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Terracing my property
Reberta, I happened to notice your posting on your problem and figured why not get your head spinning even more. No, just kidding, landscaping has been my life so let's see if I can help a bit.
Tom and Murf have you started in the right direction and I have to agree with them for safety, and because of your equipment size you are out gunned, don't worry though.
Murf was right you should grass the slope. The area is simply to narrow and steep to be elaborate when simple works. Being that narrow in width you have to enjoy it by looking down on it or up at it.
Not seeing the project makes it a little hard to know what ground prep or proper equipment is needed. It isn't that big of area so even with the slope it will not require a lot of equipment time. Ask around and I am sure you can find the right contractor to do the job ( landscaper or excavator.
Without seeing the area it is hard to tell if the ground you have will grow grass without topsoil. But it sounds like you have planted on it. You might be able to rake and seed the area yourself. It looks like hand work to me. August to October is best for most of the US for planting. I would be glad to help you with the proper seed selection but I would need some more information first and we would also have to discuss what erosion control should be used.
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Terracing my property
I was thinking about this on my way back from town yesterday. I noticed a loose rock retaining wall and several railroad-tie walls. We used 8" square timber from old rejected guard-rail posts for retaining walls. We're in the deep country here too and I appreciate the problem of contractor availability. Usually there is somebody who does township work in most areas. They do have fill time and that's the way the work gets done for private individuals asked or not. A small contractor can't schedule small jobs for individuals during the time they're contracted to do work for the only major client in an area. Get to know contractors who work in you area and you'll find out when they have slack time. Then you can do prep work and have fill-in work ready to go when a contractor is available. Please appreciate the safety comments made here as well. Our contractor's equipment got him once and he is an artist with it. He ended up in hospital with broken everything not expected to live let alone walk again. He still works and still is an artist and is very lucky. Accidents do happen even to very experienced operators.
Sound like Bvan might be able to speak to the visual aspects of your project. What was on my mind is that erosion may be a problem once the ground is broken and terraces without retaining wall likely would end up as dirt banks. If the idea to make walking around the property easier, walking up a terraced slope probably would be more difficult than the present slope unless stairs were installed.
I personally like the idea of plotting terraces sort like contour lines on a topo map rather than cutting straight lines across a slope. If I were going to do something like that It'd be an excuse for me to buy a decent GPS. I'd measure a set of equal divisions down one side of a slope and then do walks from each point across the slope that maintained constant elevations or sloped them about 4-degree for good drainage to the side. Getting the a plan in mind and plotting the terraces would save a contractor a bunch of time.
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Terracing my property
Hi Tom
It's been a while since my last posting, as if you didn't know that.
Been doing some serious planing that includes the good possibility of not having to use retaining walls. From the terraces there will be a gradual slope up to the next terrace and so on. Actually decided on two levels instead oif the original 4 or 5, I think it will be much easier going, Acquired a new implement (different than the one that came with the tractor). It is a Gearmore hydrolic box scraper - heavy duty type stuff, dicided not to play around. Also aquired a chipper shredded to run off the Bota, that is also commercial heavy duty.
Been "playing" around with my south slope which is an incline from the house, The slope I've been in a quandry about is the north slope which is a decline from the house - both begin about 75' from the house on either side. Kinda fun actually, but boy my legs were sure tired the first day from the tension put on the gas pedal, Oh you probably remember how it was when you first began to do something a little out of the ordinary with your tractor, huh?
Another decision that I made was to keep contractors out of it. If I couldn't do it, it didn't need to be done, right?, right!!! About safty - I've been reading all there is to know about it, but the best teacher doesn't come from books, it comes from first hand experience, slow, slow, slow, and thank you for all the suggestions you and the others have posted, and I do greatly appreciate them.
Oh I agree with you on platting terraces like on a topo map, yes, yes, and, I just happen to have a GPS.
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Terracing my property
First of all, good for you, go for it.
Good choice on buying a heavy duty quality implement too.
Now on to the dry advice section.
