them down.   Even in low gear 4 wheel drive the tractor wouldn't budge.  :(   I took a digging bar and broke the mud off the backside of the front wheels and got one of them to start spinning.  After about half an hour I was finally able to drag the other wheel out of the frozen mud and after going about 15 or 20 feet it started to turn as well.   I made sure all of the mud was broke off before I parked it again. 

Good way to beak your front axle

Stonebroke