Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Purchasing Property

Long time lurker here. Cant tell you how many hours of spent reading here. Finally getting serious on land purchase and looking for some opinions on property. Have my eyes on 5 or 6, but i will start with one that already has a 1/3 acre pond that i would look to expand. Lots of ponds in the area.Property is 30 acres Pros and cons of this site? Thanks

Goal of the pond would be to grow the biggest bass possible. Feeding and aerating as necessary. It looks to me as if this one would have plenty of runoff for a much larger pond?

Welcome to clan. New here myself. Good folks. What state are you in?


Pat W

Southeastern TN

If possible, larger is better. Big Bass in a small pond means very few bass.

Oh, i would want to expand this one as much as possible. I walked the property last week and it looks as if a lot of water may come through here.

Welcome CrazyJu,
...just expanded one myself this past summer. I went from a 1/4 acre to ~3/4 acre. How big are you wanting to go?

Hey CJ, glad you finally broke the silence - welcome aboard about 8 years late.

Congrats on the purchase - and fortunately for you an incredible pond building resource and Pond Boss family member Michael Grey operates in TN.

Michael Gray
615-308-5752
mgrayconstruction@yahoo.com

From first glance, looks like you could excavate and at least double the size by going upstream which appears to be silted in and might have once been part of the existing pond. If you are looking for a LMB fishery, I agree with Tony you'll want it as big as possible. I think with excavation you could be pushing 3/4 - 1 acre without increasing the dam height. If you increase the dam height and/or width with a little more excavation, you could probably exceed the 1 acre mark. Unless the dam is in poor shape and needs work, I don't envision it being too expensive a project [relatively speaking].

Once you make a decision on the right property, I encourage you to contact Michael and have him perform a site analysis and inspect current condition of pond[s] if they exist. Will help you budget for the project prior to making a purchase.

Keep us in the loop - exciting times!

Didnt realize i had joined so long ago. He looks to be about 3hours away, do you know how far he travels?

Exciting times CJ, looking for your new property and new pond.

I've got a few general suggestions and some specific to this property.

First, if you are looking for land, you have a blank canvas to create your masterpiece. A lot of people have to work with the land and location they already have. When you are looking, you might be able to find a property with a steep ravine that would be a perfect place to dam up and build a pond. The ravine might be a negative for other potential landowners but an asset to you.

In my opinion, building a new pond is preferable to enlarging/refurbishing an old one. In the last couple years I've built three new ponds (one 3 acre and a couple small sediment and forage ponds) and refurbished and expanded three ponds (one for son, one for daughter and one on my own property). I'm not a contractor but instead a semi-retired farmer with some time on my hands and some construction equipment. I can tell you from first hand experience, building new is easier and probably in a lot of cases cheaper than cleaning out and enlarging an old pond. Working with new dirt is a whole lot easier than dealing with 40 year old pond muck. Something to keep in mind when looking at properties.

But do not shy away from properties with old ponds. This property you are looking at is a good example. You have had good suggestions that the current pond might be able to be expanded up slope and made larger. Good ides, but in my opinion an even better idea if the area above the pond is large enough is to leave the old pond as is and create a new pond above the old pond with the new pond overflow running into the old pond.

Why? For the reason stated above for one. Easier to build new than clean out old. But it would also give you a lot of other options. Here are some advantages to building a new pond and doing only modest maintenance on the old pond (like cleaning up the dam, etc.)

To reach your goal of large LMB, it is going to take several years. Leaving the old pond intact gives you at least something to fish while the new pond comes on line.

The old pond could become a forage pond to raise forage fish to feed your monster bass or for bait.

The old pond could become a "kids" pond filled with lots of BG and small LMB for fast action fishing for modest size fish.

You will eventually need to cull smaller LMB out of your main pond to allow the few to get to record size. You could put some of them in the old pond. See kids pond above.

Don't have kids? If you are managing the main pond for monster LMB it means you will have fewer large fish (as opposed to lots of regular size fish) = means less fish to bite = harder to catch. Having a second pond with easy to catch modest fish might be a change of pace from waiting all day for the monster fish to bite.

