Hi Everyone,

I decided to start a pond project thread to help keep my progress documented and maybe get some advice along the way. I purchased 70 acres back in Feb 2017 and over the last year we have made some progress. The first order of business was clearing timber and making pastureland for my wife's animals, however, during that project I was able to come up with a reasonable excuse to build Pond #1. There was small valley running through the center of the future pasture that stayed much wetter than I anticipated. After sinking my dozer on several occasions, I decided the area "needed" a pond since the land was going to be tough to use year round for any other type of farming. After shooting with the laser level, I came up with a pond site that would be around 1/4 acre.

I managed to "unstuck" the dozer by using a trick I found online. Chain a 10" log to the front of the tracks. It acts like a giant paddle to pull you out of the mud.

Here's a picture of the first day of actual pond construction from back in July 2017. It hadn't rained for a month prior to this, so getting in the wet areas was manageable. Of course, the rain came when I needed it least...as in a few hours after I started the dam! Second picture shows the the unexpected pond, which I had to pump dry to resume work.

Pond finally filled up in December of 2017. I installed a 4" drain pipe at the based of the dam, which I can't seem to find the pictures for. I'm using a basic overflow pipe for now but I may put in a siphon system at some point to minimize erosion on the back side of the dam.

I found some of the pics of the completed pond before the rains came.

3D Model of my pond project.

https://sketchfab.com/models/bf3cecd592b04ff88cdf8053e7046e37

Cool! Thanks for sharing. Somewhat surprised the wife thinks it is 1/4 acre, but is actually 1 acre. I know I would have somehow pulled that off myself. ;-)

My wife actually pointed out that it wasn't big enough.(Insert jokes) I've got several other larger pond sites on the property so she'll just have to be patient. ;-) I was finally able to measure the surface area after getting my drone survey uploaded. Its slightly bigger than I estimated at 1/3 acre.

A very nice place for a big pond. Kudos!

Thanks! I have been very pleased with this pond over the first year. It has held water very well and the fish are doing great. I'm hoping to start a larger project in the next 6 months. I could either do a single 3-4 acre lake or several smaller lakes instead....still trying to decide.

Here's a wide angle picture from mid summer that shows how nicely everything around the pond has grown in.