Rebuilding a mound

Here is a tip to get clay bricks cheap. Clay bricks are also called "green bricks." If you can find a maintenance yard near you that fires bricks you can find them a lot cheaper than you can find in magazines. Also a lot of times they will give you some clay as well. We were able to do our Mound and home plate area cheaper than what we would have done just a mound with. In regards to the how high the mound is just remember this quote, "It was 10 inches when we measured it. I guess our digital transit was off."

Agree with Socalcoach. The key to a good mound is to use bricks and have a very thin layer of mound mix on top of it. It prevents a mound with big holes in the landing and push off areas. You also do not need lots of water on them, actually most people overwater their mounds.

Just my opinion, but deviating from the 10" requirement for mound height is like changing the distance between your bases...just not kosher. So, if you haven't already, make contact with someone in your area who does excavation/dirt hauling. They will have the equipment "shoot" your mound height (to give your mound building a starting point), the clay you need, and will often donate both I've found out. Great for a limited budget.

If you are indeed limited, you can build a fine mound with good, clean red clay and without the bricks. It's just gonna require more work daily to repair the wear holes. Just have to decide which is the lesser of two evils, I guess.

You said you have the msrmnts. so I only have two suggestions (after finding the excavator):
1) Use your players! It goes much faster when a well supervised work force of a dozen gets after it as opposed to you going at it solo. "Alright boys, the slope is good here. Tamp it!".
2) Build a 2x4 box/frame to frame up the flat plateau that makes up the top of the mound and then work off of that for the slope. When we rebuild, we place the 3'x5' frame in the correct location, making sure its level. We then add clay and tamp until the plateau is completed. Carefully remove the frame and work the clay around (like working concrete with a long 2x4) and roll/tamp until the slope is correct. We place an old home plate or rubber mat between the 2x4 and plateau to keep from destroying the edges we got witht the frame. We continue around the mound until completed.

socalhscoach you have pm