Starting a thread for current (2009) pond pics. We have not done that in a while so post away.

Pond 2 - 12-5-09

WOW!!!

I see you had some snow! Those are some great photos

Some work and save a whole year just to spend a week or two at place like this! Would you describe your property to us newbies. Nothing prettier than a wet, sticky snow fall.

Man, that really looks nice, must be kinda rare for ol miss.

Is that an island or peninsula in the middle?

looks like a lake to me. Beautiful either way

Gorgeous!!

Eric, How long has it been since you've seen it like that?

DD1 here is the same pond last year. We see this about 2 out of every 5 years



Here is pond 3 today



That is a peninsula not an island.

Here is pond 1 last summer.




You guys add your pics.

I love it when my pond is perfectly calm like glass and when its frozen without the snow. This was taken about 3 weeks ago.

Great pic. Nice pond and love that facial expression. We don't get ice that will support skating.


Guys how about some pics.

DD1 these should help you compare last year's event to this year's.

Pond 1



Same location last summer. .




Last year Pond 2 Note the xmas trees have sunk.



Yesterday

Here are some photos of the snow that didn't fall out of the sky over EWEST's ponds. Snow this time of year isn't quite as unusual is West Virginia as it is down in Mississippi, but it sure is beautiful.

And, it's great to see Blair teaching the young one to walk on water. It will be a few days before we have enough ice for that.

The house near dark last night:


The pond this morning:


Ice just starting to form over an oak tree I dropped into the pond a couple of years ago for structure:


Ice forming on the frog pond. No frogs were seen anywhere.



The front deck this morning after the sun came over the ridge.

Wow Ken that is beautiful!

Here's mine. Yeah I know it's already been posted in another thread but it's the best I can come up with this year. It's my favorite too.

See the light areas in the dyed pond in the front? That's Sago Pondweed. Next year it will be gone. I've using a sonar product next year.

Jeepers 3 weeks ago!

Nice picture. Your son can look back on that picture in a few years and grin.

Ken those are PB mag cover beautiful. Cecil I need some above pics of ours as it would sure help explain what people are seeing.

Is there anything prettier than a pond?!

Great photos, y'all!

I don't have any real recent photos of my pond but I'll try to get out in the next few days and take some.

My pond has changed a bit in the past year due to several large dead trees falling. One thing that happened in the past year that was kinda sad was that we had this one tree that had a very pretty arch sticking up in the middle of the pond but the arch finally rotted away and fell. I miss that but, it was inevitable.
I know that sooner or later, all the scenic dead trees standing in the middle (home to owls and woodpeckers) will fall. They are already at the point that we don't like to be too near them if the wind is blowing. Still, they make the scenery quite interesting for as long as they last.

Cecil --

Great photo of the property. We are doing a lot of house plan reviewing now. Was your place stick built or a kit? If it was a kit -- actually both buildings, who made them?

Ken

Here's one fairly recent for my new pond.

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October '09
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I'm not sure what you mean Eric. Could you clarify? ???

Ken,

The house is tongue and grove pine logs with bolts from the sill plate to the top of the logs that were tightened as the logs shrunk and settled (green logs.) They were precut as per the house plans. They came from the northern tip of lower Michigan but the company was in Wisconsin. The system is know as Beaver Log Homes. Not sure if they are still around. We hired a contractor and helped erect the logs and did all of the staining.

The garage and apartment above it is stick built with cart siding.

As you can see my logs in the front are sorely in need of staining again. I didn't get to it this year but have to next year or I'm in trouble.

Mo, What is that rock looking structure on in the center of the picture on the opposite shore? Is it something functional or is it just a rock formation?

Cecil... Check out this thread: http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=194453#Post194453

You'll be blown away! IT IS VERY FUNCTIONAL...

I think you're referring to the waterfall that lets the springwater into the pond. On the left, there is the top of a concrete retaining wall with some pallets of rock pavers that I hope to surface it with. The thread linked above has some better photos of the details.

Nice Mo! So did the trout make it through the summer O.K.?

You're lucky you're not in Indiana. They would have probably classified that as a wetland and not allowed you to dig into it.

Awesome!

The pond wasn't filled until November; the trout just went in about three weeks ago.

Oh sorry I missed that.

Beautiful pictures. Every winter, I've been hoping for a snowy day to get some pictures like that of my pond. With the ways it's going so far, this might be the year.

Here's a few pics that I took over the summer.

Eddie


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Eddie nice pics. Thanks. Good color to that water. I actually like the green summer colors better than the winter ice.

