The Spillway

Tom finally got the time to repair the spillway on our pond dam.  Our ever helpful neighbor came over with his big equipment and they buried two big pipes (or culverts) and rebuilt the area that was washed out in the big flood this past spring.

Since it had been washed out, Tom hasn't been able to get the tractor over to the other side of the pond to mow, so it is completely taken over with weeds.  As you can see, the water has receded significantly.  It will probably be quite a while before the water is high enough to go through those pipes.

Tom needed to put concrete around the ends of the pipes to keep the the soil from being washed away the next time we have a gully washer.  He was faced with mixing 24 80 lb. bags of concrete by hand in a wheel barrow.  Thankfully, a friend loaned Tom his tractor with a cement mixer on the back.  So, he was able to mix the concrete right on the site using the water from the pond.  It was still backbreaking work to lift all of those bags of concrete and pour them into the mixer.

This doesn't look like 1,920 pounds worth of concrete!

Hopefully, some grass will grow over that bare spot to hold the soil in place.