Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Introduction and history of the mountain pond

Hey ya'll! I've been lurking here for almost two years, this site has helped me so much. I found it a little to late though (not really just after I chose the site)ha ha. I chose site selection forum for my intro because I don't know anyone else who chose the side of a mountain as their pond site. This has caused much grief, learning, and perseverence, but might pay off in the long run.

I have 8.5 acres on a sloping red clay terrain, with about 30 acres of steep watershed. I cleared 5 acres leaving large trees for the horses and pond. I had 1 acre pond built by damming up a "v" in the slope, and digging out a bowl with a depth of 8-10 feet with shallows 2-4 ft. It's now about 1/2-3/4 surface acre because we cut off our stand pipe due concerns about our dam. I found this site two weeks after the dam was started and after reading this site for days I asked for them to shoot the level "it wasn't", asked about coring the dam, "it wasn't", asked about seepage collars on the pipe "there wasn't". So needless to say I got what I paid for, and hired a new crew with some experience to redo half the dam, shoot the level, and resculpt the bowl, raise the dam etc. (Couldn't afford new pipe, coring, but added dirt to top of dam to create weight on it)

The pond is almost two years old, now has had been 1/4 full for last year and finally filled up three weeks ago with rains from hurricane Faye. Now the fun has begun. I'm assuming I can't attach pics so I'll have to upload them to a site for you to see I have some good ones. So now, I have a red clay pond 1/2 the size I thought it was going to be, with some horizontal surface cracks in the top of the dam, (which we filled up the next day), and lots of errosion of clay into the pond during the storms. It never breeched the spillway but it would have if it kept raining 1 more inch.

I've learned:

our spillway wasn't deep enough - we've dug it out 3 more feet
our dam wasn't thick enough at mid point - lowered water level
our watershed, dam, banks needs lot's more grass etc
I need to order alum to clear up my peanut butter pond

Thanks to all here the outcome is looking better all the time. Sometimes I've almost had them bulldoze it flat and make a garden. It's not leaking, it's holding water, for three weeks it's dropped a few inches a day which I think is ok?! After the rains, I put out 500 lbs of rye, fescue, lime, fertilizer, straw.

Now I'm tired and broke and waiting to see what happens with my expensive little pond, which by the way already has frogs, tadpoles and a snake! Thanks for listening and if you have questions or suggestions, I'm an open book! I'll get some pics added soon.

Jen

Hi Jen, welcome to Pond Boss. We're glad you stopped lurking and started posting!

Thanks, every question I had I found answers here by reading, I would've posted sooner, but didn't have much to say until I saw if the dam was going to hold up, I'm still worried about it but now I think I can relate to just about anything anyone else has gone though. Maybe at least have some input.

You might be a pond meister if.....



Well glad you joined in. We have plenty of experts that can answer questions here.

If this pic works I'll add some more. This was after 6 inches of rain and before this years seed/straw.




* the spillway is too the right and has since been lowered 3 feet and rock/grass added

Next time I'll try to get them all in one thread. but this was a quickie, comments or questions are ok, believe it or not there was grass last year it died in the drought.

Hi Jen, I assume that you grassed all the way around the pond, but how far up the hill were you able to go? Obviously, you've got to do something about that gulley that the runoff is causing. Can you dam that up and reroute the water until grass is established?
Good luck, the experts will be along to help, soon.

I've grassed the entire dam mountain, (oops I meant dam and mountain) ha ha, but a lot of it died, even the millet during the drought. I added more lime this time and it's doing really well. Since the pics were taken we've dumped a small truckload of rock into the gulley, and buried staw bales, we have tons of loose rock and are gathering it up and putting in the gulley thinking that the rock will become a dry steambed and filter too. The gulley is so big because some it was backfill for aesthestics but now it's down to like bedrock. I am not sure what else to do with it. I'm afraid if I reroute it I'll get a new gulley. I'm am open to ideas, thanks!

I'm amazed at what a project this has been. These are views from our driveway at top of hill during clearing almost 3 years ago. The pond was put in bottom left of the pics.

Lord bear with me.......i had that thought too. i coulda made a killer garden where my pond is. i decided to try and fix mine, and its been worth it even with its problems.

its great yers is not leaking, i still have that problem as well as no rain all summer. whats yer elevation? if yer high enough for trout, that would be really fun.

I think on virtual earth it says 3600ft. I would love trout, but I think it's gonna be a while before I can add fish. I'm think bluegill and small mouth bass. Which reminds me, I was wondering when do I put fish in, I'm guessing after I get the erosion/water shed under control and the water clear or clearer.

Well I say it's not leaking, but..... It does drop pretty fast but I don't see mudd flowing from behind the dam as orange as it is I hope I'd notice, "fingers crossed"

Welcome mtmpondlady
Thanks for the pictures, your pond will be fine. The good news is it does not leak. With a little cooperation from mother nature the grass will do better this next year.

If the wash into the pond is on bedrock, continue to let the water enter there. The rocks you put in the erosion will do a good job of slowing the water down. You can change the path later if you get good grass established. A rocked waterway can be both practical for stopping dirt and pleasing to the eye.

Otto

Thanks Otto,

I checked the pond today, it's 3ft down in two weeks but it seems that it soaked into the dam, it's still really wet and grass is 3 inches tall. The water that remains has green growing in it in streaks and isn't as muddy, I think that's a good sign right? If it were leaking i'd think I'd see that somewhere.

I needed reassurance about the rock plan, we'll continue. I hope to get pics, I tried but batteries were dead. It's a process......

Keep an eye on the water level. When is wet season?

It normally rains Oct-Dec and Feb-May here. The average rainfall is 3inches for most months (when not in a drought).

The pond was 1ft off the standpipe in those pics it was the first time it had been up the dam. It dropped 3 feet in three weeks, then we got 2 inches of rain the other day it went up 2 feet. 1 inch of steady rain=1ft of pond height. It has since dropped 3 inches in 5 days, but seems a lot slower than before. I measured at what should be the deep point, and I have 5ft under water with 4 more to go to reach pipe overflow. Seems like it filled up, then wicked up the water and got saturated, now that it's saturated it's dropping 1/2-3/4 inches a day. If it continues that way it should be ok and I'll order some FHM's. : )

btw, I'm adding structure this week in the form of tires and pallet and an old stump. The grass has come in good, I'll update with pics real soon!!

Thanks for the update.

Keep an eye on the water loss for a little while before you spend any money on fish. You are probably ok but let's make sure.

post pictures.

Otto