NCL4701
Well-known member
Equipment
L4701, T2290, WC68, grapple, BB1572, Farmi W50R, Howes 500, 16kW IMD gen, WG24
Like many others we had a bit of rain a couple days ago. 4” to be exact. Rained all day but over half that 4” was in a period of about 2 hours. Thankfully very little damage. This part of one of the switchbacks below the houses was starting to wash a little in the middle so a few minutes with the boxblade got it filled in and redirected to the ditch where it belongs.
Then to the only real issue. The dam has to be mowed once a year to keep trees from growing on it. I mowed it (with a weedeater with blade) about a week ago. All the mess that fell in the water hadn’t settled and sunk yet so I attributed the mess collected on the drain pipe to my poor timing. Regardless the cause, checking the output end of the 6” drain indicated it was running at about 40% capacity when it should be 100%. So, time to get out a boat and clean it off.
This is more common in the summer. Usually about twice a year we get a torrential rain where so much water comes down so fast the water level rises fast enough that it gets over the bucket that acts as a filter for the drain. Every time that happens, part of the deal is a bunch of crap gets washed into the pond. About every fourth time it needs to be cleared. That’s about every two years I have to go out to clear it. In the summer, I throw a kayak or canoe in the pond and don’t care if I get a little wet. As the frost on the dam shows, this wasn’t a day to be getting wet. So I decided to drag out the boat I inherited from my father, which I have stuffed in the back of the shed solely for this sort of pond chore.
The semi-clogged drain is the pile of mess in the pond.
Dug the boat out. It’s a 1960 something 16’ Crosby Sled tri-hull. Used to have a 1950’s Mercury 25 hp on the stern but that exited several years ago. Considered re-powering it but the hull, particularly the transom, wasn’t in shape to give me confidence to take it out past the point I could swim to shore. I’m not much of a swimmer, so that means it’s the work boat for the pond; period.
Had to move the wood splitter to get it out. Wood splitter had a flat tire and it wouldn’t take air, so started the drain cleaning by taking the left wheel off the wood splitter. Had to use the rope squeezing the tire thing to get it to take air. Then took all the junk piled in the boat and piled it in the off road trailer in the adjacent bay. Between a blower and vacuum got it halfway presentable. In hindsight, why I’m not sure.
Of course used the L to put the trailer in the pond. There’s not really a “ramp” so the high torque at snail speed with precise control provided by the HST is really nice for getting it in far enough without sinking the whole trailer and getting it out without snatching the axle out from under the trailer.
The trolling motor doesn’t work without a battery. Sometimes it doesn’t work with a battery. I don’t know how old it is other than I know it was on the boat when Dad bought it used in about 1974. For going 50’ or so, a paddle is indicated.
To the question of why did I even try cleaning the boat before taking it out to treat it like a miniature garbage barge? Not sure. Removed a smattering of brush floating around in the pond generally.
Removed a floating gourd (the black thing on the right that looks kind of like a ball) that was a bird house a couple years ago. It was hanging on the porch of the spare house the summer of 2022. Shortly after Dad passed I was going in and out that door and became aware it was occupied by a nest of bald faced hornets. They were getting ill with me. I was getting ill with them. I didn’t have time or patience for an all out war with a hornets nest right then so instead of doing something reasonable, I slapped a piece of duct tape over their entrance/exit hole with no plan what to do with a gourd full of large, angry hornets. Figured I had probably 10 minutes before they chewed through the duct tape and creative stuff like fireworks, bird shot, Tannerite, diesel and fire pit… I just wasn’t in the mood, so I chucked the whole thing into the pond and figured the pond, gourd, and hornets would sort themselves out. That was a year and a half ago. Apparently the gourd floated off to somewhere not obvious for all that time because here it was again. Duct tape and hornets were missing but the gourd was still floating despite a 2” hole being present ever since the duct tape let go.