Having more than one pond gives you lots of management options. Building new is easier than cleaning out old. Someone else's junk property might be the perfect "pond" property for you. Three things to keep in mind as you look at properties.

This is a great site. Thanks everyone for the input. Ravine property is plentiful here and cheap, i hadnt really gave it much thought, great idea! No kids, so i truly would like to just focus on the big LM. I spend around 200 days a year on the water chasing these fish, so i get my fair share of catching in. I keep waiting for the intervention meeting from the wife.
Here is the second property. I havent got access to this one yet, just driven by. It is 65 acres all wooded with creeks on north and south boundries. This one is all wooded with no visible existing pond. I am worried that this property would not have enough runoff to support a larger pond? To me this one looks like most of water would be diverted around property? Opinions?

It does look like the second property is not well suited for pond placement. The best places for ponds straddle the property lines. General consensus here is do NOT share a pond with a neighbor if you can help it.

Also on #2 I would be worried about being backed up to a park in that you will get a lot of "wanderers" onto your land, especially if you had an attractant like a pond.

IMHO land #1 is a much better piece to hold a pond, and as far as I can tell, you can put a pretty large one on there. At least an acre.

One point to consider when looking at property is the neighbors. If there are possible trespassing issues, and people walking/sneaking in to fish your pond, they can completely screw up your pond in a short time. The more neighbors you have, the more potential problems. All you need is one great neighbor to sell their place to a not so great neighbor and the troubles begin.

Another thing to think about in wanting a "trophy" LMB pond is the number of fish that you can raise in that pond. Basically you can have approximately 75 to 100 pounds of LMB in a pond if it's aerated and supplementally fed. That is LMB of all sizes and ages. Typically in a smaller pond it is hard to trophy LMB, but that also depends on your defination of a trophy.

You should order this book and read it to make sure your goals will fit your dreams. Raising Trophy Bass

If you want a fish that fights hard, and is easier to raise and manage, look into Hybrid Striped Bass.

Thanks guys, keep the suggestions coming. Ideally I want a 4 to 6 acre pond. If that can be done within the radius im searching, im not sure. I just missed out on a 54 acre plot that had a 7ace pond on it. It is hard to find 50 acres here that do not have a pond on it. Property # 3 is probably my favorite looking spot so far. It has a 4acre pond on the property bordering to the south and a 1 acre pond on the property bordering the north. Looks like two small streams merge in the southwest and connect the two bordering ponds. Does this look like enough water for 4 to 6 acres? The land to the east is available also.

CJ,

That looks like a really good piece of property according to the topo map.

Go to www.acme.com/planimeter to figure out how big the watershed is. I would also look up the web soil survey and find out what type of soils are present.

Mess around on those two sites and come back with any questions you may have.

Ive played around with the planimeter and can not figure out , and not real good at reading topos yet. And my county does not have a web soil survey available that i can find. It looks like around 100 acres for prop. #3, but this is also coming from someone who does not have clue about topos.

Try this one. http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx

Property # 4 I really like the area this one is in. Looks to me this one would have plenty of run off. I marked where I envision the pond.The proptery is 50acres Opinions on this one?

Look at where the stream is shown. It goes along the eastern border of the property. The satellite image looks like the water is more down the middle along the edge of the R treeline. Since those are 10' gradients, you don't have much slope to deal with. Your pondbuilder might have some good insight to offer, but you don't want a dam at the property line.

For me, too many adjoining properties. I am bordered by 2 large farm holdings and only 3 other properties even in sight. Pay careful attention to how many are mfg homes or trailers. Speaks to the marketability in general and the type of people. That junk strewn place about 6 lots South...

Thanks for the input dnickolaus. If i excluded every property that had mfg homes near it, i would have to move out of the state. I am in southern TN Unforturnately, most of the properties here are bordered by many parcels, not much i can do about that without getting farther out.

