Back to the Culverts

During the intervening days from last week when record temperatures, blue skies, buzzing bees, and singing birds filled the air, I scurried over to our new "road" with the Gator.  The temperatures were more typical for February. The skies had dropped some wet precipitation, and the clay fill for our new driveway was shiny, greasy and slippery after the melted morning frost. Our hope was that it would dry throughout the week.  The three foot culvert needed to go in.

So on Thursday, when Farmer's Husband was home, we endeavored to place the new culverts.  The galvanized culverts are 14 gauge steel, 3 feet in diameter 50 feet long (after coupling them together). Eventually the seven foot riser will be attached in the pond-side as well, but probably not for a year or so as our new created driveway will need more and more fill during its settling year.  That additional water would make fine tuning of the driveway's surfaces a little more complicated.

It all started with picking up the 26 foot long section and carrying it across the road.

 The "creek" from the 2-3 acre lowland trickled slowly into the ditch where it eventually met a river.  From where I am standing on the berm to the bottom is about 4 and a half feet deep.  The edge is filled with soft dirt.  And, as you can see there are still roots and concrete to remove from the bottom before we can place the culvert. Gary gently placed the culvert temporarily in the ditch.

Around the back access road to the other side of the creek Farmer's Husband drove his JD 4720 (our biggest workhorse on the farm) and dug out the old root and straighten this end of the flow so that the culvert would be settled on the bottom.

 This end Gary had straightened last weekend as one of the last things to do before dusk arrived.  But the area where the riser would eventually be attached needed to be enlarged before we placed the culvert and so the big, heavy tractor and backhoe wiggled its way to the the bottom of the berm and dug gray, sloppy-wet mucky clay out of that area.

We placed the culvert in the broken berm and had to dig out (by hand) the edges where the seep preventer would be attached.  In hindsight, we would have dug this perpendicular trench prior to resting the culvert and seep preventer in the berm.... sure would have made inserting this section of culvert into the berm much, much easier.

What's a seep preventer?  I'm glad you asked.  I didn't know either.  What I discovered is that critters like muskrats and crayfish like to burrow near the edge of a culvert.  When they do that they create passageways for water to penetrate and of course that weakens the berm.  The seep preventer does just that.  It prevents burrowing alongside the culverts and prevents water from traversing its way outside of the culvert.  All the water must therefore go through the pipe.

Putting the seep preventer on was a little tricky.  I almost lost a couple of fingers when I accidently dropped my end of the top component of the metal preventer and my fingers pinched between the top and bottom sections.  Ouch!  Got a nice bruise and swollen index finger but all the parts were still attached!  While I recovered, Farmer's Husband bolted the two sections together while the tractor held the culvert out of the hole.

Now, in theory, one should only have to drop the massive heavy culvert into the clay berm and the culvert with the metal edged seep preventer should settle nicely to the bottom of the trenched stream. In theory.

Ah.... not quite.

Since the backhoe was already near, Gary considered whether the boom could press down the culvert. He was able to get it in a couple of inches.  But no more.  Thankfully though, the flowing water could still go under the culvert.  Otherwise that "pond" would have quickly enlarged.

But even with lots of effort and changing positions on the culvert, the backhoe could not press the pipe and preventer into the clay soil....

 Perhaps the loader could?

Unfortunately by now, the drizzling rain had begun.  Rain and fresh clay soil with an incline are not a good combination.  Yes, you guessed it. Turning the tractor around at the edge of the marshy field resulted in burying the tractor to the axles, hanging up the back hoe and getting our poor JD 4720 stuck yet again.  This time we had a 4+ foot edge to keep away from.  But the slope of the driveway, and the slippery clay kept making the tractor slide towards the culvert and the "cliff" of the berm every time we tried to get out.  We wouldn't be walking or driving out of this one.

Thankfully, there was a nice strong black walnut tree on the other side of the driveway. Farmer's Husband and I grabbed some thick chain and the mega-strong come-a-long.  And yes, he winched that tractor out of the slippery, pond edge.

 After about an hour and a half of "pulling", the tractor was free and Gary drove it up the driveway as fast as he could before even more rain came.  With a little slip-sliding, he made it up the driveway, around the building sight, across the upper pond berm and down and around the previously made culvert and marshy area.  Coming from this direction, where there was still grass on the berm and less incline, we thought we could press the culvert and seep preventer into the edge with the loader. At first only a few inches were achieved.  But then Gary got this marvelous idea about adding a little more weight to the loader and to wiggle-waggle the culvert into the ground with a back and forth motion on the culvert.

It worked!  The culvert is now at the bottom of the "creek" and water is flowing through it and not around or under it.  Yeah!

Half the culvert is in.  It was simply too slippery to continue and so the second half of the culvert and the adventure of attaching a coupler to the existing culvert in the broken berm, would have to wait another day.  The rest of the weekend was cold and wet with rain and snow.  But I am eager to get access.  Perhaps next weekend?

