I was running short on good top soil at a new home site that I am finishing up now.It's on a hilltop and the top soil was thin and marginal at best,The home owner wants a nice hardy lawn.I have separated some nice dirt from a couple of burnt brushpiles at the site And it looks like we will have enough top dirt to go around the new home.We have alot of poultry farms in the area so we decided to mix in some turkey litter to our top soil to add some fertility .Here are some pictures mixing the dirt & turkey litter concoction.I start by spreading the dirt out about a foot thick.Then angle the blade to make plow furrows in the dirt,then bring in the turkey litter keeping the dozer blade just above the plow furrows allowing the turkey litter to fall in between them.
Here comes the turkey litter so hold your nose.The last pic is the finished product.It looks like it will grow grass.
Nice pics 25c. Ain't everybody that uses a Fat Allis as a manure mixer. Nice job.
ATCOEQUIP,That turkey litter pile had been fermenting awile with all the rain we have had latly.When I broke it open the stench sent the flies away until I got it mixed in with the dirt.My wife was just commenting this evening about how I should have dove off in the river before comming home.
Man that's one of the funniest posts I've seen! I can't even comment on that! :lmao :falldownlaugh
I mix and make my own loam, but i use hen manure and can agree whole heartedly about the stench! Woo hoo, wife has a fit when the trailer dumps start hauling. Nasty stuff, and it stinks for years. Nice job mixing.:notworthy
it's gonna need some lime!
atgreene,I new I wasent the only member that mixed in poultry litter.The chicken litter is a little hoter mix than the turkey litter.The poultry litter sure dose help plants grow,the grain farmers in my area practically fight over who gets the poultry litter when a building gets cleaned out.It's good fertilizer.
bigblueox,I agree,a little lime spread on top when we are finished would help.
I did approximately 1500 yards the last time I mixed in chicken manure. Had 100 yards of the stuff hauled in, let it set for 1 year then mixed it in and turned the pile for 2 years longer as the pile kept growing. When we ran it through the trommel it came out black and stunk to high heaven. I just finished that pile of screened loam off after 2 years and it still had that odor to it, but it grew grass and gardens like crazy. Awesome stuff. And yes, I always limed a new yard when I got it spread and told the homeowner to keep liming it. Never can have enough lime.
I ran the skidloader today and started putting the topsoil around the home.We still have to pour the sidewalks but I need get most of the topsoil around the home before I pour them.On top soil I usually start at the home and keep working my way back until I get to undisturbed ground.I'l have to pour the sidewalk before I can finish spreading the topsoil after today.No need in having a concrete truck run over and rut up a new yard.I throw down a little wheat straw to keep the dirt off the bick in a hard rain,the last picture is my finish dozer.
I can't say I've ever had your problem. I live in E Central IL. Black rich top soil is abundant in my neck of the woods. What part of IN are you form??
Nice job of mixing we have 1/4" of dirt then rock..... can't say that ever mixed dirt and turkey nor do I want to....digging into a pile of stripped grass and dirt is bad enough... I worked on a 150 mile rural waterline.... that was mostly in rock.... cleaned a lot of ponds for dirt... to bed and backfill the pipe.... closer and cheaper than sand...
Hi BIAVAEX and welcome to the forum.I am in south central IN,alot of rolling hills & river bottoms.This job was up on top of a hill and the top soil was thin and the clay under it was some of the toughest dang stuf I've worked.The clay was about 30 inches deep then its all sandstone after that.Our river bottom ground is probably similiar to the soil type in your area.
That sounds rough only having 1/4" of dirt to work with heavylift.Yep,cleaning a pond is a good way to get good dirt as it's mostly top soil that has washed in over the years.The turkey & chicken litter work pretty good mixing it into the dirt and it spreads nice with the dozer on the yard.The smell dont bother me much,but after mixing litter all day the wife always comments on my aroma and tells me to throw my clothes outside & take a shower.
you should have asked dirtpusher9 to level the dirt.... His d9's blade is probably as wide as that comealong I must have been asleep when I type 1/4"..... it was suppose to 1'-4'
Have several customers wanting top dirt for lawn & yard projects . Been wet & cold here lately , finally dried up a bit this afternoon so we could work up ground & haul . Dirt was a little wet & heavy this morning , made a few passes with tractor & disc. The sunshine / 70 f weather in the afternoon it turned for the better .
Most new lawns we do in my neck of the woods are done on all clay, (even though IL is known for some of the richest topsoil in the world) the developers strip it all off first and sell it before the roads go in. Clay is some of the better dirt for growing grass, you work it up and plant the seed, and as long as the home owner waters it for a few weeks you'll have a beautiful lawn, 4 applications of fertilizer a year and thats it, most folks are used to fertilizing that many ask what to put down before we mention it. The nice thing about the clay is it takes less water because clay holds moisture for much much longer than topsoil, especially if the topsoil is at all sandy. The native topsoil needs fertilizer too if you want a good lawn. Most of ours are "in town" so they are a little more particular about their lawn I had 2 lawns right next to each other, one person paid to have 6" of topsoil brought in and seeded, it was fertilized and watered the same as the lawn next door that was planted in clay, you could not tell a difference.
That's been my experience as well movindirt . Clay will grow grass fine with fertilizer / turkey litter , even helps grow corn . Customers I haul to mostly want it for flower bed's , land scape & small yard projects . Might have me dump partial load in different areas . Main thing is they want it worked up good so it can be easily shoveled & hauled in wheelbarrow to the final destination . We have somewhat rolling hill ground in my area . What I call top dirt is about 2 to 3 inch deep then you get down to more of a clay base type soil .