Nothing new here but a few pictures of our 3 mud holes. I found these on mapquest. These aerial views have been updated recently. First view of our new big pond with water in it. These must have been taken just after a heavy rain event judging from the brown water.

Very impressive "mudholes", Rocky.
Is #3 still on the market?

Yes it is still for sale, I thought we had a buyer but he was playing games deal went south.

Eddie,
Nice looking pond. What is the tall grass growing around the edge? I just had my mudhole dug out a few month back and need to plant something come spring. Is that something native or did you plant it?

<----adding thread to watched topics. Great pictures guys.

House and pond #1
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Eddie what did you mow the shore with it looks really nice and smooth.

Cisco,

They are a reed type plant, but other then that, I don't have a clue what it is. Maybe one of the experts here can identify it. I dug the pond myself in a area that was thick with trees. While it's possible that it was already here somehow, I think it's one of those things that the birds brought in. Just like the two species of fish that have been caught in it that I didn't stock in there. I did plant the bermuda grass, but that's the only thing I planted.

James,

I mow with a Century 35hp compact tractor and a 7ft Landpride finish mower. I really like the way it cuts and how the finish mower rides over the ground. Before getting the finish mower, I was cutting with a rotary cutter. Besides not looking very nice, I got stuck way too often. Another nice thing about it is the width, and how far it sticks out past my tires. It really allows me to get just a bit closer to the water.

Eddie

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Cisco,

I am pretty sure that it is a type of spike rush.

You guys add some of your 2009 pond pics.

Here's my floating islands.

I pipe water to the pond from above this waterfall.

Your floating islands are always an inspiration for me, AP. Unfortunately, I never have the ga..humption to followup.
BTW...belated happy BD to you and all those I missed. Been at very low energy level lately fighting bugs passed from grndkids.

Burger I hope your feeling better, you need to rest in that warm Texas sun.
How about some photo's of your pond soon?

Those grandkids can get over a bug in a few hours that will take an adult several days to get through. Hope all of you are well soon.

AP is the fall above or below the pond ?

I can hardly wait to get back to my pond and get some new pics to post (and to archive). But, the water ain't gonna be pretty - we'll have had 3 days of solid rain by the time I can get back there and the water will be a lovely shade of chocolate brown.

Still, my pond is prettiest when the water is up so...that'll be something, I guess.

Y'all keep posting those pics - I love it!

The top of the falls are about 10 ft. higher than the pond. The pipes run 300 ft. to the pond, 95 GPM from the 4 pipes.

It's a terrible picture, taken this afternoon with it getting dark out. The single bleach bottle is where the aerator is, about 5' deep in 10' of water. You might be able to make out the cage that's holding the Bairdello's (behind the snowflake). Hopefully the aerator will allow the AP75 to get the pellets to the trout. The pond is about 3' lower than it was this Spring.

Nice pond, I like that small island.

Here's the Beaver pond this past spring. I don't stock it with fish, because some years the beavers "let it go" a bit. This past spring it was as high as ever. I enjoy the hell out of this pond year round though!







FH

That is just beautiful!

This is our fishing/swimming pond.

At Ice out - 3/28/09


and a Late May picture.


FH

FH, that pond is beautiful. Could you elaborate on what the beavers do that prevent you from stocking it?

I'd imagine its what the beavers DON'T do, that prevents stocking it. If they don't keep maintaining it, the dams quickly get holes in them that drain the pond.

How big of surface area was the beaver pond this year?

FH great pic - the reflection of the sky is outstanding and the pond reflects the sky's color as well. You get the same effect in green in the second pic.

Looks like your friend is enjoying the beaver pond as well.

Thanks guys about the Beaver Pond Pictures. Its tempting to "help" the beavers out and make it a more stable pond - but its ups and downs are natural and a joy to observe. There sometimes is fish - there is now some rock bass and minnows. Its a headwaters pond so its cool enough for trout if I could keep the depth more consistant. This spot is tenantivley earmarked for a retirement pond in about 20 years!

The main pond is about 1.75 - 2.0 acres - though the beavers keep making smaller ponds below the dam. In fact - they went 1/4 mile downstream of my property and on to my neighbor's - and flooded some of his woods. He trapped 4 of them out and "encouraged" the dam to break. I hope they were offspring of mine - I don't want to see it a muck hole any time soon. About 5 years ago - in a very dry summer - the beavers disappeared for a couple years -

The buck in the picture liked to drink in what became of the pond.


Its not as pretty a site (except for the deer) with very little water.

Here's a picture from last September at full capacity



FH

Beautiful pictures FH.

Dang Dwight, that makes me cold just looking at it.

