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#3721 03/31/06 09:38 PM
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Eddie,

Yes, I sent you an e-mail...hope we can tag up.

Gator, yes I'm finally going to meet the great Bob Waldrop in person and buy his fish. From all the research I have done, Bob has maybe the best CNBG genetics anywhere in the USA. His F1 LMB are becoming the stuff legends are made of. Bob talked to me about 15 minutes a few weeks back and taught me more than I have learned in the last 15 months. You will never find Bob on the internet(he told me when I asked him about the net that he raises fish not words \:\) my kind of guy)..he is a fish man, through and through.

Before I get blasted, yes he is a Pond Boss sponser and advertiser.

I plan to be there next Friday morning around 10:00 and would love to meet you and Eddie if you guys are anywhere around.

#3722 03/31/06 11:28 PM
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Meadowlark,

Got your email and will respond with my information. I looked up Tyler Fish Farm for there address. Is it in Ben Wheeler?

I'll meet you there and if you don't mind, I'd love to shadow your around and soak up as much information as I can!!!!!!!!!!

My place is on the way from there to your next stop, so your more than welcome to swing by and I can show you where my lake is at so far. Also my 3/4 acre pond that I told you about.

Thanks,
Eddie


Lake Marabou http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=139488&fpart=1

It's not how many ideas you have, but how many you make happen.

3/4 and 4 acre ponds.
#3723 04/01/06 06:07 AM
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ML, does Waldrop hatch or raise Hybrid Striped Bass?

He told me at one time he has no interst in them?

#3724 04/01/06 08:32 PM
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I design earthworks for a living, have my own heavy equipment and have built 6 ponds on my property. Here is what I have learned along the way.

Forget about using a normal tractor to move than a small amount of earth. Its too slow and you will tear the tractor up because most tractors, at least below 100 hp are not built for heavy earth moving.

For small ponds, (<3/4 acre), a small dozer like a Cat D3 are great. Plently of hp for the blade size and they are built to push and rip earth

For larger ponds a Cat D6 or larger is really the way to go. They are big enough to push a serious amount of earth with each blade full. If you are pushing more than 100 feet, get a scraper to work with the dozer. I have a Fendt 105 hp ag tractor with a 6 cy leon scraper and it can out perform a dozer if the haul distances are long. The scraper has a difficult time loading if the clay soils are hard.

Dozers aren't that hard to learn how to use, you just have to be careful, go slow and not tip the machine over and kill yourself.

You can rent a D3 for $400/day plus fuel in most areas. If you are handy with equipment you can learn to run a dozer in a day.

I own a D3 and for my larger ponds rent a D6 with the operator. I built a two acre pond with these two dozers in two days. It had an average depth of 16 feet and required movement of about 1500 cy. It cost me $3000 for two 10 hour days for the D6 and I put about 24 hours on my D3.

You can save alot if you do some of the work yourself, just go slow and be careful.

#3725 04/02/06 09:26 AM
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jas,

Renting a dozer is starting to sound pretty interesting.

But the problem remains, what to do with all that dirt? Is it feasible to push it up into one massive pile that is petty high?

Using a dozer, I could finish the pond, stock it, enjoy it, and figure out what to do with all that dirt later. Do they make rugs big enough to sweep 10,000 yards of dirt under? \:\)

#3726 04/02/06 11:28 AM
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Bobad throws out the $64K question:
 Quote:
But the problem remains, what to do with all that dirt? Is it feasible to push it up into one massive pile that is petty high?
On our project, we also want to unload soil somewhere. We are locked tight by trees all the way around. The plan is to waste about 12K yards at and behind the dam; we cleared about 1 acre of trees for this. Also, some will be pushed up to the perimeter to create a drive/walk around at the treeline. We have to cut a notch into the timber for a building site. I have decided to waste about 5K yards up into the (future) building site area stretching it out into the pond basin area to create a man-made bump-out peninsula. Yes, we lose some water surface area, but the resulting yard will be large enough to safely house the septic field and provide a v cool grassy knoll surrounded by water right in front of the house structure. Lastly, the project parcel is surrounded by a buffer of woods we own, then farmland. We are the low spot for about 60 acres and have collected the topsoil from hundreds of years of tillage run-off. Based on sampling, I estimate easily an excess of 5K yds of topsoil that I can offload and still have plenty for dressing the dam, damsite, building site, and the wrap-around road. Anyway, I put an ad in a midwest car/truck/RV/heavy equip mag that distributes statewide as a free mag, funded by ads. It cost $48 for 2 states for 3 weeks, published weekly. "5000 yds free topsoil, u-haul, blah bhah". I have em lined up...unbelieveable. Yes, I know topsoil can be sold, but I'm in a pretty rural area that is mostly farming. I thought the audience would be thin to none, so I didn't want to be a little greedy and risk minimal response. Besides, it's not black, black topsoil...just silty clay t-s. I am confident that my $48 investment will remove stock at no further cost to me.