I gotcha, yeah thats mostly all we use the topsoil for as well, planting beds and such. Around here the topsoil is good black dirt for at least 24" some spots up to 36" thick.
I can get in to some of that dirt but I have to drop about 300 ' in elevation to the river bottoms Your ground in Illinois reminds me when I was working for a farmer in north Indiana . Like you say good black deep top dirt . We were a little west of Monticello . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monticello,_Indiana Flat prairie farm ground as far as the eye could see with few small 3 to 5 acre patches of trees scattered about , really nice farm ground :thumbsup. Some areas even had some peat ground .
Finished up hauling top dirt moved to another job spreading stone with the old Chevy . Had some bad luck yesterday , smelled antifreeze so opened the hood and sure enough the water pump went out . Set us back a little but got it going again at job site . Kind of hated to spend that much money on the truck but sometimes you have to put a little in the kitty http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/s...4WD&vi=5147547&mn=MasterPro+Water+Pump&mc=MWP
When we were young, and newlyweds I owned only a 1961 B275 IH. It came with a back blade. Home is an ancient river bed. There is no trace of organic soil. After building the house there was no lawn, or money for expensive topsoil. I got a load here and there where I could. Most of what I got was pretty poor, full of rocks, and broken glass. Any opportunity for anything organic was seized. A former dairy farm was cleaning off the concrete barn yard. Three year old cow **** was 6" deep on a half acre. The new owner paid to load it, I got it by paying for the trucking. Nancy knew before the first of it arrived it would stink. Her condemnation of the plan was loud, and lengthy. She went off to an evening school board meeting, I seized the opportunity. The stuff was the consistency of warm peanut butter. It spread a thin coat over the entire lawn. By the time Mrs. B got home it was too dark to tell the extent. She sputtered about smell, and went to bed. Next morning wasn't pretty. In about a week the grass was luscious, and green. She eventually forgave, she hasn't forgotten. She still tells the story. Years later, they dredged the old sewer brook. The last sewage was dumped down it in 1966. I got my hands on 100 yards in 2013, I've had it stockpiled. Last weekend I filled a sag in the lawn using 70 yards. Again the boss wasn't happy about it, but she'll get over it.
Hey TD, look on the bright side, an hour's wrenching and you've doubled the value of your truck!
That's a good way to look at it Mitch :thumbsup Like you say took about an hour to change the pump on the small block Chevy . Pay parts store $18.99 for the new water pump . Haul a few extra loads that evening to make up for the loss.
Keep that truck!! It would have taken you two hours just to get to see the water pump on one of the new versions.
Picture is small, is it a C50 or smaller? I have a 1976 C65, with 427 tall block truck engine. It'd be considered a powerhouse in a smaller truck, but 27500 LBS gross, or a 16500 pound backhoe on a 9 ton triaxle trailer, hills are SLOW. Fuel economy is not something I'm bragging about.
Will do grandpa , she aint goin anywhere .
Ours is a 1966 model C-60 . Originally came with in line 6 292 engine with 4 speed transmission & 2 speed rear . Later we transplanted a 1973 350 . Truck is geared pretty low , run around 3,000 RPM at 55 MPH where the small block likes it . Has plenty of power and surprisingly really aint to bad on fuel . Only thing I can figure is gear ratio is perfect for the engine:beatsme Can load 6 or 7 tons on it and stay rite with a tri or quad axil hauling 21 tons in the hills . Use it mostly as a site truck moving product around in areas we cant get a big truck in . Spreading stone now with it , haul off a stock pile on site . Truck burns around 18 gallons of gas in an 8 hour shift , I shut it off when I hop out to load each time . That aint to bad for a 50 year old rig.
You've beaten the laws of physics. Mine seems to burn gas when it's not in use. 6.88:1 50 MPH is 3000 RPM.
It baffles me as well Willie B . I'm not going to make any changes or adjustments on the C-60. Then on the other hand we use an 86 Chevy K 30 with 454 engine & auto transmission to pull gooseneck trailer . It makes decent power for what it is but really sucks the fuel , can dang near watch the needle move . Dad & I joke about it but if we lined the K 30 454 up against the C-60 350 in 1/8 mile drag race loaded equally the C-60 would probably take it .
My friend had an 87 3500 with 350. It had some serious hill climbing ability. With heavy boat in tow I was always impressed with its power. The 90 crew cab he traded for with 454 was a dog. The medium truck engines in 366 & 427 were very different engines than the other big blocks. They had pistons, and cylinders 3/8" taller than small truck engines of the same displacement. The pistons had an extra oil ring, the cranks were forged steel instead of cast iron. Cooling passages were much larger, and valves, and cam shaft were bigger. Whether they offered a similarly built small block for the C50 I don't know.
Yeah Willie , that's interesting about your buddy's experience with the 3500's . The 350 in the dump truck was a transplant out of a 1973 Chevy K 10 pickup . Don't have the truck specs from 73 but I bet it's the L 48 350 like they offered in the cars .
My former brother in law was fresh out of high school in 1972 when he bought a new short box with plow. The 1973 body style was radically different from all that came before. There was a lot of discussion about engines, and gear ratios. I have never understood how an adequate engine in a 6000 LB truck could power a truck 4 or 5 times as heavy.
My take on it is matching the engine & gears for the job at hand . Like your brother in law's truck for instance , he would have bought the truck for multitask needs . Needed a little extra torque for plowing snow in winter but still wanted a daily driver for other tasks. Probably had 4.11 ratio drives on the 73 pickup . Then with the same engine in a single axil dump truck some guy is wanting to haul 6 or 7 tons of product in the bed . Rear end gear ratios change to 6.50 / 8.80 on the two speed rear to make it happen . Like you say Willie , allot of discussion about engines & gear ratios .