Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site 2/3 Acre Pond

A moment of silence for the dozer that over heated.

A Man never stands so tall, as when stooping to fix a piece of large machinery.

It was out in full force the other day, but now the skies have opened up. Again.

Prayers have been answered

I'm being told there's been a lot of progress done lately, but I haven't been able to get out there the past week so I'm anxious to see it. Pictures will follow.

Question, before I start calling places. We were interested in renting or buying a trash pump to take from the creek to fill the pond. How much do you suppose it is to rent one of these? I found one on craigslist for $150. It says it pumps at 158 gallons a minute. So is that good at a good price or should we consider renting one? I would think it would take so long to fill that renting would cost more than buying...

If it's not a Honda, it's not a bargain. I've thrown a rod in 2 B& S's.

Josh

I agree with Dave - go Honda. Northern Tool has them on sale currently for 300-400 bucks and they do 14k GPH. For your pond thats almost an inch and hour. I know Treeplanter is thinking of buying one but wanted to cost share it. Might be worth contacting him. [Name is Matt and tell him I sent you].

Gotcha. How do I contact Treeplanter? Here at the forum?

Sorry, guess his contact info isn't on the directory. I will ping him and see if he's still in the market.

Ok, a handful of pics from the recent progress. The perimeter is really coming together, though it seems like my project is taking longer than the examples I've seen here.

Hard to see from this distance, but that is an enormous cottonwood in the middle of the picture. The shore went right up on it, so I had my dirt guy build up the banks around it. Hope it survives.



The larger grassy area is where the planned camp jetty will be.



I like this picture. Gives a nice perspective of the jetty and the size of the pond, with the kid running towards me.











Hard to tell by this picture, but this is a large deer print in the soft clay we've uncovered. The deer are loving this open area we've created "for them".





This is the proposed beach area off the camp jetty. I hope it's wide enough to make it deep enough to jump off a dock into.

For documentation purposes I'll put this post in this thread as well...

Ok, I'll try to put this down in pictures. This first one is how the pond should look once the excavation is complete. That half circle going into the pond is our camp jetty, where we will likely spend the majority of our time. Lots of plans for that, but for the time being, the swimming area. Just off the east side of that jetty.



This is what I really wanted, but it's obviously very large, possibly unnecessarily so, and thus, much more expensive.



Here is the less expensive option. Less room, but possibly still feasible for what we want. A nice swimming area for the kids. Like everyone here, I have so many ideas for this area, volleyball, rope swing, etc. and I want to make sure that I don't short change ourselves and end up with a less than desirable swimming area.



So I guess what I'm asking, my latest question anyway , generally how big do you want to go? This is a 2/3 acre pond. My son and his friends love to swim probably more than anything else. I want to make sure there's enough room for them to enjoy themselves (while I fish ;)).

Anyway, I could use some "If I was you..." type answers.

With the snow we could dig over the weekend so we found other things to do...



We currently have 11 pvc trees and 3 pond spiders for structure. When should I stop?

If the whole family is working do not let them have any time off.

You said it Otto.

Quick update. 40 truckloads of dirt moved over the weekend. I'll get some pictures up this coming weekend.

Sounds like a busy weekend!

Just in time for Christmas. Go Go Omaha!

Pond update photos.

A panoramic view. Thanks lassig.

no problem

Is there a way to stick more than 2 photos together?

You can merge photos with about any photo manipulation program. I use a free one from http://www.gimp.org/

A couple of the more recent panoramic views...





140+ loads of dirt...about 100 left to go...



And just because it's pretty... This is the trail that runs north and south just east of the pond. It was an old railroad at one time, long before we ever stepped foot on the property.

Maybe I should start a new thread, but I wanted to keep it to one to document the progress complete with pictures. Here is where I decided to change the stocking plan. But that's not what this update is about.

With the wonderful weather we've been having, I haven't gotten down to the pond in a couple months. I was very curious what I'd walk into, considering it was only half way done. Needless to say...it was bittersweet. Awesome that it's definitely holding water, not that there really was any concern about this. Not so awesome that we're now looking at displacing 3 feet of water. I had thought my dirt guy had made a flow off the southeast corner to divert the water. He had not, nor do I know if this was even possible, but it looks like renting a pump will be in my near future.

Very cool photos Omaha, I love the one with dogs running full speed toward the pond.