Here are some pictures on my new project. It will be about 0.5 acres. It is so dry this year, it was a perfect time to start. I bought a used Deere 550G dozer and got started. I have designed many ponds as a civil engineer, but this is the first one I am building. It is in northern PA, (Bradford County). I am there most every weekend so progress may be a bit slow. I spent about 20 hours on the dozer to clear the stumps, strip the top soil and start to stock pile the clay on the back edge on the berm. It started raining on Saturday so I did not want to start the key trench. The forcast for Saturday is good so I will put the key trench this weekend.




Before I started


It is just a little early to start swiming!


My friend Greg helping clear trees.


Pushing dirt



A boy and his toys.

Awesome, Herb! Thanks for bringing us along for the ride on your project. We look forward to following along with you!

Man I wish I had your dozer.......the fun I could have!

I plan on building the pond, and doing a few things on the property, then sell the dozer. I am having a fun time on the dozer, and I can take my time, and get the pond the way I want. The best part is my Wife thinks buying the dozer was a good idea!

Wow, you need to share the intel with us on how you made that happen!

Here are some new pictures. The dam is taking shape.

http://s725.photobucket.com/albums/ww258/herbg22/?action=view&current=16508817.jpg

Herb

I would LOVE to see more pictures!!! We have a JD550 dozer and are thinking about trying a pond.

Here are some more picture from 8-7-10. Last weekend I was moving mud. So there was no real progress on the dam. I do have the bottom at 90% complete. Hopefully I will be able to complete the dam this weekend.



A view of the valley too.



The fill is so dry, I hope it compacts OK.



Shaping the bottom

WOW!! That is looking great! How many hours have you put in?

Hi Herb - welcome to the forum! What a beautiful setting for your pond! I love PA rolling hills and forest. Wow.

Tell us about your dam....did you core trench? Are you finding good clay?

So far I have about 80 hours sitting on the bulldozer. I am sure if I was more experienced on heavy equipment that the time would be less. I have made a few miss-steps that have cost me some time. One of my topsoil stock piles had to be moved and Management (the Wife) had requested a design change. That took an extra few hours. And the rain has made a mess if the site. I have shaped the deep areas to take the rain fall, so I can continue on with the rest of the pond bottom. I am only able to work on weekends so progress is slow.

The soil on the site could not be better. All clay with a few large rocks. I am pushing the rocks out of the way so I can use them for landscaping around the pond and for bottom structure.

I did cut a key trench for the dam. I did not like the compaction I was getting with the dozer, so I am using a compact tractor with a counter weighs and a full bucket of dirt to compact the clay. It is not as good as a roller but it is what I have available. I will let you know how that works out for me.

I am getting concerned that I will run out of time before I can get the top soil in place to get some grass cover for the winter. I may just seed with annual rye this year and work on the ground cover next Spring.

This is more fun than I expected. I am enjoying seeing the progress from week to week. I can picture the finished project and how nice it will look on the property.

Looking good!

Herb that's awesome!! Looks like great fun. I LOVE pushing stuff around with equipment! There's just something about it... It makes your feel like you could do anything when your on them machines!! Keep us posted.

Progress on the pond has been slowed by a problem with the dozer.

The new parts are ready to be installed.


Turning wrenches. Sharon and Greg were a BIG help. I could not have fixed the dozer without my helpers!

Yes, I am using a PTO shaft as a lever. You use what you have.
Now Back to work!


I hope to be finished the dam and the inside of the pond this weekend.

Great thread Herb. Keep us updated.

The dam is nearly done.

There is some dress up work to do, but now I am hoping rain.
We did put in some FHMs. I just could not hold back until Spring. The water in the bottom is about 3 feet deep so with any luck the FHMs will make it through winter.

I was going to hold off putting the topsoil back until Spring. I just want to make sure there is no settlement in the dam.

That's great, Herb! How about some pics from different angles so we get a better idea of how it all looks? Congrats on being at this stage. Share some of your thoughts on how the process went and just your overall feelings about digging your first pond.

We added so bottom structure this weekend. We found the old ATV parts back in the woods. It looked perfect for the bottom of the pond.

I think this was a wall from an old barn. It will be just above the water line. We found a old hand dug well next to the wall.
I will use some of the rocks on the sides of the wall for a sitting wall.



Another view



It is raining today and tonight. So I hope the pond starts to fill.

I spent a total of 100 hours on the dozer so far. The inside of the pond could use so clean up work.
That's right cleaning up with a bull dozer. (Sounds like my bed room as a kid)

Most of the remaining work is on the outside of the dam.

It has been so dry this year the tress are changing early. You can see how dry the soil is. It is like compacting baby powder.

Herb you picked a great setting for a pond, fantastic view, hope it holds water with no problems, we're getting lots of rain here today.

The pond is full and so far no leaks.


Those are decoys for the picture.

I still need to put the topsoil on the dam, but that will not happen until Spring. I planted oats and rye on the dam for winter cover.



Management wants me to make the dam higher and relocate the spillway so the pond will be larger. I don't have a problem with that. After all she let me buy the bull dozer. I will work that in between hunting.

That looks great! I like irregular shaped ponds.

The shape was in part because of the topography, and in part because it will look great once it is landscaped. I like it when you can walk around a pond and there is a surprise around every corner.

Beautiful, Herb! Really nicely done - congrats on the great result! And even bigger congrats on having very open-minded management on the job!

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks so much for bringing us along to share in your project.