Draining the Swamp

We had a wet spring and our drainage ditches have gradually been filling up with decayed vegetation over the past decades, so I thought it would be a good idea to try to run a plow down the middle of one and cut a furrow.  I figured I could always use the hydraulics of the bucket to push myself out if the tractor bogged down.  So much for theory.  Here my front wheels are under water, I have already removed the plow from the three point attachment arms, and have churned the muck into a soft slurry with the bucket so that it offers no resistance to push against.  In other words I am hopelessly stuck.  This should not have happened and I am embarrassed that it did.  But what can you say?  That's the way it goes sometimes.  My father used to get his tractor stuck on a regular basis, so I have it in my genes. 

Fortunately my father's old Ford tractor is still operational.  Sam drove it down and brought a few long chains.

Which we hooked onto my trailer hitch and voila!  Out she comes!

Sam's tires spun a bit, but fortunately he didn't bog down.

Time to hose off the tractor.

The next day I attacked the ditch from the side, using the tractor bucket to fold back layers of sod.

At the scene of the crime I resorted to using a shovel rather than risk getting the tractor stuck again.  My audience would not have forgiven me if I got stuck in the same place the following day.

The tall reed canary grass that grows here in the summer has a dense network of roots that are hard to cut through with a shovel, or for that matter, with a loader bucket.

But the ditch is flowing better.  This will be an ongoing project this summer I am sure.