Today's Journey Joys: aching muscles which heal, safety (and fingers!) from dropped metal seep preventers, a strong come-a-long, unstuck tractors, flowing water and the soft trickling sound, green grass peeking out from under golden dried blades - they too longing for spring, and seed starting next weekend!

Finding our Way

Several weeks ago we started making our access to the new building site.  To get to our desired location we have been in conversations with the County Highway department so that they could tell us where we could make the approach from the road.  After several weeks and many visits to the road, we all decided on a path which would be the best and safest access.  However, to get to where we want to go (our new home) one has to go down and through a steep ditch, up a narrow berm, across an eight foot chasm where the berm ruptured many years before, around another narrow berm and up a steep hill.  Sounds like fun!  So one day in early February we began.  (This posting covers the span of several weeks).  Here's our adventure.... thus far. 

On the other side of these brambles, brush and scrubby trees lies the entrance to our new driveway.

Decades ago, I suspect, this narrow berm held the water from the 2-3 acre lowland area.  When we purchased the land about 12 or so years ago the berm was washed out and the "pond" was reduced to a little stream surrounded by marshy, grass. Wild rose, honey suckle and brambles rimmed the edges.

You can see our Road better.  Some of the old concrete which was dumped here many years ago will need to be re-positioned.

Brambles, old weeds, dead wood and a steep edge will make this a "frisky" clearing attempt.

On the other side of the berm the way to our driveway can be seen.  Yes, across the washout, up the hill, on the south side of the utility pole and around the bend.

But the brambles and dead wood would need to be cleared first.

And yet, I can't help but look to the west to imagine what that big clearing, that big wet marshy and soggy grass area will look like after a repair of the berm and re-installation of riser pipe. I picture wood ducks & turtles, bullfrogs & grey herons, bass & crappie and perhaps some bluegills as well....

But back to the matter at hand.  How to remove this in the most efficient, effective manner? Me?  I would use a chainsaw and some muscle and haul it out.  Farmer's Husband Gary?  Much smarter....

Why God created tractors! "Work smarter. not harder" :-)

A couple of hours later and the clearing is passable.... ok, a little rough, but you can sort of see your way now.

It's hard to capture the dips and valleys and incline here.  Suffice to say this will take a 24 inch culvert 40 or so feet long covered by massive amounts of fill in order to reach our existing berm. Just a little additional effort.

Now for the other side... the side adjacent to the waterway.

Here's what was lying in the broken berm - a toppled and twisted willow and masses of wild honeysuckle. None could remain.

 

Toppled over willow trees, mulberry bushes and other brambles removed.  Farmer's Husband Gary cleans up the dead wood from the bottom of the "creek" - the passage where the berm broke many years prior.

The broken berm.... Look toward the top of the photo.  The steep incline?  That's the way to our building site....

Taken from the perspective of standing in the "pond".  Clearly we could not have roots in the berm.  They weaken it as they decompose and water penetrates and creates new pathways..... To keep it strong, we had to remove the organic debris, even the debris beneath the surface.

Farmer's Husband digging out the first of many trees roots.

The old twisted willow proved to be a challenge.  Both because it was bigger than expected but also because the old berm was quite skinny at this point.  Not much to stand on for the tractor. But he got it and removed it to a giant burn pile.

Now to widen the berm. We laid out the edges of the new house and started the "access" to the walk out basement.  After removing the topsoil (over 1 foot!), we loaded up the one ton dump truck with fill.  Load after load after load....

The way to the berm from on top of the hill.  It too had to be cleared.  It was very difficult for me to remove these oaks.  The "mama oak" had died many years ago in a massive wind storm.  Thankfully, there are many others on the site.

Looking down the hill.  One can see the narrow existing path with the broken berm at the bottom.  Quite a steep hill.  Should be an adventure in making our new driveway!

The driveway will start on the other side of that guard rail and smaller utility pole in the distance.  It will gently curve to the berm and then curve again around the high voltage utility pole in the foreground.  A wide gentle S curve....

Bringing our first loads to the "hill"

After about ten truckloads we were able to make it safely to the high voltage utility pole.  On the east side of the pole we discovered the old "spillway". It was only about 14 inches in diameter.  Went down about three feet (the other two feet above the ground we found alongside of the hole, rusty with holes).  It then traveled at a steep angle to the other side of the berm.  Nothing flowed now.  It all went to the crevasse in the old berm.  Farmer 's Husband  Gary filled the horizontal pipe with some broken concrete blocks.  We then mixed portland cement, sand and gravel and dumped it into the old standpipe and added water to seep into the mix.  That way, the new driveway will be strengthened and water will not leak into the old pipe.