The GPS is excellent for certain tasks but working on a slope with equipment is a situation where you want to keep your eyes on the task at hand, not an LCD screen. Use the GPS unit, or just a couple of lengths of rope for that matter, to set out 'Batten Boards' (or stakes) at each end of the runs you will be making, you start at one and aim for the opposite one to keep yourself online with each pass. That way you can concentrate on your driving.
One tip I have for you is to start the whole operation by stripping off any topsoil there is and piling it off to the sides, you will want to put it back on top of the finished product, no use buying what you buried earlier.
The other idea is to strip as much soil as the box will hold then pick it up with the loader, assuming you have one, and get a second box full with the blade, this will speed up the task considerably. Also, if I remember correctly you have pretty stiff soil, if your box has scarifiers, use them first, it will make the scraping go MUCH easier and faster.
Don't be afraid to ask even the smallest question, and most importantly, BE CAREFUL.
Best of luck.
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Terracing my property
Murf
I certianly will use the stakes as you suggested. Had planned on using the GPS on the walk around route, not while I'm driving.
I'm ahead of you on stripping off the top soil, and, using the loader and box scrapper in combination, except that when picking up the dirt from the box I have to back over it first because there is no room to turn around. Yes I do have very stiff soil in most places but have not used the scrifers - I will. Didnt know that is what they were called, I call them plow forks. I can lower them to a depth of 1', how deep should I go?
Another question. As I mentioned previously there are 2 roads at 2 different levels running parallel to the area I will be terracing. I wand to make a turn around from the top road at the bottom of the slope to the lower level road. There is about an 8' drop between them. I think it will have to almost be a switch back, but even at that I don't know where to begin, top, bottom? And this needs to be done before starting seriously on the terrace. What are your suggestions?
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Terracing my property
Good to hear that you waded through the safety stuff here and still decided to make it a do it yourself project. Also good to hear that I was taken to mean doing a walk around with the GPS. I'd probably do it while carrying a spray can of marker paint (they spray when upside down). A sack of flour works too.
I hope the 'hydraulic' part of the box is a top-link rather than retractable scarifiers. I think of hydraulic top-links as almost essential for box scraper work. I control how my scraper works almost entirely with the top-link and seldom tough the 3ph except for dumping the box. You can switch from cut to drag to spread on the fly with one. Sounds like you're doing pretty good if you're getting good initial results. For most people it takes a bit of practice with a box before they start getting acceptable results or taking all day doing it.
The scarifiers need to be down only deep enough to loosen to the depth of cuts you are making. On side-grades, it might be useful to have the uphill scarifiers set deeper than the downhill ones but you'd probably pull them all up after a few passes since you wouldn't want them cutting below the intended surface of the finished terraces. Over all, the deeper they are, the more traction is required and gentle probably is better on any sort of side-hill. At any rate you probably don't want them deeper than the topsoil initially.
I can't quite get a sense of the roads. I think they go across the slope but I don't know if they cross the part that's going to be terraced or are above or below it. I guess the turnaround is to go from one road to the other, but I don't know if it's going to be on the terraced area or what the horizontal distance is over the 8' drop.
I would keep in mind that dirt or gravel grades greater than 4% tend to erode and keeping a grade that gentle might make for a pretty long switch-back. A steeper grade could be sloped to the inside to channel runoff to a rock-lined ditch. Stability of the outside part of the road might be a problem particularly if used by heavy vehicles. It might be good to get an expert opinion here. If there's a problem a bed could be cut and filled by rip-rap, covered by gravel and finished with dirt cut from the terraces. The use of fill could help reduce the grade needed. I'm probably getting overly elabourate again but I'm just trying to illustrate potential problems and spending too many words doing it.
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Terracing my property
Tom has pretty much covered it all, as far as the roads, and levelling in general goes, whenever possible you want to work from the top of the hill down, despite what most people think as they get older, gravity is a GOOD thing.
As for the loading of dirt, try whenever possible to reverse AROUND the pile of dirt mounded up with the box, backup past the dirt on the uphill side (then if you climb a bit of it will tend to tip the machine INTO the hill and not flip it downhill) then scooping it up with the loader will be much easier since it isn't compacted, and it's FAR safer to go around it than climb over it on a side-slope.
