Guys sorry to hear this...you needed the rain, but this is ridiculous. Sounds like the pattern is going to stick around a while. Wish there was a way you could store it for later time.
Tbar....it's crazy rain! North Texas has turned into Portland or Seattle. I already cancelled Overton's fish delivery once and tomorrow is the reschedule date. I thought 3 weeks after first cancel date we'd be dry by now. I told Walt this morning..."the hell with it..bring 'em!" I can't keep putting life on hold due to the rain. If they all wash down the drain...so be it! Ha Ha. If Walt's truck gets stuck..(I dont think it will)..I have neighbor's tractor on hold ready to go to work.
The word "empathy" best defines my feelings for what you guys in TX and OK are going through.
Over the years my ponds have gotten high enough to flow through the emergency overflows. The stomach knots I've had are nasty reminders of big storms. But, it seems like you are being subjected to more than I think I've ever experienced, even during hurricanes.
Is it just me or is everyone noticing more severe weather seems to be the pattern? I installed a whole house natural gas backup generator in the new house. I woke up at 3 this morning (old men do that cause they have to pee. ) and it was running. Power was off for a couple hours apparently. Only reason I even noticed was because I could hear a faint humming noise when I was in the bathroom so, of course, I had to figure out what the noise was.
My duck pond was running over the spillway for the second time this month. It holds about 12 acre feet of water and should be empty this time of year. In one 2-3" rain it will fill up completely and run over the spillway about 6-8". Ground can't hold anymore water and every drop runs off. First time it has run out the spillway since it was built in 2012.
The ONLY good thing about this constant rain is you guys are getting some major flushing action going on...renewing your ponds by years and years. I imagine some of you have had way over 100% replacement by now, maybe closer to 500%. Sorry, trying to be an optimist.
Tbar....it's crazy rain! North Texas has turned into Portland or Seattle. I already cancelled Overton's fish delivery once and tomorrow is the reschedule date. I thought 3 weeks after first cancel date we'd be dry by now. I told Walt this morning..."the hell with it..bring 'em!" I can't keep putting life on hold due to the rain. If they all wash down the drain...so be it! Ha Ha. If Walt's truck gets stuck..(I dont think it will)..I have neighbor's tractor on hold ready to go to work.
Mark, I hope your pond is handling the flooding better than mine. I can hear the big rocks I put in the spillway being pushed out and down the gully. Will have to address that when things return to normal.
Same here in Hopkins Co., TX. My water trampoline temporarily stopped up my pond drain but we got the mule to pull it on the bank to allow water to flow.A couple pics. First one is the primary drain "RIVER". Second pic is a terrapin taking advantage of high water to get a worm.
I saw tonight on the news where some areas of Houston had almost 6" of rain in 3 hours and it was still coming down in red and orange colored storms.
Yes, a huge system made its way over us here in NE Houston last night. We got hammered most of the night. It's going to be nasty out trying to get downtown this morning. I make take the zero and lay low.
This is amazing after all the dry time some parts of Texas has had. It's still dry up in my little corner of NE Missouri. Send some rain up my way. I'd like to see what my pond will look like full!
Let us know how it goes, and good luck. You might as well get it done, because it might be another month before everything dries out anyway. I bet those Overton's trucks are all brown from the mud right now.
Thanks Al. If ya'll get bored...Tbar/Al come on over later..I think Walt said he'd be there by mid-afternoon. But it's muddy!
Let us know how it goes, and good luck. You might as well get it done, because it might be another month before everything dries out anyway. I bet those Overton's trucks are all brown from the mud right now.
Thanks Al. If ya'll get bored...Tbar/Al come on over later..I think Walt said he'd be there by mid-afternoon. But it's muddy!
I would like to see that.
I am currently am working on my spillway replacing rocks that washed down the ditch.
PM me a contact number I can call if I get through in time.
The Polaris Ranger is driving on the "bench" which is a gravel covered road. The orange driveway marker marks full pool level when the pond is full and the edge of the road. The 8" overflow pipe was running within a quarter inch of being full flow and the emergency overflow was right almost to overflow level.
