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Digging out a pond
There's probably several Air Bases in that area.
I would think a 1,000 pounder with a couple of milli-second delay fuse would be easier, besides the debris would be so far away you wouldn't need to worry about.
A couple of jugs might be enough to convince them to make an 'accidental' release of a live one.
Certainly be less fussing about than Yooper's idea, 'course the neighbours might not agree with either method.
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Digging out a pond
Yea, I thought about dynamite but where do you even buy that stuff? The Forest Service dynamited a couple of ponds nearby for Moose habitat. Guess they should have run the Moose off first. They killed four! I am still not sure exactly how to go about it. How deep of mud can you drive a cat? Like an older one?
Thanks,
BC
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Digging out a pond
Well my caretaker took the tractor out to dig a sump hole today and quickly fell through the sod up to the frame. Got real stuck. I guess the wetland/swamp extends much farther than we thought. Our plan was to dig a sump hole to pump water out from. Plan 2?
Thanks,
BC
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Digging out a pond
The dynamite thing was kinda meant as a joke but is a labor saving method. You cannot purchase dynamite unless you are registered user, like an owner of a stone quarry. They pretty much are even then under tight control and must state each specific purchase. Do you have a quarry near you. They usually have the equipment that can dig it for you.
I wouldn't recommend driving a Cat in all that muck. You will screw it up bad and get it stuck. We have a saying up-north in our marsh area, if you get a D-6 Cat stuck the only thing that gets it out is a D-8. Our neighbor at the hunting property owns stone quarries in Northern Michigan. One late summer/early fall he cut a trail with the dozer. It sunk in and was their till a dry spell the following August when he brought the D-8 in. Said he didn't have anything bigger that he could get back there and was afraid of getting the '8 stuck.
I still think the draglink method is the best and cheapest alternative. Suggest running an ad in regional papers. They will haul them quite a distance to do a job.
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Digging out a pond
Yooper's right, you can't buy dynamite without a blaster's license.
You can however, buy high nitrogen fertilizer & diesel fuel, according to the people in Oklahoma City it works really well.
I wouldn't reccomend anything on tracks for wet stuff, they don't float well and can be a real son-of-a-gun to get out of the muck when they stop moving.
I think the only two realistic possibilities are a) dragline, or b) get a wide pad excavator and wait for freeze-up. A foot or two of solid frost will keep a good sized machine sitting on top of most moose pasture.
Best of luck.
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Digging out a pond
Well, if you have teenagers, you could do what my dad would have done. He would have handed me a snorkle, a shovel and a bucket. He never would spend the money on rental equipment when he had a teenage son who had friends.
From the way it sounds, I'd try some of the drag line options people have listed or hire it out to someone that knows how to handle their equipment in the marsh conditions.
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Digging out a pond
Thanks alot guys. The pond is about 200x250 feet with probably at least a 50 foot ring of soft soil. It would be quite a project. Especially if a 90 foot boom will only drag line out 70-80 feet. Sounds like that may be too much.
The way I see it there are really only two viable options.
Try to drag / rake something across to kill / remove the weeds in the middle. Put in some beneficial bacteria to break down vegetation, sunshade stuff to prevent new from growing and suction dredge it next year.
Or
Get a bulldover / excavator in there this winter when its frozen and go to town. Not sure how effective they would be going through 1 foot of ice to frozen ground? What do you guys think of this?
Thanks again!
BC
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Digging out a pond
With the size of the pond, in the winter an excavator should be able to reach the middle and start digging there. That foot of frozen soil/mud should not be a big problem once the machine starts a hole and gets under the frost to break it out from below. They may also be able to truck the soil away from the pond edge right away.
Dave
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Digging out a pond
The important thing if you want to work on top of the frost is to make sure that the frost gets down as far as possible.
You have to keep the snow cleared away and let the cold get to the ground or water. If snow is allowed to remain it will insulate the ground or water and the heat of the earth will limit the frost penetration or ice build-up.
We do this to make ice roads up here across lakes, rivers and MANY hundreds of miles of swamp to reach mining camps and remote villages.
I would not recomend a dozer, they will chew through the frost and sink in. An excavator will stay on top.
Best of luck.
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Digging out a pond
This is interesting. You might build a bridge to the center. Using a hyd excavator long reach use virgin soil from behind build bridge to center then work your way back out and around. A dozer with wide pads would work removing the spoils.
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10-01-2004, 14:49 
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