#4 looks like the creek was diverted at some point rather than following its natural course. I would hike over there and see what is up. I can see where this option would require quite a bit of soil movement to get decent depth throughout, but may not be too bad if a 5' average is acceptable with some deep spots near the dam.

It certainly has potential though, and beats having a park up to the border of your land.

Another run off consideration is that it comes from your property and not the neighbors. You have no control on what they do to their land that can affect yours. As often said, we all live downstream from someone.

I used to get a lot of water from a neighbors land. Then ownership changed and the new owner planted gramma grass to slow down erosion. I don't blame him a bit. I think a guy ought to do what he wants on/to his land. But it certainly has affected me.

An exception to my feelings might be if he started a chicken raising operation and I got pollutants. Or, maybe a cattle feed lot. I am aware of a private lake community that had a reputation for growing huge bass. A chicken raising operation up stream has ruined the 60 acre lake and turned it into a polluted mess.

Another consideration is the soil. Assure that it will hold water. Rocky or sandy soil can be iffy.

Not so much pond related is exactly who are the neighbors. I looked at one place that seemed to have everything I wanted as investment/development property. However, a drive around the area showed some neighbors straight out of the movie Deliverance. I passed on that one and, in the last 10 years, it still hasn't sold.

Well Deliverance was filmed not too far from here

Property # 5 is what i have been looking for... except for its location. This will add 30 minutes each way for the daily commute. How far are some of you driving? This property is 75 acres, with an existing 8 acre pond that was built around 2001. Anything jump out about this property?

Other than the long commute and taking away the fun of building it yourself, I see no problems.

If you were in NY, I would warn against a long driveway and winters. A real pain in the neck having to deal with snow and gravel on long driveways.

Not sure what the word "snow" is referring to. We have not had any crippling snow since 1993. Went and looked at the property, but it came a monsoon, so didnt get to really look around. I am going to try to go back this weekend, but looks like rain again.

I walked Property # 6 yesterday and it looks promising. 40 acres with 2 very large gulleys splitting the property. The owner just completed a small dam, backing up about 1/2 acre and it looks like that could be expanded much larger depending on how high you can build a dam. I think at 20 ft i need a state permit in TN. The pond directly west has what looks to be around a 40 ft dam, maybe more. The property is much closer to work and priced right. So how large are some of your dams, especially any across gulleys/

I drive about an hour (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less) from my home in the suburbs to my farm. Typically make the trip two or three times a week. I don't mind the time at all, but I would think anything much beyond an hour would get to be a problem.

I like 5 wow what a nice piece! I drive and hour and 40 minutes one way to my place! But the nice thing about it is when I get there I feel like I am actually away from it all. Out, gone!! Not sure if I would fee that way just 30 minutes down the road so I have no problem with the drive either!

If I had the money and everything was right I would go after 5 in a heart beat!!

RC

The CC in the pond of property will hinder your big LMB goals if that is truly your goal. If they are that size, they will eat a lot of forage.

Some of the dam across gulleys I have seen range from 200 feet to 500 feet. It just depends on how the land lays.

Yeah Ludwig is right about the CC. I would have to fish the heck out of it and catch them CC and get rid of them. Like that doesn't sound like any fun!! haha!

RC

CJ
I don't see any acess roads to prop. #6 make sure you can get to it


Pat W

My dam is 450' long

It actually has a brand new rd to the property and a driveway that accesses half of the property. Going to go spend a few hours on # 6 this weekend and shoot some grades to see whats possible.

Do those other ponds flow into where your might be? If so, that be an issue in years of drought, or the years of floods what fish they have will be yours too.

No, the ones on property # 6 actually drain to the creek on the north of the property. The ponds on the adjoining property would be on a different watershed. From what i saw last weekend, Property # 6 gets plenty of water, rough guess 300+ acres. There are atleast 4 gullies that could be potential sites. Two already have small ponds on them. I have been reading on state and fed regs for dams and it seems i need to hire a lawyer to interput. Has any one put together a check list of permits? I know this would differ from state to state, but would be a starting point. If I can get 2 to 3 acres out of #6, it really fits good location wise. I just need to find out how tall a dam can be legally built.