OK, just as I've been promising, here are photos I took yesterday. It was rainy and about 37 degrees - very nasty weather for a southern boy but, we needed to check the drain box. Sure enough, it is covered in debris so, we'll go Monday or Wednesday of this week (when the temps are supposed to be in the 50's) and clear it off.

The water is quite muddy from all the heavy rains we've been having. It usually takes my pond about 3-5 days to clear up after a period of heavy rains. It's really about 3 feet above full pool - about 6 feet from the top of the dam but we saw evidence that our spillway was working just fine so, I don't think that we're in any real danger of over-topping.

Anyway, it ain't nearly as purdy as it usually is but, this is what it looks like right now.











And, our work that we have to do is in this picture:

Well, I didn't mean to be a thread killer.

As soon as I posted my pics, this thread died. I know my pond was kinda ugly in these photos but, I'd really like to see pics of other people's ponds.

So, let's see your pond!

BTW: We got most of the debris out of our drain box just in time to have another monsoon here. I'm guessing that there's plenty more work to do again, now.

Ugly? Your pond looks awesome...

Thanks, CJB! I'm just spoiled as to how nice it looks in the warmer months with the trees all bushed out and wild flowers blooming and the water a very nice shade of blue/green. With the water the color of coffee w/cream and the trees all bare, it just looks bleak to me.

But, I have to qualify all that by saying that I generally dislike winter. I always have. I'm a cold-weather grump.

I like the way ponds look in the winter the best... Yours look great to me.

AL,your pond looks good, better than covered with ice and 30 inches of snow like mine.
Still waiting to greet global warming, like the other AL has been promising.

Todd 3138’s from
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=196162&fpart=1

Pretty pond!

Looks mighty cold there but, the pond looks nice. I hope you've knitted sweaters for all your fish.

Thanks, Al. The sweater angle is actually why I'm planning a clandestine attack on the muskrats. I don't knit, but it's my suspiciion that there are enough of them to make a lot of little fur coats!

Now, that could be a thread killer. You do realize this place is packed with PETAs, don't you?

Todd:

Don't discount the fur coat angle. My mon had a muskrat knee length fur coat, the hood was trimmed with wolverine, and sleeves had a 1 1/2" wide band of white/black checkerboard trimmed fur, the the cuffs were sheared beaver, and the bottom hem of the coat matched the cuffs.

Yeah, but I thought it was the "People Eating Tasty Animals" branch!

Hey, that vindicates me! My wife has been dropping not so subtle hints about a fur coat and I've been thinking fur along the lines of a Jeremiah Johnson version! She'll love it, and I'll let her know I got the idea here!

Ahhhh...those muskrat coats would be considered organic, free-range, cage-free, and cruelty-free (if you're a good shot) so, you should be safe.

Also, my Lab would enjoy chewing on them.

Theo, if your wife had the coat and your lab chewed on it, I don't know how long you'd have the lab! The coat doesn't sound as good as it really is.

Al thanks for the pics. I bet you could catch a fish or two around the water control structure. What aspect of it needs work?

Theo what happened to the rats you guys trapped ? Dog food ?

I wonder if we could collectivlly do a Pond Boss fur rug ? Everyone could contribute there rodent pelts ( rats , beaver , otter , TJ's mink , etc and we could ship it to Bob for deployment in LL II.

Thanks! There is some much cover in my pond that my bass just play hide-n-seek with us!

The work I was referencing was all that debris and stuff that has floated down in front of my drain-box/overflow control. We pulled a lot of it out but, you'd have to see that box when the water is at summer levels - you can actually walk from the dam to the backside of the concrete structure without getting your feet wet. The water is almost 4 feet higher in the wetter months.

We've found that it's easier to move those floating logs when they're floating than when they're sunk in the mud. Duh...yep, we figured that out all by ourselves.

Along with my Chessie. Of course, he'd probably just think it was another friend to play with and go nuts chasing it around until it swam back into its den. On second thought, bring your lab and come on down!

We had a storm dump 2 1/4 inches of rain, so yesterday, I went down to see what Lake Marabou looked like. I can't see it from the house, and with work, short days and all the mud, I haven't even see it in over a month.

The spillway is flowing big time. I drove through on the fourwheeler and estimate that water to be six inches deep as it comes out!!!!

Eddie

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As my ole pappy used to say, "so muddy you can track a coon across it".
Eddie, can you tell me what type reeds are in the water? Are they naturlly occurring or planted? My pond is going on 3 yrs. and no edge type vegetation yet. Only cattails keep trying to establish in a low spot between field and pond hollow.

