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This was stitched from several frames, taken from the top of the drag line boom 40 feet up (May 4th) |
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July 4th: The weeds are really growing tall. We have some dead batteries, so no dredging this weekend. |
July 18th The lake is really overgrown with weeds. It's been dry for 3 weeks, but the water is still up, a good sign. |
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July 18th: We got out batteries charged, but now the fuel filters where dirty, limiting us in power. I think the starter is going bad? After driving most of northern Mich looking for filters, we got to dredge for about 3 hours, then we had to stop, low fuel!. |
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Between moving traverse cables and discharge
hose, getting more fuel, changing filter and batteries, we pumped for about
12 hours total over 3 days!
Once we got her going, look out mud! we worked on our channel making it about 10 feet wide and 9 feet deep. Weeds wrapped around the auger and clogging the pump where a problem too. |
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The spoils basin is full! That goo
is about 8 feet thick so we need to wait a few days for it to de-water,
We'll get Helga and Dumpy to clean it out.
Over all a good 3 days! |
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July 25th: We had to move the pile of pipe so we could get Helga over to the spoils area, then we had easy access to the muck to load Dumpy. We heaped him up full,really full. |
| Helga loves to scoop that stuff up! |  |
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Almost done, after a few more truckloads,
we went to get the dredge started, oh no... the starter died!
it just groaned and smoked....what a setback!
I went to lock up the barn and put everything away so I could drive all over northern Michigan again to find a starter.Hey, remember that old loader? it has a '71' series "Detroit Diesel" engine too? maybe, just maybe... |
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Well, it looked the same, but can I be that
lucky?
It took about an hour to get it off, but it lookes like it has the same bolt pattern, both are 24 volt, now is it the same rotation? YES! Yahoooo.. It dropped right in the dredge, we hit the start button, and that ole 'Detroit' barked to life! Now we can pump! |
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I added another 20 feet to the discharge
hose to get out into open water. I found that the open water was
really loose mud about 11 feet deep, this stuff pumped great!
It was a bit much for the dredge and we had to run at 1,500 RPM instead of 1,650 to avoid over temperature in the engine, but WOW it went fast! |
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This is a view from the dredge looking back
at shore. We chewed our way through weeds and muck to get this far.
The frogs had a field day, in the weeds, we stirred up bugs galore. they
where hopping 2 feet in the air to catch them! what a sight.
Just behind us is a hard area, so we only went down 7 or 8 feet. |
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But once we got out past the hard stuff, we really went down to the limits of the dredge, according to the gauge, it's over 11 feet deep! |
It's hard to tell from this picture, but we about finished our channel cut to the deep water area... All we need now is some rain to bring the water levels back up! |
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Well, the water levels never came up and
we ran out of year. So with no plans to get back up this year, we
pulled the ole' girl a bit early. Well actually on time, notice the
lack of snow!
We have one more season on the permit! See everyone next spring! |
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The story to come. |
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