#3727 04/02/06 03:11 PM
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Brettski: I advertised too. A few serious people responded, but most were just overly-ambitious guys with a pickup truck and a shovel. Most had no idea what it involved to fill a truck with dirt, so I warned them. I didn't want any heart attacks on my conscience!

But yea, I wish I had a better place to pile up my dirt. We plan to build a retirement cottage on one end of the pond, so I may strip the topsoil and fill the house and yard site about 10' deep in dirt. Temporarily, of course! \:\)

#3728 04/02/06 03:31 PM
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Excess dirt can be a problem if let be. But one can do fun things with it. Build a freakish island out in the middle of a pond, build an out-of-place mound in the back woods for the future residents, or create a cabin up top the man-made mountain. So many fun adventures. For that reason, the only soil I give away is by natural causes, such as erosion, which I am trying to slow down, also.





To Dam or not to dam

That isn't even a question
#3729 04/03/06 11:20 AM
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I designate my dirt into good clean fill material that I use for roads, building pads and of course, dam material.

The other category is bad dirt. Topsoil, sand and dirt with branches in it. That goes into a different area.

On my lake, I'm putting the bad dirt behind the dam and building up a large picnic area that will have a very gradual slope away from the dam. Something like a 2:12 slope that I'll plant grass on and make nice.

I did have to remove more trees from behind the dam for this, but in the end, I think it will be an attractive choice.

One thing to remember when piling dirt is to pack it down right away unless you are going to move it again fairly soon. Rain will erode it really quick and you end up with silt all over the place, not to mention weeds just take over faster than you'd belive. It's easier to spread it and create a nice shape to it when you first put it there than later on.

Sometimes a dirt pile will get all water loged too. If it sits and soaks up rain water, it can be near impossible to do anything with it.

I've had piles that got rained on and became totally useless for anything. You have to spread it out and wait for it to dry out enough to stop pumping water!!!

Good luck,
Eddie


Lake Marabou http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=139488&fpart=1

It's not how many ideas you have, but how many you make happen.

3/4 and 4 acre ponds.
#3730 04/03/06 12:08 PM
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I guess I need some good dirt recipes like Bubba Shrimp, and put it up for adoption. I could give away good dirt, bad dirt, fill dirt, hard dirt, soft dirt, wet dirt, dry dirt, flower dirt, tree dirt, garden dirt, grass dirt, dam dirt... \:\)

#3731 04/03/06 03:23 PM
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I rented the equipment and dug my all excavated 1/2 acre pond myself in a few weekends with the help from a couple of friends. The cost was about 15% less than the "estimates". By doing it yourself you are a lot more likely to end up with what you envision, not what the person you hire envisions. I had experience in layout and planning of foundations of other structures but never a pond and I had little experience on equipment. The footer for the house was dug about 3' down in undisturbed soil and I used the excavated dirt as fill for around the house. About 5' deep. In my case the cost savings on excavation for the house and savings for the pond loop vs. trenching for the Geothermal nearly paid for the cost of the pond.
Here's the pond and dirt pile

And a view of the finished product.





"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." Stephen W. Hawking
#3732 04/03/06 06:39 PM
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...livin' large, Ryan. Gorgeous layout! As I recall from previous geothermal pics, you have a considerable grade drop from behind the house and down to the pond. How much overall drainage do you think you have feeding it?

#3733 04/04/06 07:25 AM
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There is about 6 to 8 acres draining into the pond. A core trench was dug along the back fence and swales were made to direct more water into the pond. There is also a tile that runs around the front and one between the two small sections of woods both draining into the pond. Here's the picture taken from the second floor after a heavy rain, the water used to flow over the ground through the back fence into the creek.





"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." Stephen W. Hawking
#3734 04/04/06 09:32 AM
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...which answers my follow-up question: so, where does the water go when it's full? The picket fence will help strain out the big-uns before they start floppin' in the neighbor's pasture. ;\)

#3735 04/04/06 03:09 PM
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There is an 8" overflow pipe just out of view in the back corner that dumps into the creek. The idea was that inflowing water would go out near where it came in helping to minimize chemical loss and sediment/muddy water. The emergency overflow is still through the fence but I can't imagine it will ever get that high.




"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." Stephen W. Hawking
#3736 04/04/06 05:20 PM
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Dug one myself with a Ford 8N and a scraper blade. Never got it much deeper than about 4'. And it is bone dry now. But, it can be done.


3/4 acre pond
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