I think somebody mentioned what they might be earlier on in this thread if you want to try and find it. They just appearedon their own. At first, they were sporadic, but all the way around. Then they started to fill in until they pretty much make it completely around the pond. Once or twice a year, I'll mow them down with my bush hog, but they come right back in just a few weeks. If we're having a party or a campout, I'll mow them in an area for swimming too.

If you are ever in the Tyler area, I'm just off Interstate 20. You can have all that you want for free. I'll even lend a hand in digging them up for you!!!!

Eddie

Eddie: your pond is beautiful!

I know that water color - I've been having it for months now, myself. Our spillway has been running a few inches, too. I'm going to go check my dam and flood control box again tomorrow.

The way it's been lately, we don't even bother taking fishing gear these days.

Still, I think all the nutrients and such that are washing in will be good for the forage and the fish as long as there are a few blue-sky days between the heavy rains.

Ponds thrived long before we ever tried to manage them.

Read that agian guys you might learn something. Well said Al.

Eddie, mine do the same I like it, makes a great border to mow too. No mud line.

Went out today with my pond partner and pulled out about 10 very large floating logs that had migrated up to the drain box. Hard work - some of them were about 12" diameter and over 15 feet long.

We got the drain box opening completely cleared down to about halfway and the water dropped almost 6" during the 3 hours we were there and it was still running hard.

We needed to do this today because we're about to get another 3 or 4 days of rain. We are now in, officially, the wettest fall AND winter on record for our county.

We fished about 45 minutes because the water was slightly less muddy than it has been but, no bites. I'm beginning to think we should get one of those augers you guys use for ice fishing so we can cut a hole in the muddy water and fish!

Pictures of my pond.

Oops, back to the drawing board. My wife is trying very hard on these pictures. If you don't see me around its because she has killed me. Mikel

These are pictures of my pond. I hope!

[IMG] http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo36/mikel_013/P4300344-1.jpg [IMG] http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo36/mikel_013/P4300345-1.jpg [IMG] http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo36/mikel_013/P8030175.jpg [IMG] [IMG] [IMG] [IMG] http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo36/mikel_013/P8030191.jpg[IMG] http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo36/mikel_013/P4300343.jpg[IMG] http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo36/mikel_013/CopyofP4300342.jpg [IMG] http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo36/mikel_013/P8030188.jpg [/IMG]

hehehe...OK, mikel! you're getting the hang of it!

Beautiful place!

Now, go take some more so we can see what it looks like in the winter time.

Nice place mikel. I see you're using your garden hose to keep the pond at full pool.

And here I though the lad was just using Cecil's RAS trick to fill the pond!

How big is the water pump that is spraying upward in the picture? Very nice looking pond and I really enjoyed the pictures.

It really is a beaut', ain't it?

Very Cool Blue Color and pretty floweres, wish I was there instead of here where it is snowing.......blah, bring on the summer of funner.

I've had a well put in since the picture of the water hose. The well company went down 146 feet and hit really good water. The well is about 200 feet from pond but I've run 2" pvc from well under my deck and it discharges right out the end of my deck. Well man said 50 gallons a minute.

The de-icer/aerator is a kasco 3/4 horse power motor that I have set on a timer. It started tripping my braker so I had it checked out and water was leaking into the sealed motor. Kasco has repair guy in Paris Tennessee that put new seals and fresh oil in motor. The motor was a 2003 model so its time for seals and oil to be replaced. Motor is running great now.

Guy sitting on deck is my nephew, my brothers son and the picture in the boat is me and my 2 sons who are now 14 and 12. I'm not sure if it was the camera angle or what but the picture sure made me look kind of large.

The red blooming flowers were azaleas and the picture was taken around March early April 2009. I put in a creek right where the azaleas are which was an old road bed. I put a pump in the pond and ran a 1.5" pvc up to where my creek starts and it circulates water back into the pond under my cross tie bridge. I enjoy the sound of the running water.

When I took a lot of these pictures I was putting aqua shade in the pond but I've stopped doing that and am now fertilizing.

Hope my wife doesn't quit trying to perfect sending pictures. I'll try and get some that are more current.

mikel:

For a well to pump 50 gpm, what size is it (4", 6", ?)and how big of a well pump do you have?

Well casing is 4" pvc with a 220 volt submersible pump that has a 1 1/2 horsepower motor. The well man came highly recommended and did a good job.

That seems like an effecient pump. Mine is like yours, although I believe it's a 1 hp pump and it only gets 25-28 gpm. It may be 3/4 hp tho, I can't remember. I only remembered the gpm figure.