Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Hi, I want to build a pond and know NOTHING.

Hi everyone, my name is Dennis. I'm currently in college in eastern NC. However, I spend a lot of time at our small 6 acre "horse farm" on the outskirts of Chapel Hill, NC. We've been wanting to build a pond on our property for a while now, and I think its about time that I get started on it. I have plans to start up a small business with my skid steer after I finish up this year of college, and I think a project like this would be great to give me some more experience on my machine and learn a thing or two about building ponds at the same time.

Anyway, I've been reading some threads on here and it seems like there are a ton of knowledgeable people. I've looked through some "progress" threads and wow... there sure is a lot for me to learn.

Anyway, here is a picture of our property from the Google Maps site. The yellow line represents our property line, and the green one the pasture where we would like to build the pond. According to the "Google Planimeter" site, the pasture is about 1.9 acres. The whole property is right at 6 acres.

To the left of the red line, the land is relatively flat. To the right, it slopes downwards. The orange arrows roughly represent the slope of the land and the water flow when it rains. I've included some pictures, hopefully they can help. I will try to get some better pictures tomorrow.



So anyway, here's basically what we're looking for:

1. We want this to be more than one of those little "fish ponds" where you go get a liner from Home Depot, dig a hole, add some goldfish, can call it done. I'm not sure what would be a good size, but it definitely can't cut the pasture in half.

2. That brings me to my second point - we do have horses, and they do graze in the pasture. Of course, anything they eat will eventually come out of the other end... and a LOT of it. I worry that if the pond collects runoff from the pasture when it rains, it'll just end up being nasty. Who wants to jump into a pond like that on a hot summer day knowing that its filled with water thats carried a whole bunch of manure? Fencing off the pond would be an option to keep the horses out/away from it, if necessary.

3. Keeping it filled seems like it would be another challenge. We don't have a creek or stream on our property - there is one back in the woods behind us that all of the runoff water eventually ends up in. I don't know much about springs... if there was one on our property, would I know it, or is it the kind of thing you can discover when you dig? What are my other options to keep it filled?

4. Location - depends on all of the above - I'm open to everything, as long as it is somewhere in the pasture.

5. If (hopefully when) it comes time to start digging... what am I going to need equipment wise? I have a 2000 Bobcat 753 skid steer, with just a regular bucket. I also have a small Yanmar diesel tractor with quite a few attachments, the "dirt moving" ones being a 4' box blade and a dirt scoop (the dirt scoop is nearly useless, but it does have its odd uses here and there). Should I consider purchasing a used backhoe attachment for my skid steer? I would REALLY like to do the work myself to gain the experience.

Thanks for any information - I apologize for the long post, I just like to include as much information as possible so that people aren't trying to guess what I'm talking about, referring to, etc. as much.

Thanks!

Dennis

Dennis, Welcome to the forum! Sure is nice to see you want to learn and try to "do it right" from the start!

I think you have a perfect opportunity here. Call your local NRCS agent to take core samples, shoot water lines, and they SHOULD be able to suggest/supervise construction of the pond with your goals in mind. They can also recommend you for other jobs too.

You can always water the horses on the backside of the dam and fence off the pond and part of the watershed to lessen the nutient load that will come.

Any idea how big your watershed is?

Hi Dennis, welcome to PB.

Post a topo map. It will be a better indicator of the runoff possibilities. With 6 acres, some of it will come from neighbors.
Why a liner? You may not need it unless your soil is too sand or rocky to hold water.

I wouldn't worry much about the manure from the horses polluting the pond. Their droppings are mostly compressed grass and make a pretty poor fertilizer. However, you will have to fence to keep them out of it.

Agree. I worry more about erosion washing extra sediment into my ponds, and therefore carefully avoid overgrazing pastures in my watersheds.

If you want to dig the pond with the skidsteer, invest in some teeth for the bucket. It may well cut the dig time nearly in half depending on soils.

Thanks for the great advice everyone. Here is the best topo map that I could find online - its from the 80s as far as I know, but I don't think that TOO much has changed. Hopefully it helps some.

I have no idea how big the watershed is, nor do I really know what a watershed is in the first place, sorry.

I'm sorry if I was confusing - I don't want to use a liner if possible - those things just end up tearing, etc. We have a LOT of clay in our soil, and I imagine that it will hold water pretty well.

