We got 2" of rain a couple days ago so I ran out and checked on the pond today. I dug it 8 months ago and it was filling up pretty good until we had a big drought this Summer. Today it has more water in it than it's ever had and I'm hopeful it will finish filling up this winter. Seepage has seemed to have completely stopped and it's getting more water with every rain. It's .40 of an acre and will be 8' deep at spillway full. It needs to come up another 3 feet to be full. I've put a lb of fatheads and some CNBG and CC in it already. It's not much compared to all these huge fancy ponds you guys have but I'm glad to have it :p I dug it myself and was limited as to where a pond could go, because my land is hilly and has rocks in some of the areas that would otherwise be good pond spots.

Here's a pic from today. You can't tell from the pic but the floor of the pond slopes sharply down to the right and the water is over 5' deep there. The shallow end is the farthest away part of the pond in the pic and it's a little over 3' deep there now. There is a concrete block structure under the water there. The black thing in the water just in front of the weeds in the center of the pic is a pile of tires and concrete blocks wired together ... the top tire is barely covered by water. The black thing behind the dock posts is a big log. I'm planning on finishing the dock this Spring. btw that tree with the brown leaves at the end of the fencerow is a chestnut!


Here is my little wildlife pond. It's leaking and is not filling up very well, but there is a pretty heavy deer trail in the woods just below it. I'm going to plant several hundred trees around this tiny pond in February:


Here's a panoramic view of the "big" pond:

Eric, neat place. I've never seen a chestnut tree. Can you post a picture in the late Spring when it is leafed out? Thanks.

Gonna be sharp Eric! I would have to say that is the first time I have ever seen a chestnut tree as well!

Eric, thanks for the update. You pond is looking realy nice.

Eddie

Nothing like building it yourself is there. Congrats!

You had a plan, man, and you followed through. Lookin' sweet, Eric. I, for one, appreciate your forethought in setting the timbers for your future dock. Good stuff, dude.

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

The only thing I've ever know about chestnut trees is that a village smithy stands under a spreading one. And, that's all I know about the poem. Guess I'll have to Google up Village Smithy and chestnut tree. I'm curious now.

It sounds like you are assuming that it couldn't be a naturally occuring tree. Why not have it checked out and find out whether it is really unique? I would have to know.

BTW, It looks like you impounded in a rocky outcrop area. Or, at least, it looks like small rocks. You must have some good clay to go along with the rocks.

The pond looks great Eddie. Thanks for posting an update. To mitigate the leakage in the wildlife pond, is it feasible to install a liner?

The ability to tell water to go here and to go there, is quite the experience. Glad you are able to enjoy the newfound power.

Eddie,

What are the dimensions of your pond?

Dave, I've checked it out pretty thoroughly including emailing a college professor high resolution pics of the leaves, burs, and nuts. He is almost certain it's not a 100% American chestnut and from lots of pics and ID websites I checked out it's probably not either. But it does exhibit many of the traits of an American chestnut so it's probably a hybrid. There are some other pine and pine that seem to have been planted. There are a couple pine species not native to this area (seemingly planted in rows), and there are some huge pecan trees all growing in one spot. It seems unlikely they would have sprouted there with no other pecans nearby. I think the previous owner did some tree planting at some point.

The soil looks like that around the ponds because it's hilltop ground and there are lots of limestone pebbles. The good thing is there is lots of good red clay under the topsoil, and there is still some watershed sloping down to the pond from above. In the last picture the water runs into the pond from a field on the right. There were several different reasons I put the pond where it is but you'd have to see the lay of the land for it to make sense.

I hope the little wildlife pond will seal itself and fill up before long. My parents have dozens of little wildlife ponds on their Kentucky farm and it took some of them a year or two to seal and hold water. If it does eventually seal I'm going to use it as a fathead nursery. I don't remember the dimensions of the main pond but when I measured it came out to .3975XXXXX some odd number of an acre.

Eric

Eric how did you do your posts? How deep and I am guessing you cemented around the posts correct?

