Mud Bog Brush Hog

I've had some muddy tractor jobs before...like this one:

But this was the first time I'd ever brush hogged moss!

The customer owned an area of land that is basically a city drainage retention pond and it was a MESS.  The cattails are absolutely horrible about sending out seeds that can clog a radiator and cause a tractor to overheat.

The other tough part about this job is that the field was still littered with tornado debris from the 2013 tornadoes that ravaged Moore.  There's nothing like cruising along and BAM BAM BAM...hitting a chunk of metal buried in the weeds.  No matter how closely you watch for such stuff, sometimes you just can't see it.

Here's the tame view of the job when I first showed up.  Boy, did things change quickly!

I immediately hit this:

And at one point, the water had been standing there so long I actually brush hogged...MOSS!

I had to run with my bucket up (not ideal) in many places just to keep the bucket from knocking dust and seeds up into the radiator.

At one point, my tractor was actually practically floating over the mud on the very very thick reeds. Had I had skinnier tires or a heavier tractor, I would have sunk to the axles instantly.  It was very deep, thick, mushy mud.  You can't tell from the pics the danger that mess that lurked below.

Here's what things looked like when I was done.  It took me an hour to get the mud washed off!  Too bad I don't get to count that as part of the billable time. ;)