Assuming the sweeping roadbed that wraps around the southwest corner of the property is elevated, I see very little drainage that feeds the proposed pondsite. In fact, though it is difficult to discern from the small section of topo, it appears that the entire neighborhood is built atop a high spot and everything drains away.
If the property to the west is higher still and drains to your direction, there may be culverts underneath the roadbed diverting drainage to your side...?
Regretfully, it appears that your neighbors to the east have got the topo you seek.

Welcome to the forum.

We knew you where in college because you could get your pictures posted the first time.

Two things you need is water and dirt that holds water.

Dig some with your tractor fill the holes with water and see how long it stays.

As BROTHER BRETTSKI said it is hard to tell exactly what drains into your pond site. Walk around and see if you can tell where the water runs and how much goes into the pond site.

Otto

Sorry I didn't get more pictures today. Hopefully I can do my best to explain here.

I got some more pictures off the Google maps site, using that streetview thing (which to some extent, scares me to know that they have pictures of my driveway stored somewhere). Anyway, The road is kind of the "high spot" for the area around my house.

In this first picture, you can see my neighbors driveway. This is the one that runs parallel to our pasture. Our pasture is hidden behind all those trees. If you look in the little "mini overview map" in the bottom right hand corner of the picture, you can see a little more about what I am talking about. Any water that washes off the road runs into the ditch on the left hand side of the road (left hand being the left hand side in the "first" picture I posted". It follows the road curved road around our property. None of this runoff really ends up in our yard.

However, some water that flows off of my neighbors driveway goes into the ditch on "our side" of his driveway, and some ends up running into our pasture. I'll see if I can find a picture of where I'm talking about, I'm back down at my college now so I can't run out and take a pic, but I probably have one stored somewhere.



The next picture shows a little down the road. Our mailbox is there on the left side. To the right is another gravel drive that is on the opposite side and down a little of our neighbors driveway in the first picture. The orange arrows show the ditches and the flow of the water. The pasture is directly to the left.



This last picture shows the road coming from the opposite direction. You can see how the road is pretty much the high spot for this area. Again, the orange arrows show the ditches and the flow of water on each side of the road.



So thats all to say that pretty much any water that ends up on our property is coming from our own property. Looking back at the earlier ariel picture of our property, the pasture is pretty much sloped to the upper right corner of the property line. The land behind us ends up collecting almost all of the water off of our property. Too bad we don't own it :).

dieselfuel, you don't have an occupation listed in your profile.

You wouldn't happen to be the guy who draws the yellow 1st down marker on the TV screen for football games, would you?

Hopefully for you, someone can post a link to the topic where a member here recently told his story about building his pond, and a fairly large one, with a skidloader. I cannot recall who it was.

The next thing you should do is buy the small book on this Forum site that discusses many topics, hints and ideas for building a pond (see Homepage upper left - BOOKS). Book is called "Perfect Pond Want One?" by our mentor, Pond Boss editor, and pond manager consultant O'master guru Bob Lusk. The book is well worth the money for those comtemplating building a pond.

PS: Always remember You dig a hole, but you BUILD a pond. Well sealed, non-leaking ponds that don't quickly turn into a headache are built and built properly. They are definately not just holes dug into the ground. Many here with leaky ponds and the associated headaches will stand up and testify to that philosophy. IF you doubt me, just do a search for leak or leaking pond in the posts on this forum. The list is Long.

Dennis,welcome aboard.We're glad to have you among us.
Bill,is this where all of us dumb guys stand up and yell...hey Im one of the idiots here?

dieselfuelonly

No body says it better than Bill Cody.
You need to walk around and estimate how much area will drain into the pond site. My guess is you have plenty but be sure.

You will love your pond when it completed but most of the fun is in the planning and building stages

Tell me about it... I LOVE being on my skid steer, or tractor, or any equipment for that matter.

If I were to get some video of the area and talk about what I've attempted to show in the pictures... would that help?

Not sure if you can get a video on the forum.
Just visited with a man in east Texas that is going to build his pond with a skid steer.

I will try and get him to get on the forum and he can share his experience.

Bit of a hijack....My neighbor got tired of waiting on the pond builder and went out and bought a dozer..He has no idea how to build a pond and very little idea how to properly use a dozer..he's out there just digging a hole...didn't shoot a transit or anything. this is not going to be good..

Now we really need pictures.

Your neighbor is only having fun.

Funny you should say that, he got the dozer on Tuesday, Friday I was up to my knees in mud trying to hook up chains because he sunk it.

Next you will be getting him som tools.