Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Lets say we call it a pond?

What do you think of it?? These are the only pictures I have of it at the moment, but I thought as a gift of appreciation for this very informative forum you guys have here that I would share my truck stuck in the empty pond experience with you. I enjoy a laugh when I look at the pictures, so I thought others might as well.










As for the "pond" here, my lady friend has just recently moved on to the property that her father owns, and we figured we should try to fix this pond that hasnt held water too well for the last few years. She grew up playing in this pond and even rode her horse to and from the island as a kid, so she would love to have it in working order again. We just arent sure how to make that happen yet. I have zero experience dealing with pond problems, but I have been doing research for weeks trying to come up with a game plan or a place to start, and thats how I found this site.

As you can see, the pond doesnt maintain water through the winter here in Northern California, but the ground stays wet along the bottom.

From talking with her father he says they have used bentonite in some fashion over the last 2 years, and he says its been holding water better each time. He wants to keep trying that avenue, but Im not sure how he is utilizing it. He has a ranch hand that has been ding the application, and I know he spreads it and disks the soil where he can (around the rocks and concrete rubble that is present for some reason... You can see the rubble behind the truck around the island). Im not sure how much bentonite he has spread, and Im almost certain that he does not compact the soil after disking. The problem with trying to figure out exactly what has been done to this point is that I dont speak enough spanish to find out all the details. lol.

My biggest concern for the pond is sink holes. There are several 1-3 foot wide sink holes in the pond bed. Some are old and have signs of bentonite attempting to fill them, and others look new with nothing but fallen dirt and grass in them. Im still not sure how to address those... Im also worried that some of the concrete rubble may be covering previous sink holes, and that may make addressing those nearly impossible as it lays. Some of the rubble even looks to be covered with bentonite.

Im thinking any advice I may get on this pond will include removing the concrete, and Id like to hope thats not the case as it seems like a lot of effort. haha. It would be a cool pond to enjoy. It has a bridge from the levee to the island. The island has a nice shade tree, and its completely surrounded by the almond orchard. A nice place to hang out and watch the dogs play.

Hope you guys enjoy the pictures, and hopefully as this pond progresses I can keep you guys updated with pictures that focus more on the pond.

Getting stuck in mud is no fun. But thanks for sharing. I can be thankful that it wasn't me...this time.

Welcome to the forum Nutpond and I'm sure you'll get some direction from the experts here shortly.

Betcha won't do that again!

Welcome Nutpond!

Welcome Nutond! It looks like the tractor sunk a ways as well judging by the mud on the front tire.

Hello Nutpond and welcome to Pond Boss! I'm no pond construction expert but I'm thinking that if the pond won't hold water through the winter that you don't have much of a chance of keeping water in it through the hot central valley summer. My guess is that you will have to line the pond with either clay or a liner. Just for kicks I googled about soils for almond tree growth and read this "We have made the statement that almonds have done the best in deep, well-drained soil that is reasonably fertile and free of harmful salts" - I'm thinking that the soil that is good for almonds may not be great for ponds, hence the idea of a clay liner.

But don't take my word for any of this (I only rarely know what I'm talking about and half the time I don't agree with my own opinion), so wait for an expert opinion.

It's great to have another Californian on board!

I drive the length of the central valley to get to my place. Miles and miles of groves - quite a site.

Thanks guys. Yeah the tractor was just sinking when I tried to pull from the front, so I ended up having to lift the back end up and fill the holes under the rear tires with rocks and some plywood. It was quite an ordeal.

Jhap, the only thing about the soil is that the pond held water in it for the last 20 years. It just started drying up in the last 2 or 3 years. It gets water pumped into it around april every year, and he runs the sprinklers for the trees during watering season, but once he pumps water into it, the water loss starts rapidly and continues until its dries up over the winter. That wasnt the case before. So each of the last few years he has tried a few repairs and then he fills it up and sees how it does.

I have water level marker sticks to put in that is going to go along one of the legs of the bridge and ive been filling the sink holes with a mixture of manure and saw dust from the horse stables, and mixing that with dirt as I pack it in the holes. I dont know that thats a useful solution to sink holes, but that was the idea I came up with a few weeks ago before I started researching the issue.

One other thing, there seems to be a lot of small animal holes around the base of the island. Being more of a city boy with a cow pasture growing up, I assumed they were gophers at first. But now that Im reading about muskrats being an issue for ponds, and reading that muskrats are actually in this area of California, could they be muskrats instead of gophers? I cant say Ive ever seen a muskrat in person or knew they existed in this area.

How much should I be concerned about the varmints?

Muskrats don't normally dig holes above water for dens. They're too low on the food chain, and one of their escape methods is to go underwater into their den.

I know it'll probably be hard to find out, but can you get any information on what changed in the pond when the pond first started loosing the water?

If the sinkholes just showed up, could it be that organic material was buried, and covered with clay, which sealed the pond bottom. In the intervening years, the organic material decomposed, and the clay fell into the resulting hole, causing a void in the clay pond liner, letting the water escape and compound the problem by washing more clay away as it escaped into the soil.

Well don't look toward's me for any answers Nutpond. Perhaps we can get one of our resident geologists to weigh in here.

Jeff, any conversation about my pond is welcomed, Im sure theres plenty you can tell me about ponds that I dont know yet. haha. Where is your pond located up here? I was stationed in San Diego for a few years, so I made the drive up here quite a bit back in those days.

esshup, thanks. I actually talked to her father last night and he said that the pond was drained due to algae and muck and they resurfaced the bottom. He basically had the bottom scraped of old dirt and just refilled it assuming it would hold water the same as before. It hasnt held water since... So thats the culprit here.

I still havent figured out where the concrete piles came from yet.

I hope they didn't scrape the clay liner away if there was one....