I would like to do the same ting for a porch. Basically a litle cabin and the porch would be the dock.

Donnie

Hey Donnie,

I dug holes a few feet deep with a posthole digger and filled the bottom of the holes with gravel. Then I got two 4' long 12" sonotubes from Lowes, cut them in 2 pieces, and kind of wedged them into the tops of the holes and leveled them. Then I dropped the 6x6s in and poured sackrete and water into each hole, positioning and leveling the 6x6's as I poured. Once you get a foot or two of sackrete in, the 6x6's become pretty stable and you can start tamping the mix in. The next day they were rock solid. The sonotubes are basically just a heavy, wax coated cardboard tube and rain/water will eventually make them dissolve and all you'll see is concrete cylinders.

I'm waiting to finish the dock until the pond is at spillway full, and then I'll put the deck just above that level. I still need to put two more short 6x6s in on the bank. I'm planning to string 2x10s down each side and one or two in the middle (the walkway will be 10' wide) and use 2x4s for planks. I'm going to let the end of the dock overhang by around 3' and put an aluminum ladder on the end, and am planning to build bench seats between the 6x6's on either side. I probably won't do much else other than maybe a handrail and possibly some copper caps for the 6x6's once they are cut off. I don't plan on a roof or anything so the 6x6s are only sticking up high enough for a railing and the benches.

Here is a pic of right after the posts were sunk, and what they looked like a few days ago.




I'd love to see pics of your pond if you get the chance.

Eric

Eric I plan on using 6x6's to support a deck over the water. The tops of the 6x6's would support the roof of the porch. Basically it would be a little cabin out of rough lumber where the front porch is a dock. I plan on using treated lumber for anything close to the water.

Here are some pics....
My cabin/pond house would be on the far bank in the cut of the bank.


These are rocks we put in the middle

Here it is filling up

This is the dam/drive way looking at the road

This is looking in the opposite direction toward the house

This is looking to the back of the pond from the dam/driveway

Donnie that's a beautiful place you got there and a heck of a nice pond. Looks like an ideal location for the size pond you dug. Thanks for sharing the pics. btw I grew up in Grayson County. Heading up there in a couple days for Thanksgiving and to deer hunt for a few days.

Eric

Yeah Grayson is in Carter Co. right? I lived in Eastern KY until I went to UK and Eastern, now I live near Berea.

Kill us a bigun while your up there. We haven't had much luck this year on the farmw we hunt. Usually we see a bunch, it's been real slow this year. Funny thing is I have seen more deer while I have been in NY the past few days than I have seen all year hunting. Flying home in the AM, can't wait to get home.

Donnie

Eric,

Good luck with the pond. A little feeding will yield a surprising amount of fish and fun per acre.

Though it was 50 years ago, I still remember looking up at the wooded hills that surround our KY home. I recall seeing ghostly gray hulks of once majestic chestnut trees interspersed among the green oak and poplar trees. Good luck with your chestnut tree.

I'm actually from Grayson County north of Bowling Green. Never been to Grayson or Carter County.

I've been too busy to take off work and different things have been going on every weekend, so this is the first weekend I'm able to gun hunt yet this season. Friends and family have seen a lot of deer though and taken some nice bucks. The weather is looking perfect and I'm hunting on our family farm with my Dad, brother, and a couple friends. It's gonna to be a great weekend!

bobad I know exactly what you mean. There are still some huge chestnut stumps on one hillside on my parent's farm. The wood is very rot resistant and it takes them a long time to decay. In the winter when you see those huge stumps sticking up in the woods it will put a chill in your spine.

Eric

Bobad what part of KY did you grow up in? Sounds like Eastern KY to me, that's where I grew up.

Eric I know exactly where your talking abou now. Portland is ony an hour or so from B-Green right? I dated a girl that went to private school there.

Donnie

Bowling Green is actually just 30 minutes north of Portland, you run right up I-65. We are very near the Kentucky line. It takes just over an hour to drive to my parent's farm north of BG.

Eric