Well as some know this is my first pond on my second homesite we sold the other house. The pond has doubled in size due to the layout of the land. I was looking at 3 acres but we are now around 6. By my estimates with a rangefinder the dam is going to be 450ft long, 21 ft high, 12 ft at the top 3:1 slopes both side and 18 ft deep water at the dam. From the dam to the end of the pond is around 660ft. There is a road at the far end oppisite of the dam that has been built up between the two hills the pond is in and gives me atleast an extra 10ft of storage for heavy rains. With that I am going with 2 runarounds one at 2 ft and 1 at 1 ft on both sides of the dam. I will be using 10inch sc 80 pipe and load it with 14inch. We did run into some good marl clay about 5 foot down for the core, it has some good limestone mix in it so it should swell up good and seal the core tight. As I said it is my first pond so feel free to chime in on thought suggestions or ideas.

Looking at the dam


looking from the damn location to the other end


side shot



marl



5 foot to the marl



She says daddy it is this big

You may get a lot more viewing & responses if you size those pics down to 640 or 720 or even 800 pixels wide.

Resizing info is in the Archive photo posting thread

Have they been resized? They look fine on my screen and look forward to seening more as the project progresses.

They're way smaller for me than this A.M. Good pics.

Look ok to me.

Keep the progress photos coming. Following projects like this is very fun!

Yea sorry about the size they looked good on my 24 inch monitor, but got on the wifes 15 inch and OMG they were huge so i did resize them.

Wohoo well the call i got today was my pipe supplier telling me he has the 12inch sc 80 I wanted to begin with, but backed off due to price @ 10.00 cheaper per foot so that would be 17.00 per foot vs 27.00 or vs 20.00 per for the 10 inch. That should make the wife a little happier. But of course she will then figure in that extra money into the house somehow

Well I sent Derek an email on revised stocking for awesome bass growth. He would be the first PBer to follow the plan (if he can $). Better bass potentail now that it is doubled but that means more fish and more $. Derek with your photo posting skills folks can follow the progress here and the growth rates will be eye opening. I look forward to it and the pond is coming along just fine. If you need some habitat advice give us a holler.

Size matters.

Just updating some more pics, we put the pipe in today through the core. I have no idea how much 6 12inch sc 80 in 20 foot sections weights, but going by my truck and trailer a hell of a lot. Lexan for my homemade anti-seep collar worked out good too.

Massive project. Love it!

Great pictures.

Tell me more about the anti-seep collar. The dirt by the pipe lookes like you may have had it hauled in? Yes -No

Nope that is red alabama clay about 7 feet deep there and you can get to it in about 2 feet on the hill sides.

The collar is made from 3/4 inch lexan, a hole is it cut in the middle for the pipe size and a split is made on the side so you can pull the lean apart and put it over the pipe. We then silcon it all up and put, what looked like kitty litter around the pipe where the collar meets it. Some kind of pipe sealant stuff not sure the name.

Much cheaper than the one the local pipe people wanted it was around 120.00 total for everything and the pipe folks wanted 250.00 Btw if people didn't know lexan can stop a .38 bullet.

Great stuff kanima! We love to follow projects like this!

Well after around 12 inches of rain last month we are finally getting back to building a pond. Core is finished we are working on the sides and finishing up the dam.

Core Pics








Some Structure I am going to use these were old concrete footers from a building we torn down. The gravel is for the bream beds might need another load not sure on that yet.



A view looking from the house location to the pond.


A view across the pond

Thanks for the pictures.
This looks like a heck of a big project.. How many yarda in the dam?
How many surface acers of water?

Note to Rainman.

Around 20,000 cubic yards was last estimate. We are guessing 5 to 6 acres of water.

Also on the middle of the pond where the creek bed runs though the left over stuff from the timber cutting we are going to pile up and cover with dirt to make mounds out in the pond. Plus I still have a lot of stumps two piles that we saved that are going in too.

And we changed the slopes the front will be a 2:1 and the back will be a 4:1 to make mowing the dam easier.

Go Man Go.

Just a note The front slope will have a water line and be hard to fix if it ever needed to be fixed --- With a 2-1 slope

Good stuff right there. Out of curiosity, do you mind sharing hourly bill rates for your equipment operators?

150 p/h excavator 100 p/h dozier , no idea on the big dump never asked. 2.00 to 2.50 per cubic yard of dirt. The pond should have been around 40k+ but with the timber cut and used for the pond cost total will be around 25k give or take some. Not including pipe and valves which were around total 3k. Yea alot more money than I first thought is going into this pond but it could be much much worst , like having to haul in dirt. Of coruse now if Greg Grimes will give me a cut rate deal on his fish ( HINT! HINT!) he might get some free advertising j/k Greg.

That's going to be quite a view looking from the house over your pond. Nice job! Keep the pictures coming as the project progresses.

Yea the view was the reason for spacing the tress 20 or so feet apart .. My logger called it "parky".. It will be a great view but a lot of work keeping it bushhogged. But it does give me the ability to plant various blooming trees like creape's , pear's and cherry's trees around the pond for a all spring long bloom sort of effect. Plus the back hill from the house I will plant in sawtooth oaks.. I'll try to take some more pics of the area around next time I am down.

Duly noted!

