Hi all,

Just wanted to introduce myself. About a year ago, my wife and I bought a small piece of land (around 84 acres), with a small 1/8 to 1/4 acre pond on it. The pond is silted in pretty bad, so we've decided that if we are going to work on the pond, we should use this opportunity to make it what we want. Hopefully we'll be expanding to a 2 acre pond (if we can afford it) in the near future!

Rickey

Welcome aboard neighbor.

Do you have the black clay?

Welcome from deep East Texas!! Ask lots of questions and don't forget to subscribe to Pond Boss Magazine. It is great!!

Welcome from SW Arkansas!! All I have to say is READ READ READ BEFORE you start to build. Ask questions! I wish I had found this site before we built ours. Would have done SOOO much different.

One thing to think about is how big of a pond will the area support. Think about watershed, land, slopes, ect.

There is a right size that the land and watershed will support.

Welcome, learn and have fun!

Fireishot, I do have the black (gray) clay.

I've reached out to Mike Otto, and we're in the process of arranging a meeting to have him make recommendations and vet the project I have in mind. I've been a lurker for a little while on the forum, so I have a pretty good idea of what is possible and have narrowed my expectations somewhat because of my research, BUT nothing trumps experience so I'm looking forward to meeting with Mike.

You get the best with Mike Otto! Can't wait to hear more about your project and what happens with it in the future.

Welcome to PB! I'm over in Paris and Mike built mine.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=431675#Post431675

It is a fun project, read all you can, ask all you can, but till you start digging it is hard to know many of the questions.

Crumrw, a lot of us that have had our ponds built spend years thinking woulda, coulda, shoulda. Mike Otto will make sure that never happens to you. Great choice.

I was asking about the black clay because I can't remember any forum members building ponds in that particular area. Several soil changes in that Greenville, Cooper, Emory triangle. There's everything from beach sand to concrete like red clay.

You will be extremely glad you got Mike involved. Be sure to think about what you want now and 3 generations down the road so Mike can help you with that. Ask Mike for a copy of an article he wrote in PB about a pond family he worked with for several generations.

You might want to purchase his book JUST ADD WATER. It will get you a long way down the road.

To check and see whether you have the suitable mix of clay, make a ball of the soil. Throw it against the side of his pickup. If it pretty well holds together, you have the right loam.

Tell him I recommended that.