This is a little closer view of the stuff from the drain pipe inlet. The main problem that was blocking much of the pipe and also damming up the other debris was a thing that initially looked like a clump of slick mud. But I knew that made no sense and I’ve done this before, so I removed it with the manure fork I brought with me. It was a dead something. Stuck headfirst in the pipe, blocking about half of it. Too big and stocky for a cat. Tail wrong for a beaver. Tail not quite right for a muskrat and teeth didn’t look quite beaver or muskrat. Head didn’t look like a dog. Wife guessed a raccoon. I tend to agree, but it was pretty greasy so I couldn’t swear to what it was other than a drain blockage.
So far we’ve had the drain blocked by a dead cat (that incident was the impetus for the filter bucket), a dead turtle, and now a dead…”raccoon”.
Washed the boat when we got back. Having it on the 3 point makes it easy to drain.
Then to the only real issue. The dam has to be mowed once a year to keep trees from growing on it. I mowed it (with a weedeater with blade) about a week ago. All the mess that fell in the water hadn’t settled and sunk yet so I attributed the mess collected on the drain pipe to my poor timing. Regardless the cause, checking the output end of the 6” drain indicated it was running at about 40% capacity when it should be 100%. So, time to get out a boat and clean it off.
This is more common in the summer. Usually about twice a year we get a torrential rain where so much water comes down so fast the water level rises fast enough that it gets over the bucket that acts as a filter for the drain. Every time that happens, part of the deal is a bunch of crap gets washed into the pond. About every fourth time it needs to be cleared. That’s about every two years I have to go out to clear it. In the summer, I throw a kayak or canoe in the pond and don’t care if I get a little wet. As the frost on the dam shows, this wasn’t a day to be getting wet. So I decided to drag out the boat I inherited from my father, which I have stuffed in the back of the shed solely for this sort of pond chore.
The semi-clogged drain is the pile of mess in the pond.
Had to move the wood splitter to get it out. Wood splitter had a flat tire and it wouldn’t take air, so started the drain cleaning by taking the left wheel off the wood splitter. Had to use the rope squeezing the tire thing to get it to take air. Then took all the junk piled in the boat and piled it in the off road trailer in the adjacent bay. Between a blower and vacuum got it halfway presentable. In hindsight, why I’m not sure.
The trolling motor doesn’t work without a battery. Sometimes it doesn’t work with a battery. I don’t know how old it is other than I know it was on the boat when Dad bought it used in about 1974. For going 50’ or so, a paddle is indicated.
Removed a floating gourd (the black thing on the right that looks kind of like a ball) that was a bird house a couple years ago. It was hanging on the porch of the spare house the summer of 2022. Shortly after Dad passed I was going in and out that door and became aware it was occupied by a nest of bald faced hornets. They were getting ill with me. I was getting ill with them. I didn’t have time or patience for an all out war with a hornets nest right then so instead of doing something reasonable, I slapped a piece of duct tape over their entrance/exit hole with no plan what to do with a gourd full of large, angry hornets. Figured I had probably 10 minutes before they chewed through the duct tape and creative stuff like fireworks, bird shot, Tannerite, diesel and fire pit… I just wasn’t in the mood, so I chucked the whole thing into the pond and figured the pond, gourd, and hornets would sort themselves out. That was a year and a half ago. Apparently the gourd floated off to somewhere not obvious for all that time because here it was again. Duct tape and hornets were missing but the gourd was still floating despite a 2” hole being present ever since the duct tape let go.
This is a little closer view of the stuff from the drain pipe inlet. The main problem that was blocking much of the pipe and also damming up the other debris was a thing that initially looked like a clump of slick mud. But I knew that made no sense and I’ve done this before, so I removed it with the manure fork I brought with me. It was a dead something. Stuck headfirst in the pipe, blocking about half of it. Too big and stocky for a cat. Tail wrong for a beaver. Tail not quite right for a muskrat and teeth didn’t look quite beaver or muskrat. Head didn’t look like a dog. Wife guessed a raccoon. I tend to agree, but it was pretty greasy so I couldn’t swear to what it was other than a drain blockage.
So far we’ve had the drain blocked by a dead cat (that incident was the impetus for the filter bucket), a dead turtle, and now a dead…”raccoon”.
Washed the boat when we got back. Having it on the 3 point makes it easy to drain.