It was a gorgeous day! Can you believe 70 degrees in February?  We took advantage of the light breeze to burn all of our brush.  I had the brilliant idea to burn some of the marshy area so that we could see the contours more easily.  Ah.... something about dry grass with a little wind.... and suddenly I was on the brink of starting a forest fire!  We quickly grabbed shovels and ventured into the edge of the pond through rose thorns and brush and stomped the leading edge out.  Whew! That was close!

After about 38 truckloads of fill from our building site we could safely drive to the other side of the broken berm.  The driveway will be widened another 13 feet or so, but for now it was easily passable with our truck and tractor.  Gary was ready to dig the trench area to put our new 3 foot culvert in.  It was getting late, the shadows were getting long.  

Going down the edge of the driveway to the break in the berm.  Laying the culvert will have to wait for another day. Hopefully we can work again next weekend.  But for now we will happy with the progress we have made. Smile.

 The culverts arrived this morning.

Today's Journey Joys: 70+ degrees and sunny skies in mid February - an opportunity to get a jump start on our building site, water bottles without leaks, frozen pizza when one is tired from hauling fill all day, nibbling on chocolate while watching a movie with husband and son, comfortable and supportive beds, and laundry machines.

January Thaw and Culvert Replacing

Well, if you haven't guessed it by now, we are going to build a home!  We've been in discussions with our friends at Morton Buildings (yes, they do more than pole barns!) and have over the past month or so decided on plans, windows, doors, colors, and features.  Whew!  Lots of decisions, but really fun and exciting!

But in order to get to the west 15 acres with BIG trucks (semi-tractor trailers filled with steel, lumber, and doors and windows and of course concrete trucks for foundation and basement) we had to widen and provide an easy access.  Currently the only access was down this big steep hill just south of the observatory.  One had to cruise down the hill, go four-wheeling over a marshy area where a bridge/culvert had washed away years prior, and clamber up another just-as-steep hill.  This would bring you to an eight foot wide (or so) berm which was the eastern boundary of a half-acre pond -  which also had a long-deteriorated culvert washed out at one section. The "pond" was only about 2 feet deep surrounded by a wetland. The only way to our future building site would be an extremely narrow, steep slope over a washed-out ravine. Obviously, this would not do. And will not do for big trucks and trailers.  Our "access" would have to come from another direction but I'll save the story of that adventure for next time!  Anyway, this access was necessary so that we could use the fill which would be taken from the "basement" to widen the eastern access - the permanent driveway.

But I get ahead of myself.  Before we could do any of the "permanent access/driveway" we had to actually make a way for the big JD 4720 tractor to get to the building site.  And to do that, as I've already mentioned, we needed to replace some culverts and refill the coverings.  January of 2017 has been oh-so-odd weatherwise.  We had at least a week of above freezing temperatures which made a muddy spring-like mess everywhere but also gave us an opportunity to place these culverts, dig fill and cover them up.  So the culvert-adventure began with Farmer's Husband Gary carrying the culverts on his JD 4720 down the big sloped hill. 

No problem.

Farmer's Husband Gary bringing the culverts to the washed out area.  There was snow cover but the ground underneath was pretty thawed.  Nothing that a 4-wheel drive tractor couldn't handle.

Getting closer to the marshy area.  I typically go splashing my way through with the Gator but there seemed to be enough icey hard stuff on the surface that day that when I went over it the Gator stayed on the surface.

But alas, the JD 4720 with loader and backhoe weighs a ton (almost literally) more than my Gator.  And.....well,....progress suddenly halted amidst mucky, sticky, soft and wet marshy soil.  

Farmer's Husband Gary picked the back end of the tractor up with the stabilizer feet of the backhoe.  While he was doing that and grabbing some old tree trunks, I went to the brick pile and grabbed all the broken but big concrete blocks I could fit on my Gator trailer.  We filled the holes that the  tractor made..... hoping to provide a way for the tractor to get traction - enough at least to reach some solid ground.

Even the thick coarse tractor tire treads were filled with the mucky marsh.

And we prevailed!  I drove from the "front" with four wheel drive enabled and with the differential locked while in low gear.  Gary "pushed" and lifted from behind on the backhoe.  Together we marched up the hill and got to solid and firm ground.  Whew!

We replaced the culvert at the lowest point and then hauled fill from the farm to cover it and provide a way for trucks (at least farm trucks) to drive over without succumbing to the great marshy mire.

The JD 3720 doing what it was made for!

 

You can't even see the mega-ruts we made just hours (or was that days?) earlier.

Interesting, the different colored clay fills from different areas on our farm.

Success!  Dressed in winter gear and cruising on my Gator - the first vehicle to traverse our repaired site.  There's more fill to be brought and the sides still need sloping - but its functional.  Yeah!!!!

Today's Journey Joys: Warm January days, adventures in the mud, husband who uses innovative, creative methods when obstacles arise, warm coffee and hot, hot showers to warm (after c-c-c-old days working outside), sunny wintry days in February, promise of warmer days to come.