Bridgeton Mill

Using my tractor to help them reach the top.  That is Jimmy Nickles I’m talking to.  He was the forman when Midwest pumped the concrete out to us in phase 2 of the dam work.  He also pumped the concrete into the tunnel so I could fix the foundation.  He suggested the shotcrete or gunite…

Charlie is drilling holes for re-bar and Carl Redensky is cutting and hammering it in.  Midwest Pumping is blowing the concrete onto the old dam.  You can see pipes coming out of the dam.  We couldn’t get the water completely stopped so I started sticking the pipes into the holes and putting handfuls of concrete…

We were getting the water lower and lower on the north side.  So, we started pressure washing the old concrete and drilling holes for re-bar.  Several folks helped with this.  Here is a photo of Ethan pressure washing.  You can see the old wood dam sticking out of the concrete.  I cut most of this…

It started raining.  You can see the water moving on the upstream side of the dam (mill pond).  And, you can see the temporary dam I built on the downstream side.  The rain  helped by flushing out a lot of lose dirt in the mill pond. You can also see there is less water coming…

More and more water is coming through the gates.  (Because we are moving it to the south side).  So, I had to build a temporary dam on the downstream side to keep the water on the south side and going through the newly opened tail race.

The big plan was to open the south side of the mill pond and move the creek (water) to the south side.  There was a large log jam up at the point (upstream end of the island).  During the big flood of 2008 it was completely washed out.  First time I ever saw it without…

I dug as far as I could with the tractor.  The mud was sooo bad I kept getting hung up.  So, Karen and Ethan came out to help me shovel it.  You can see the water is starting to move.

This photo is looking upstream from the dam on the south side.  I have been working with the tractor to remove dirt, logs … etc.  I’m hoping to get the water moving on this side also.

This is a photo of the upstream side of the dam.  By leaving the gates open I have washed out lots of dirt.  This was completely full of dirt last year.  You can see the old wood dam inside the concrete.  And a surprise to me was finding some of the original siding boards still…

The drought is coming! ! !  I hope.  Everyone thinks I’m crazy .. We are having record amounts of water this year and I’m talking about a drought.   Seems to me we have had so much rain this spring and early summer there can’t be any left for the rest of the summer.  Two weeks…