Make it so you can mow with a riding mower if you can. You will really appreciate it.

OK few more up to date pics.. We are now at water level with the core, My guess is 20 ft at the pipe. We haven't put the pipe in are going to do that this week , get the top soil on the dam and get the edges right. I put a 8 inch valve in , ( thank God) cause now I can leave it open, place my structure myself ( it will be cheaper) and work out how i want to do a dock. Then close it and not be in such a rush to get things done.

Dam core. I didn't take any of the finished core today forgot had other things on my mind.




some side shots.



This the hill opposite of the house, the tree spacing is like that all the way around.


The house location wife wants the big oaks in the back yard


A view from the house to the pond.


A zoomed of the same view


The view from the road to the house location.
Some very large peacan tress and some black walnuts.


Another view of the same front that was cleared before i bought the land will have to plant some larger trees here to fill in.


Some more misc pics of the center.

Wow...what a project! Major league transformation of the landscape, me thinks. Thanks for the update. It is really comin' along nicely.

Thanks for the pictures it looks great.

I enjoyed your pictures and seeing your progress. I'm impressed with the amoutn of equipment your contractor has. Big money there, which means he's doing allot of work and able to pay for it.

I'm curious about the Schedule 80 pipe and why you went that route instead of buying culverts? Was it cheaper to buy the pipe?

Eddie

Yea by a lot if your talking concrete culverts , if your talking the black ridged , no way it could handle the weight of the damn being at the bottom , nor the equipment traffic.

Ok last of the pics for a while the dam is done, grassed it yesterday. My est. is 465 feet dam width, from dam to other end 565ft so maybe 5 acres total. I still lack structure hopefully monday we will get started on that, then the dock and I can close the vavle.

looks like a lot of work and the weather is on your side.

The newest PB diamond coming outta the rough. Nysche.

Wow it's really coming along. 5 acres is a great sized pond!

Well someone must want me to go fishing, considering I closed the vavle Tuesday and a tropical storm is about to center me up.. I will take some more pics tomorrow after I finish a fence I am building.

Good luck

OK here are this weeks pics.



The dock location


Some saved stumps put back in not as many as i thought, looks like i will be sinking xmas tress down the line.



The vavle closed tuesday , this was wensday.


The dam after some more dress work after equpimnet had traveled on it and rutted it out.



The concrete structure like this on both sides of the pond.



The water level today, monday no rain just spring fed.

Awesome project you have there kanima. This will be fun to follow.

Here is what 4.50 inches of rain will do..

Considering the amount of precipitation you received the erosion is not nearly as bad as I thought it would look - congrats! My experiences were far worse until I got vegetation established. Looks like your BOW is going to be great!

Looks great!

Ya know the more I look at these pics the more excited I am getting, things so far are turning out great. It looks better everyday and the rye grass takes hold on the slopes and greening everything up. Everyone tells me how beautiful it is or is going to be. I have already had people ask do I want to sell some.. I said yea 10k per LOL if they are willing to pay that for it I will sell a few for that Hopefully word will get around and people will quit asking.

I have decided a name for it. Mason's Pond, after my little boy we lost 3 years ago (still born).

They don't realize it's literally priceless.



Great name for it kanima. Got a sore throat here for some reason...

Ready or not, here comes a pond. It is gonna loook great.
Are the pines volunteers and the underbrush cleared, or were they planted? Time to lime if not already.

I think they are all volunteers, there were alot of sweetgums, oaks, populars and some furs in the mix. I do know it was never thinned liked it should have been done all the pines are thin small and straight up. Yea I am going to wait till the pond fills up then let greg come down with a barge to lime it.

Well I think something might be leaking , either a pipe joint or the vavle. It is hard to tell due to all the muck at the end of the pipe. Not sure will all the rain were water ran up the pipe and that is coming out or it is leaking. Nor can I get on top of the pipe to look down it to see. On top of that the water line going to the washing machine in me rental broke and put 4 inch of water in my trailer.. Huge mess made for a very long day.

Well there is something for sure leaking on the pipe, either it is the vavle or the joints. Looks like I will have to open it drain it and fix it , I don't see anyway around it. I guess it could be worst , I could have no vavle and a leak or i could have fish and a leak.

Or no drain system, fish in the pond and a leaking dam.

Well for sure a leak climb up the pipe and looked, pulled the vavle open and now wait till all the water is gone to see where the leak is.

Sorry been a bit since i updated but here are some recent pics since all the rain has fell here in south alabama. We lack 4 foot before a full pond. Still a lot of work to do got to add some pipes in places where the creek runs in and still haven't built the dock... looks like i will be getting wet to get that done.


This was before draining the pond and fixing the leak. this was the amount of water guessing over a period of a month or so.






This was sunday a week ago. After the first low dropped rain.






This is today saturday one week later after the next low came.

Wow, it's looking good Kanima!

Well had a visitor today Pond is full now, Sydnee had fun putting the bream in the pond. No just need to get the lime down if it will ever stop raining.

gotta love it! Keep 'em fishin'

the newest 'bama fishin' hole...CONGRATS!

As far as I am conserned all pictures look better with the kids in them.

Well got the lime added right at 25 tons , it needed it bad too water test showed alk at 6ppm poor bream swimming in a acid bath.