Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site starting the dream

Thanks for the link to the structure thread. Brettski, your cribs look great!!! I started building two cribs (a little smaller) over the weekend. I just need to put one of the cross bars in and then wrap in the plastic fencing.



Hopefully the pallets will arrive this weekend.

Wow! I am amazed at the progress. In just a couple of days they have removed most of the snow and topsoil. The basin is lcear and ready to be stripped of rock and clay.

I finally have a hole besides the one in my head. It as you all know just plain, flat out a rush to walk through the basin of your own pond. I know we have to remove the rock and dig out the depths and shape the shore and floor but I was ready to start placing the structure. A little a head of myself, I know!!

I stacked the catfish pond and the forage ponds. Just too much fun.

looking at top of property down at pond



lookingfrom more or less top of pond to where the dam will sit





looking across the pond east to west


looking at dam level up the pond

Awesome, Kurt! Congrats on the progress - I love your enthusiasm! Having bought our place with ponds already in place, I don't have your same experience, but I can sure appreciate the excitement and imagine how it must feel!

Here is a hoped for end product of the construction. The main pond is under construction.

Marsh is at southern and top of hill. main pond is at north and bottom of hill



well will provide water at the top and pipes will work the water through the ponds.

Finally got some pictures posted. "Dream" is moving but slowly. There is ALOT of rock.

Any pondmeisters in the area need crush and run rock let me know. I can not sell it due to county regs so help yourselves. We will save bigger pieces for landscaping and will build a walk way around the 13 acres but there is still quite a bit. Due to the slope, the bigger the pond the more excavating. There is a limit on quality soil so it is cheaper at this point to excavate than to raise the dam. We are stock piling the rock until we can rip rap all the ponds and build the walk way. What a pile!!!

Road built to pond



Digging out rock




What a blast! Wish I could be there everyday watching.

I hear that. Totally relate. Keep at it dude, it's looking great.

It has been about 3 weeks since the last visit to the land. Work has been slow due to weather and the excavator is in Arizona helping design and test a new skid loader.

We found a nice area of clayey material in the basin and are digging that out.

kids just messing around. They threw rocks into the puddle for an hour trying to sink a stick they launched. I remember doing exactly that when I was a kid.


pond with water from the rains. This is the front half.

Clay was pushed into the middle while the rock around the banks is excavated. Dam (not yet built) is located on the other side of the mound of dirt.


ALOT of work yet to be done. patience, patience, patience

Yessir. Thanks for the pics.

Things are still moving. They are out there all this week finishing up the catfish/trout pond and starting the forage ponds.

Pic1 looking at narrow end of catfish and trout pond.


Pic2 looking at top of main pond down to where dam will sit


pic3 looking from bottom of pond in front of dam location to top of main pond


Please notice PILE OF ROCK!!!!!!!!
We are still working on what to do with it.

I know these are silly pictures but I am so excited to be within sight of the finish line.

Plants massing for their movement to the land. The 13 acres was cornfield so part of the work will be stocking the land with flowers, trees, shrubs and other plants.

Ready for deployment:
raspberries, strawberries, russian sage, day lillies, purple lilacs, chinese lilacs, hostas, forsynthias, horseradish, trumpeter vines and any thing else I can propagate from my garden or someone else's.





My neighbor had a roll of chain link left over from his fencing of his yard so I will fence in a small area and plant many of the stock there until next year. By then we should have a better idea of the layout of the land and ponds and hopefully the plants will have some size to avoid dear and other creatures.

A friend who is a landscaper found a nursery that is going out of business and I can get (50) 4 foot blue spruce dug up, delivered and planted for almost nothing. The lady just wants the trees gone.

somebody's gonna be jealous....
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Excavator hopes to finish in two weeks. We need to build beach area, finish path around the land, level out walk way, build a rock pad and riprap the ponds and marsh and we still need to build the forage ponds and marsh.

I meet with well installer and electric engineer next week.

Catfish/Trout pond done

It's looking good!

"just 2000 tons of rock and a dream"

Nothing exciting just fun seeing my son standing in the catfish/trout pond.
Soon there will be water.

