Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? New old pond

No crystal ball...but everywhere I go now all I hear is a lot of hope for the wettest Fall in history. After Fall passes, I guess I'll be hearing the same about Winter. The local churches have spent a lot of money on signs urging people to pray for rain.

I made a few "artificial bushes" out of old plastic pipe I had. The wife is glad I'm using up some of my "junk".



So far, we've gotten 1 3/4 inches of rain since I finished digging.


Does anyone see anything that I should be doing while it is still basically empty?

Dave, I do want to get a trailer load of those cedars from you. Think you'll be in Bowie the weekend of Oct 12? I'll be happy to buy lunch...

One more question:

I started making a steel flag pole to go in the deepest part of the pond, with welded hash marks at one foot increments and numbers at 5, 10, 15 and 20. Then I thought that it might make too good of a perch for hawks, etc.

What do you think? Should I or not?

Perhaps, you could put a spike on top of the pole to discourage hawks
from perching.

I enjoy watching Red Tail hawks swoop down and snag frogs from my pond. It's not quite as exciting as watching an eagle snag a fish, but, it's pretty cool.

On the 12th I have a wedding to attend but I know of no reason that I can't make it on the 13th.

I wouldn't worry about an occasional hawk perching there. Crows do a pretty good job of running them off anyway.

Give me a call when the date is coming up. My cell is 817 832 4724.

BTW, I tell my Wife that the junk is surplus building materials.

I met Dave Davidson last Sunday. He's a great guy and allowed me to cut some cedars for the pond. Thanks, Dave!

Hey, looks good. Like I said, any time you need more, just let me know. Actually, I wouldn't put in anymore than you already have.

If it ever rains again you might actually get to stock it.

One weather report that I saw said that Bowie got 3.84 inches of rain. That's hard to believe but I'm heading there with my Grandson today for a couple of days of bow hunting. I'll know later today whether it's true.

Dave, thanks for the feedback. I'm finished with cover until it overfills the main bowl, then I might add some brush in the shallows. Now on to other projects.

We got 1.5 inches of rain Thurs evening/Friday. I'd love to see some 4" downpours!

Good luck on the hunting trip!

Hey, I got 3 inches but, according to neighbors, it came slowly. My pond came up about 6 inches. Now that things are wet, I need a frog strangler.

Good deal! If we can keep getting these rains like we have been, maybe when we get a gully-washer, it'll run downhill a ways before getting sucked up by the dry ground.

Might be time to fry up some frog legs!

How you making out, get any rain yet?

Nope. Sad state of affairs too. The city just went to Stage Four water restrictions, which mean absolutely no watering, washing cars, etc. The combined lake levels have fallen to 30% now and the arguments over what should have been done sooner are commonplace.

As for me, from the couple of storms that we have seen in the past couple of months, I have maybe a foot or two in the pond. I haven't measured it, but it seems to be holding steady.

My small pond has been pretty steady, and is around three or four feet low. Not bad enough to affect the fish population. These last two cold fronts have lowered the water temp enough to slow feeding considerably. In the 20s the last couple of nights.

I'm building a new equipment shed/shop and will install gutters to collect what rain we get, to be piped directly to the smaller pond a hundred feet or so away. Lots of activity like that in the area. If people can collect it, they are doing so for the most part.

I actually got 9/10 inch last week. So far, it has kept my wheat from dying.

Dave, it sprinkled just a little bit. Weatherman said 1/100th of an inch. I'm glad you're getting some rain. You know that TV show "Under the Dome" from the Stephen King book? Seems like that's what's going on here. Storm fronts have had a way of splitting up as they approach our area...like a giant bubble forced it. It'll rain soon...I hope.

I put the flag pole/water guage in the pond this afternoon. Let's just say that water temp was already a little on the cool side! Pics to come...this getting dark at 6:00 pm is for the birds!

Mark

We were down at the pond yesterday and it was COLD!

Here's the grandkids (two of 'em, anyway) presenting the pond depth guage...or flag pole...or both.



And as another year winds down...

When we bought the land, there was a small 10x10' open shed that was used for shooting from a long time ago. It was a POS and we watched this last fall as it got a little more rickety with every decent wind. It fell, and that added one more chore to the list.



If we ever see enough rain to fill the pond, we want to use the area for social gatherings, and well, a pavilion of some sort is needed...especially here in Texas. So, since I am building another shop on the original adjacent ten acres, two existing structures are to be torn down and the tin (we still call it that, even though it's not "tin" anymore) will be "repurposed" for this pavilion.

I took some 2 3/8" oilfield pipe that I already had and put up four poles and once they had set, I saddled them and welded in a cross piece.



Added a 2' upright and tabs on the outside ends to hold the upper part of the truss.





Welded tabs on for the purlin to be welded to.



Added some base angle to cover the lookouts.



And now I have another dilemma: I really like the extra 2' of over hang that would be gained by adding one more purlin per side. But I'd either have to run two rows of tin (my soon-to-be-repurposed sheets are 8') or buy new custom cut material (easier, but more money). Anyway, as I ponder this, this is where we stand so far.

I'll be glad when it warms up a bit, but some chores have to be done regardless of the cold. Today I placed a few "contained piles" of broken tile from our house remodel. Those are well-seasoned oak pallets, and there are no harmful chemicals in the ceramic tile. Hopefully they will be a great source of bio matter...

We got a decent little rain today! I'm stoked! I actually saw water running toward my ponds for the first time in a long while.

Turned out we had exactly one inch of rain. Could be that the cloud-seeding actually works...or not.

My last post on this thread was about 17 months ago. I really didn't know if the gamble would pay off, but I labored away at everything that I thought might make a difference if we ever got rain. Well, we did...back in May.















The water level has fallen about a foot or so since these pictures were taken, and the mud has fallen out. More pictures to follow.



Sometimes you just have to dream a bit, then work toward that dream.

I absolutely love that last picture posted....sunrise or sunset, I'd want to be watching both, every day!

Well done, Mobilus, well done!

Pond looks a lot better with water in it!

Glad you finally got some and can now enjoy it.

Mark, how has it held up in the last 40 days?