Best of luck.
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Terracing my property
Tom
No, they are retractable, but what are top link scrifers? And - I do not understand what you mean by you do not touch the 3ph (does that mean 3 point hitch?) except for dumping, or the next sentence (on the fly?).?
I never said it didn't take me all day, but actually it didn't.the roads do not go across the slope. They run parallel to it downhill. Perhaps I should explain in more detail - At toe top of the hill everything is level (more or less, this is where the roads begin, one right next to the other. as you go downhill they seperate by way of grade, the lower one being a bit steeper than the top, and it is at the bottom of the slope that they reach a seperation of 8/10', this is because not the lower road is 8/10' below the top road. the horizontal distance of the roads is about 200' The teracces will be perpendicular to the roads.
The only heavy vehicle that will be used on those roads is my tractor. What does rip-rap mean? I have never heard that term. You are going to have to use laymans terms and talk tome like a teacher because you are going way over my head with these terms. Is there a tractor users language book that I could read... Well you are getting too terchnical! Your elaborations will not help if I cannot understand what you are talking about... OK?
Murf
Top of the hill, OK.
So instead of backing over the dirt I try to go betweenit and the bank, well that will help a little, then only two tires will be packing it down instead of four, OK, thanks.
Thanks to you both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Terracing my property
There is a terminology issue and kind of a convention is used here. 3ph is three-point hitch and there are others that are used to shorten up comments. Most of my comments are already too long. The terminology is sort of absorbed as you go along and is just part of a learning curve.
Rip-rap is a road building material rather than a tractor term. It is sizable chunks of rock usually from blasting that is foundation material for many roadbeds. I thought the turn-around may transverse a steep slope and more stability on the outside may be needed. Use of rip-rap would provide that as well fill to reduce the grade if needed, but from the road description that doesn't now seem likely. Never the less, roads are generally more durable if the beds are cut below grade and lager aggregates are laid down the finishing material. From the description I think that the roads go more down rather than across the slope so if there's not an erosion problem now then many possible problems aren't relevant unless the turnaround has a steeper grade.
I mentioned a hydraulic top-link rather than scarifiers. A box scraper's action is determined by the blade angle, which is adjusted by the top-link. Shortening the link produces a more aggressive cut. Lengthening it pulls the blade off the surface so it doesn't cut and a full box can be dragged to where it is dumped. Lengthening it even more allows material to come under the blade, which spreads material as the tractor is driven forward.
Good work with a box scraper requires very frequent top-link adjustment. Without a hydraulic top-link a person has to stop and get off the tractor to make them. With a hydraulic link, you can drive along a high spot and cut, when the box is full the link can be changed to drag the material to a low spot and then changed again to spread it--all without stopping. One will turn a day's fussing into a couple hours of relative happiness.
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Terracing my property
What do you mean most of your comments are too long? for who, not for me, just think of who you are talking to - one who has no or not much knowledge of the terminology in tractorland.
My question was - I do not understand what you mean by you do not "TOUCH" the 3ph, the word emphazied now is touch - what do you mean by that. Also - You can switch from cut to drag to spread "ON THE FLY" with one. what do you mean by on the fly?
There are plenty of natural rip rap on these roads. Just came across another one that needs to be moved down to the bottom of the turnaround because I need to make the area that they are in lower, however they wont budge.
There, as I have mentioned previously, has never been an erosion problem, but the road hasn't been worked in at least 20 years, soooo, I don't know what will happen this winter during the rains. I have cut a shallow groove on the bank side of the road as you suggested. I suppose if I wet it well now after finishing the roads and pack it down good with the tractor it will be alright. Would you advise the purchase of a roller to pack the ground with?
I do not have to stop and get off the tractor to change the blade length, I must have misunderstood your question.
After making a rip in the ground (another project) there is still dirt in the trench, what can I do to empty it without doing hand work; I am laying pvc pipe for irrigsation.
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