Next to last picture is the pre-sediment pond flowing into sediment pond with the 3 acre pond in background.
Too wet to farm, that is for sure.
Edit: I REALLY like all weather access roads around all my ponds. Would only be able to utilize and enjoy the ponds a fraction of the time we do without them.
snrub, Great pictures, love to see how you can still maneuver through the rain and stay dry in your UTV.
I noticed a pixelated UFO in all of your pictures (perhaps easiest to see in picture 10), about 10 pixels across on the top of the UFO, 6 pixels in the rows underneath. Seen in the upper left hand corner. Is your property under surveillance?
I've never seen that happen to a camera before, I wonder how commonly that happens that you lose some pixels like that?
3" yesterday at Oakwood so my pond is getting ever closer to pool.... 8-1/2" left as of Sunday.... May be full after the three inches yesterday . We in the process of moving to the lake! If we can get out of here.... Houston is flooded in many areas
We got 8 inches last night south of houston. It has been a mess around here all day. Stalled out cars and trucks everywhere. On the bright side the pond is full and I have not seen the grass so green in years.
I know what you mean about the minnows. That works to my advantage when the minnows go from my forage or sediment pond through the overflow into my main pond. But sure hate to see fish go out the overflow of the main pond. And those silly BG just set there in front of the overflow playing in the current. I know a bunch of them have to go out of it.
snrub, Great pictures, love to see how you can still maneuver through the rain and stay dry in your UTV.
I noticed a pixelated UFO in all of your pictures (perhaps easiest to see in picture 10), about 10 pixels across on the top of the UFO, 6 pixels in the rows underneath. Seen in the upper left hand corner. Is your property under surveillance?
I've never seen that happen to a camera before, I wonder how commonly that happens that you lose some pixels like that?
That is the camera on my phone and it has been that way for a long time. I like to use my phone for the pics I post because the file size is such that I don't have to reduce it. I'm one of those antiques that still use a regular cell phone instead of a smart phone. My daughter tells me you can hardly even get the "just a phone" cell phones any more. I like it because it is a ruggedized phone and I can be pretty rough on it without worrying about breaking it.
I put 1/2 inch hardware cloth across my spillway. This is the only way for me to let water out of our pond, no drainage pipe or syphon. It has worked very well keeping fish in. Unfortunately, it also catches lots of debris such as small sticks and leaves. However, my pond is brand new this will be its first spring and lots of the runoff land was newly mulched so each rain we get less and less garbage stuck on the screen.
With all the rains i have had up to a foot of water flowing over my spillway.. I know i would have lost LOTS of fish if the screen wasnt there. When big rains come i make sure I monitor the screen regularly and clear it of all debris. Fortunately, my spillway is wide enough to let a large amount of water out in minimal time therefore if it is clogged when i remove the much it drains immediately.
I know many experts will urge you from doing this but just letting you guys know it works very well in my particular pond and we have had 5 inch rains overnight recently
I still have some areas with bare clay... However the rain doesn't muddy it up nearly as bad as it use to.. I'm at about 12" of visibility. Hopefully once I get some plants growing and a couple weeks of sunshine with no rain it'll clear up more and give me a more accurate assessment.
I thought my pond was full a couple of weeks ago but now it is really full. The siphon will start up if the pond gets another couple of inches. If it gets those couple of inches, I hope the siphon works !!
Yes that is a lot of water Tbar. (I watched the video now that it is fixed).
I was a little paranoid about my dock and set the bottom of the steel truss about 6" above where the emergency overflow would start to flow water. Then the top of the dock is another 10" above that. It would be nice at times if my dock was a little closer to the water, but I have a floating portion on the end for that.
But I probably don't have near the watershed area running into my pond as you do. It may not be common, but we can get a foot of rain in 24 hours "here" and it happens at least every few years. So we are kind of used to seasonal flooding. We don't like it, but are somewhat used to it.
) and it was running. Power was off for a couple hours apparently. Only reason I even noticed was because I could hear a faint humming noise when I was in the bathroom so, of course, I had to figure out what the noise was.
