Nice, very nice sequence of pictures. I can’t tell, is that a cat or JD tractor and loader? What kind of pump is that?
Several years ago we had drained a pond in central Missouri, hoping to farm over it. We waited a year and a half to test it. I drove out cautiously on a 90 horse Case and before I could react, the front end sunk to the axle. It took a 120 hp JD with duals to extract that rig and we had to wait another full year. I got a D4 Cat stuck in an irrigation ditch in eastern Oregon back in the 70s. We spent a couple of hours digging out behind it with a little JD crawler and finally extracted the D4 hooked to the JD crawler and another 60 hp David Brown. Before we dug it out, the winch on the Cat would drag backwards both the JD crawler and that little David Brown tractor.
Is your pond in Texas? I noticed the absence of rock. Makes me sick to think all those fine fish died.
Tractor is a Massey-Ferguson 50E. 65hp Perkins diesel and absolutely amazing hydraulics. If I stick the loader bucket too tight it will lift the rear end off the ground. That’s with loaded 16.9x28s and 1000lbs of box blade and suitcase weight hanging off the rear three-point hitch.
Pump is a 1/2hp japan-made trash pump that I bought off of Amazon. Best $300 bucks I’ve spent in a while. I burned up three of the $70 china-made pumps from Harbor Freight since I started on the pond.
I grew up farming. Been stuck and helped neighbors who were stuck more times than I can count. I ran a 7600 Ford pulling a 16’ spring tooth cultivator into a creek bottom seep hole one time. Same deal. It was sunk to the belly before I knew what happened. Took another 7600 Ford, and 3020 JD and a 4020 JD all chained together to get out. I got a good butt-chewing for that from Dad’s partner. And another one when I pointed out that if he didn’t want me driving into it he should have told me it was there. LOL.
I’m smack in central Missouri myself. Six miles east of Columbia and a mile and half south of I70.