Stall Dug Out, Now What?

[MikePA]

Attached is a picture of the 12' x 12' stall I just finished digging out, by hand. We made the mistake of following the suggestion of the person who built our barn to put clay in our stalls. Given the barn location, the clay was almost always mushy. We've tried everything but digging the clay out. So, that's how I spent the Independence Day weekend, plus several previous weekends! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] BTW, the last picture is the pile of clay I dug out. It's now sitting in the corner of one of our pastures, so we'll have to relocate it in the near future.

The depth below ground level is approximately 12 inches. I was going to put some kind of pit in the center of the stall, however, given the ground water level most of the year, I've decided not to do that.

My new plan is to lay a 14' x 14', 8 oz. geotextile cloth (click here for what I mean) over what you can see in the picture. A 14' x 14' cloth will run up the sides of the hole a foot. Then lay in 12 inches of 2A modified limestone (3/4" down to fines) followed by some type of interlocking stall mat topped by wood chips.

Your thoughts?

[SteveB]

We prepared our entire site with 12" bank run gravel, then 6" of 1/4" processed, then added 6" of stone dust in the stalls only.

Is there an advantage to using limestone, or is that just what is readily availible in your area?

[MikePA]

<font color="blue">We prepared our entire site with 12" bank run gravel, then 6" of 1/4" processed, then added 6" of stone dust in the stalls only. </font color>
Wish I would have done this. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

<font color="blue"> Is there an advantage to using limestone, or is that just what is readily availible in your area? </font color>
It's readily available.

[hockeyhead]

[img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] Myself and most I know have clay based stalls, SE Michigan area where I live it is all clay, no problems, with mushy stall?, I built my wife's horse barn 18" above grade with all clay fill, even stall kept because of weather does not create "mushy stalls" inter-locking mats in the digger's stall and aisle-way only, and a heavy textured concrete in wash area only. each stall has 4" to 5" good heavy pine sawdust cleaned daily or everyother day depending on turnout, stripped monthly or 6 weeks sprinkle a little lime and fill with fresh dust, sounds like your stalls are taking on more mosture than the horses generate. I have gravel driveway(screenings) around three sides with 5' of rubber mat up against barn under gravel so water runs away from barn through driveway , good luck to you.

[MikePA]

Well, I finished the stall late Sunday afternoon! [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

I reviewed my tractor log book and I spent 6.8 tractor hours, 35 man hours and hand dug 29 FEL loads of heavy clay out of the stall. Of course, since I dug out 29 FEL loads, I had to replace it with something! I don't know whether the clay coming out, or the 2A (3/4" down to fines) limestone going it was heavier! Probably, about the same. Based upon what remains of the 25 tons of limestone I started with, I estimate I installed about 10 tons of limestone.

Even though, given our high spring water table, I'm not sure it will help, I also ended up burying a 30 gallon plastic drum in the center of the stall and sloping the ground towards it. Once you've dug down 12 inches, what's another 2 or 3 feet to bury a drum! The drum already had 2 holes in the top (the usual holes in the top of a drum), I drilled 2 more (2.5" diameter) in the top and drilled 4 holes in the bottom.

I covered the whole stall floor, plus a foot up at the sides, with geotextile cloth then began dumping in limestone.

Since I could not get the FEL into the stall, I would get a FEL load of limestone (the pile was up the road a few hundred feet, in our other pasture), dump it into a 5 cu. ft. wheelbarrow (which would fit thru the stall doorway) then dump the wheelbarrow into the stall. Two thirds of the tractor time were spent doing this. Every 4 inches of limestone, I used an 8" x 8" hand tamper to compress the limestone.

Interestingly, the first wheelbarrow I used, when I attempted to lift a load of limestone, the left handle broke (rotted from sitting outside)! Hmm, what to do. Ah, there's my favorite metal wheelbarrow, with sturdy redwood handles sitting in front of the barn with my wife's flowers planted in it. A quick transfer of the dirt and the floral contents to the wheelbarrow with the broken handle solved this problem. The tire was flat, so I had to take the wheelbarrow up to the garage to air it up. I thought I could accomplish this without the wife noticing, but who should be sitting on the front porch as I walked by? [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

"What did you do with my flowers?"

"I transplanted them."

"I can't wait to see that!"

Of course my wife wasn't too happy with my arranging skills (flowers up, roots down), but what are you gonna do? [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Finally, I installed rubber mats from Summit Flexible Products. One more stall to go, but I might wait until next year to see how well this stall works over the winter and next spring.

[RichZ]

Mike, your mushy stalls look just like the mushy stalls in my barn. The stalls were in when I bought the barn, so I don't know what's under there, but I assume it's clay.

Let us know how your project worked out, because I don't feel like putting in all of that work unless Im SURE it will solve the problem!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Thanks for posting this!!!

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> Let us know how your project worked out, because I don't feel like putting in all of that work unless Im SURE it will solve the problem!!! </font color>
Well, Rich, I have some bad news for you...it solved the problem! [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

This has been one rainy summer for us and yesterday we got hit by 2 severe thunderstorms that dumped a lot of rain on us. In fact, our basement sump pump is still coming on even though the rain has stopped.

The barn is a mess from all the rain, but this stall is high and dry while the other one (that I have to do now) is a mushy, smushy mess.

Get that shovel out, Rich! [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[RichZ]

Thanks, Mike, but no way am I gonna dig that out myself. In our area we try to find teenagers that we call "strong, but dumb" to do the job.

We got one to help us carry buckets of concrete during my house construction. Of course I did pay him well. Now I'll see if he's interested in digging out some stalls. I'll have to catch him soon, that dumb teenage is going to Yale next month.