3 Forage ponds are done. Just need to finish marsh.

Lookin good,

Where about in green county is this located. I've been looking for the last couple years for a good place to put a pond or two around here but the soil survey map doesn't give a true picture of finding good clay. I'm over in rock county.

I am just south of Juda. The soil is not the best. There is a lot of rock but the excavator is doing what he can.

I have a couple of friends in rock county and they are all sand so I am not complaining.

We are rounding the bend and heading toward the finish line. Of course there are just a few small details to wrap up.

Met with Electric Company and Water Well and we are set to start putting those in next week.


Picture of Rich Weber, retired Chicago police officer and the person responsible to hooking me up to Pond Boss. Rich does not have a pond but when I mentioned my 'dream' he lead me straight to the fountain of knowledge.

In Rich's honor, 2012 we are hosting the Rich Weber Memorial Fishing Tournament. Rich is committed to do whatever it takes to make the memorial tournament happen. He is seen here posing as how he wants to be installed in the pond as structure when his day finally arrives.

$8250 for the well. $2500 to run electric.

Having a pond is not cheap.
The deal was my wife got a family trip to Disney and I got the pond.
Everyone except my wallet is a winner.

Hoping to turn on the well and start filling July 1.

You got off cheap with that trip to disney world, compared to the money pit you have created.

Good luck, you'll enjoy that pond for a long time.

Nothing runs perfectly so I am not surprised by the bad stretch. It has been about 4 weeks since any significant work has been doen and counting. The pond was a great for the excavator during the winter and early spring as he had no other jobs but now that spring/summer has hit he is busy with other things and my pond is being left behind. Add to that all the rain we have had in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, everything is just too wet to move and compact.

The one aspect that really burned me up was he told me that almost everything was done during the last week of March. I went out there and stuff was not done. In fact the dam was built incorrrectly by his workers. It was not large enough, sloped too steep. I lost it and we had some word which has strained our working relationship. I just keep reminding myself that the excavator is not my friend during the building process and things must be done right.

To further the frustation, after I sent the down payment and signed contract the well company forgot to send me the permit. They have been waiting 2 weeks for me to return before starting to dig. Of course I can not fill out what I did not receive. More weeks lost. Until I have the well and electric I can not fill the smaller ponds or start the landscaping.

Still waiting on the bucket to sort the rock mountain.

delays, delays, delays.

I hear you on the delays.

My excavator skipped State, and I recently found out the bank nabbed him in Indiana. He was a neighbor, and had some nice stuff. Good guy overall, guess he could not weather the MI economy.

Oh well, down payment is lost.

Rain, Rain, Rain. Two months from now I will be begging for rain but now it needs to take a break so the guys can finish.

Dam has been re-worked. There are still a number of issues. Excavator has pulled the equipment to try and catch up on the other jobs that are behind due to the rain. My PVC trees sit in the garage waiting to be set free in the pond. poor PVC!!!

Don't let those PVC trees fool you, they'll try to drown you given a chance! Proceed with CAUTION!

I am hoping to see that pond full soon Kurt. Thanks for allowing us to be a part of this journey...it's exciting for all of us!

Kort get it done right the first time draining and making repairs is a real pain.

Just a quick update. Met with the excavator and have ironed out issues. He is back on board and we are moving forward. There are still a few issues but with enough constant vigilance, we should get the pond done right.

We need to raise the dam 2 feet to take advantage of the banks and pond slope but we are running out of soil. Don't fret, the 3000 tons of rock is still there. No chance of running out of rock. Whew, that was a collectively sigh of relief!

Since we need more soil and the forage ponds and marsh are not going to work as anticipated we are making some changes. Rather than have 3 small ponds 60 X 30 and a marsh running 200 X 15, we are going to dig out the bridges separating the forage ponds and the bridge dividing the marsh from the forage ponds. This will give me one shallow but larger area 200 X 50. The pond will still be 4-6 feet deep and serve to filter run on and I think I can raise minnows (Fatheads and Blunt-nose) in the larger pond.

Of course you are all pond owners which instantly makes you slightly off center so you are already thinking what I am thinking...if I could just deepen the shallow pond it would give a third pond of .1 of an acre which could be used for more than just minnows. My wife will kill me if she reads this!

Everything is moving slowly but at least it is moving.