floating rocks

[tree-farmer]

Ok I need some backup here. I just finished grading the mile long dirt roard ilive on. Complained to wife that the recent series of freeze thaw cycles had foated a lot of fist size annd larger rocks to the surface.
Got the, you're nuts look, and said its  just erosion. I contend freezing and thaw cycles push rocks to surface.
So what do the members here think?  (I know the cook is always right) but would like some feed back as to others observations.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Freeze thaw cycles do indeed push rocks to the surface.
Here in the north this is a common occurrence
Hence the old saying the only thing this poor land grows is rocks.

[Bay Beagle]

Having a long driveway (one mile) - my #3's, #2's, #57, and all the milling and "crush and run", not to mention crushed concrete - got to have gone south ...... to China ~ but I do know what You mean, they seem to wash up.

[21incher]

We get that every year up here. Every spring I have to roll my yard to push them back down so the mower doesn't hit them. You are right, but better keep it here. ;D ;D

[thecfarm]

My Grandmother has a garden in the same spot for years,since WWII. We,my Father,had one in the same spot. My Father use to plow the garden with a one bottom plow. So there was some deep farrows. We dug some good size rocks out that he would hit with the plow.Than he got a troybuilt tiller. We would still have to get the tractor on the garden to haul out a big rock.
Kinda hard to think that the rocks would come to the surface after all those years.

[snowstorm]

i have dug rocks out of town roads that were 4ft across them. when the road was built there might have ben 2ft of gravel over them. as the years went by the frost pushed them up until they broke through the pavement

[Southside]

You are absolutely right, frost will push rocks up, and there are many a broken water line to support that.  It's not just rocks, fence posts suffer the same fate.  The problem is that you are still wrong.  What are you going to do - go home and say "Honey the guys on the Forum say you are wrong and I am right?"  Why do I suspect the response would be "Well the guys on the Forum can cook you supper then."  :D

[tree-farmer]

You hit the nail on the head Sothside Logger. After a good supper of chicken and rice and home made biscuits I began to see the error in my thinking. Now if I can just convince the rocks  :D

[SwampDonkey]

Between a rock and a hard place, I'm afraid.  ;D :D :D 8)

[thecfarm]

 :D 

[maple flats]

I agree, rocks do rise to the surface, but if your wife asks that thought is all wrong. I'll deny I said it.

[dgdrls]

Ok I need some backup here. I just finished grading the mile long dirt roard ilive on. Complained to wife that the recent series of freeze thaw cycles had foated a lot of fist size annd larger rocks to the surface.
Got the, you're nuts look, and said its  just erosion. I contend freezing and thaw cycles push rocks to surface. 
So what do the members here think?  (I know the cook is always right) but would like some feed back as to others observations.

Tree-Farmer,  did you push back with that comment or simply absorb it??

if it was the latter, you're good,  just fix the drive as needed, keep your head down and never mention the event again 

The burdens we carry for the girls we love ;)
D

[DelawhereJoe]

The only thing I ever get comes floating to the surface around my house is tree roots, mud and mole trails. I wish I had rocks that would just "show up" from nowhere.

[Jeff]

From
https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/how-rocks-appear-your-garden/

Any place that has winters cold enough to freeze the ground might experience the magical appearance of rocks welling up from beneath the surface. This is so common in the eastern U.S. that the rocks are called "New England potatoes."

Here's what makes these stones mysteriously appear. Stones are better conductors of heat than soil, so the stone conducts heat away from the warmer soil beneath it. That colder soil under the rock then freezes before other dirt at the same depth.

Remember that when water freezes it expands. So, when the water in the soil under the rock freezes, it expands and pushes the rock up a little.

When the ground thaws a space is left under the stone which fills with dirt, so the stone rests a little higher. Over a period of time this repeated freezing, expanding, upward push, and filling underneath eventually shoves the rock to the surface.

[thecfarm]

wish no more DelawhereJoe. Your wish has been fulfilled. I will be your wish filler. I have rocks that will make your wish come true. You can have as many as you want.

[DaveinNH]

I grew up in Wisconsin and my first job, outside of family, involved floating rocks. Starting with when I was 14 one of the local farmers would hire us every spring. He would pull a large trailer behind his tractor and we would pick up, and dig out, the new crop of rocks that had come up that winter. This was prior to him plowing his corn fields so he did not break equipment.

[Southside]

wish no more DelawhereJoe. Your wish has been fulfilled. I will be your wish filler. I have rocks that will make your wish come true. You can have as many as you want.

Ray -

You may as well send him your rocks, the glacier took all your top soil and gave it to him already. 

[DelawhereJoe]

No sorry I sadly don't have your topsoil, Delaware is more like a sandbar. The spot I live has about 3-5" of topsoil then 4-5' of clay then sand. Its perfect for holding water during the wet times, the trees are great at protecting the glorious crops of mosquitoes  that I can generate. I would be happy to take your rocks, just start trucking them down here. If you can send me enough I'll make a rock crawling trail for the local jeep clubs.

[justallan1]

I know darned well rocks migrate to the top with the farming I do! We have a field across from my house that I'll get someone to drive my truck while I walk behind and you just flat cannot get them all. If it weren't for the different places that I toss the rocks to hold a hillside or fill a washout, I'm fairly certain my co-workers would think that I spend to much time in the house.
I'll say one thing about this dirt though, it will swallow a 3 foot long bright yellow wrecking bar with a quickness! Although I no longer have proof of this though. :D

[SwampDonkey]

We picked a mountain of rocks off the farm in 4 generations. My father moved a lot of old rock piles from middle of fields to woods and road building and for under new building foundations. You name it. No end to them. They was picked 2 to 3 times a year, before and during planting and after harvest. The piles keep growing, the rocks don't go away. :D

[millwright]

Every few years we run a hydraulic rock picker on the corn and fresh plowed hayfields. It is amazing the amount of rock that appears in just 2-3 years

[Grizzly]

But, you take them same boulders/stones/pebbles down to the lake and toss them in .......... and no float! So why in the fields over and over agin but not on water?????   ;D  And for ours up here a rock picker ain't hardly no good. A loader is pretty much a must with a few challenging a good sized cat. Rocks are best in good fishing areas or scenic drive areas.

That freeze/thaw cycle will heave very large boulders.