Thanks! I would have liked the pond to be larger and deeper but I was hitting limestone and didn't want to dig any more. Also the watershed is limited for this spot. There is another place on my land where at least a 2 acre pond would work. The problem with that spot is that it may have *too* much watershed and I would have to take out some mature timber to dam it. Digging the pond was a great learning experience, plus I learned a lot about working with a dozer.
I noticed that tree last year and was trying to id it, and misidentified it as a chinkapin oak. A couple weeks ago I was checking out some pine seedlings next to it and almost stepped on a chestnut bur. I was pretty shocked to find the bur and realized the "chinkapin oak" was actually a chestnut. I've checked out some internet ID sites and emailed pics to a college professor, and it's probably a blight resistant hybrid someone planted. If it were 100% American Chestnut there would be college researchers and chestnut association people wanting to pollinate and graft it. The chestnut blight has largely wiped out chestnut trees and there are very few that get large enough to produce nuts any more. Years ago in this area they used to make up 1/4 of all the trees in the woods and get 150'+ tall. They were the #1 most important commercial tree in our forests until the blight decimated them. A whole lot of people are working towards blight free strains and a great deal of progress has been made, hopefully in a few years we can start restoring this tree to our woods. This little 25' tree is still a nice one to have. It's down a hill a little in the pic and is bigger than it looks. I'll post good pics of it in the Spring when there is more to see.
Love to see anyone elses update pictures, I really enjoy seeing them and hearing about everyone else's projects. Eddie and Brettski, I'm really looking forward to seeing your full pool pics.
Eric
