Steve Wilson
Well-known member
It came to me this morning....like a revalation. I had thought to borrow the skid loader and grade the few shallow swales needed to drain water from the low areas in this 10 acre creek bottom pasture. Luckily, they are at the far end, the lowest end of the pasture, and nearest to the creek. Though there is a woven wire fence right at the lowest part of the pasture, which has become a small, shallow water hole over the winter. From there to the creek, there is only a 50 yard stretch of Ash trees and grass to get drainage to the creek.
I know I could do it with the skid steer in half a day, at the most. Here is the part that came to me in a vision. :banana: Disk the field first, dummy, and disk it deep. That way, the skid loader is only having to move loose dirt. AND, when I push the dirt uphill, to gently mound the upper wet places, that ground will already be disked and won't lead to having a hard pan under the newly placed soil. I could go one better and deep chisel the areas that will be recieving the added soil. Hmmmmm? Maybe I should do that too. I think I will. Afterall, we aren't talking about a major dirt moving project here. All I need is a Y shaped swale, to collect the drainage water and send it off to the creek. The legs of the Y only have to be a couple hundred feet long, at most.
I'll shoot some grades and start at the creek. No disking back there, too many trees and not a long enough run to worry about. I'll just dig a nice deep, sloped shouldered swale up to the woven wire fence. Then grub the bucket under the fence to allow the shallow water hole to drain. There will probably be need to put the knee high rubber boots on and do a bit of hand digging to assist the water hole in draining under the fence. Oh well, not an insurmountable task.
Once the water hole has dried up for a month or so. I'll start in with the chiseling, disking and moving dirt in the pasture. I want to have all of this done, including having totally disked the pasture by late July-early August. Then I can seed the Reed Canarygrass in late August. That will allow time enough for the disked pasture to settle some and provide a more firm seedbed for the new grass seeds. In the meantime, I'll have to sort my way through taking soil tests and applying needed lime, phosphorus and potasium. Along with deciding if I want to add some red clover to the seed mix.
By the way, I am going to use Chiefton Canarygrass from Seed Research. It is supposed to have more seedling vigor and higher yields than its parents, Palaton and Venture.
I know I could do it with the skid steer in half a day, at the most. Here is the part that came to me in a vision. :banana: Disk the field first, dummy, and disk it deep. That way, the skid loader is only having to move loose dirt. AND, when I push the dirt uphill, to gently mound the upper wet places, that ground will already be disked and won't lead to having a hard pan under the newly placed soil. I could go one better and deep chisel the areas that will be recieving the added soil. Hmmmmm? Maybe I should do that too. I think I will. Afterall, we aren't talking about a major dirt moving project here. All I need is a Y shaped swale, to collect the drainage water and send it off to the creek. The legs of the Y only have to be a couple hundred feet long, at most.
I'll shoot some grades and start at the creek. No disking back there, too many trees and not a long enough run to worry about. I'll just dig a nice deep, sloped shouldered swale up to the woven wire fence. Then grub the bucket under the fence to allow the shallow water hole to drain. There will probably be need to put the knee high rubber boots on and do a bit of hand digging to assist the water hole in draining under the fence. Oh well, not an insurmountable task.
Once the water hole has dried up for a month or so. I'll start in with the chiseling, disking and moving dirt in the pasture. I want to have all of this done, including having totally disked the pasture by late July-early August. Then I can seed the Reed Canarygrass in late August. That will allow time enough for the disked pasture to settle some and provide a more firm seedbed for the new grass seeds. In the meantime, I'll have to sort my way through taking soil tests and applying needed lime, phosphorus and potasium. Along with deciding if I want to add some red clover to the seed mix.
By the way, I am going to use Chiefton Canarygrass from Seed Research. It is supposed to have more seedling vigor and higher yields than its parents, Palaton and Venture.