Just thinking that #6 looks very promising. With that much watershed you have to remember that your 100 year control can get pricey. Taller dam means big emergency overflow, large drain pipe or siphon. Just something to consider which property #5 has already paid for.

What about the possibility of 2x 1 acre or more ponds? Do something different in each. Looks like #6 has that possibility, which for me is more compelling than one large pond.

Well, I put an offer in on #6. Owner accepted and we close on property mid Jan.Spent the last few weekends walking the property and measuring elevations. Looks as if 2 2o ft high dams would get me 2 ponds in the 3 acre range. Multiple sight for 1 acre ponds. 40ft plus dam would put it around 6 to 7 acres. Plenty of runoff and great soil. Will get.some pics posted. Merry Christmas!

Congrats!!!!!

Early present for you.... can't fit that into a sleigh!!

And so the obsession begins. Some early advice: Don't lie to your Wife about the costs. You will always get caught. I can attest to this.

There is a new 1/2 acre pond filled to the brim that has some pretty bad errosion on the back side of the dam. Top of Dam is only about 6ft wide and right at 20ft tall. Spill way was put in and lined with rocks last weekend. Is there a grass that can be planted this time of the year?

Annual rye will likely grow but it will die out in the spring

20 ft high dam and only 6 ft top width would scare me a little, even for a 1/2 acre pond. NCRS calls for a minimum of 12 feet, page 45, right hand side.

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs144p2_030362.pdf

---------------
Top width and alignment—For dams less than 10
feet high, a conservative minimum top width is 6 feet.
As the height of the dam increases, increase the top
width. The recommended minimum top width for
earth embankments of various heights is:

Height of dam/Minimum top width
Under 10' = 6'
11' to 14' = 8'
15' to 19' = 10'
20' to 24' = 12'
25' to 34' = 14'

If the top of the embankment is to be used for a roadway,
provide for a shoulder on each side of the roadway
to prevent raveling. The top width should be at
least 16 feet.
-----------

Something to look at, especially if you are having erosion problems.

Yes the existing looks to be very poorly built.I really do not like the dam location, there were several areas that would have worked better. I have about 1500 ft of ravine on the downside of the dam, and then the ravine continues for miles, so i do not think this could damage any other property.

Congratulations CrazyJu.

Keep this thread going as you progress with your project so we can follow along.

Nice thing about the property, it at least has a pond to start doing something with. Even if it is not completely what you want, it gives you a place to put some fish and get started while working on building your dream pond(s). Will not be quite so long that way before you can actually start catching fish.

While you are building the other ponds, you might be able to add to the back side of the existing pond dam and add to its width. It is not like you need it to be sealed so it holds water, just more width or thickness of the dam for structural strength.

Awesome! A tad jealous here... but very happy for you. It will be fun to follow your progress on your dream. You came to the right place to help make it happen.

Congrats on your purchase. Looking forward to following your progress.

Hi,

I am new to the forum and was reading through a lot of the posts and topics. I am interested in a piece of property that has a great bottom that runs through it that would be perfect for building a lake. One of the issues is that the best spot for the dam is very close to a year round spring. In addition to that, the property line is about 40-50 ft. From the spring. I'll post some pics of the topo with the property line and spring location, but in the meantime can anyone give advice on how to manage building a dam close to the spring that is going to fill the lake?

Thanks!

I doubt that I would do it. You only have enough room for 40 to 50 ft of pond. The future pond would also, I assume, gets rain runoff.

And, if you back the water up over the spring, it could cause a problem if the ground water level ever drops. That's when springs start sucking water from the pond.

Here is the topo and satellite of the property. It is all wooded, mostly hard woods. The soil is mostly sandy on the surface, but I haven't walked the entire property. The neighbor to the east has a beautiful lake as you can see in the satellite photo.

The spring is located on the eastern most property line, right where the bottom/gully exits the property. It's about 40-50 ft from the property line. Just by looking at this, where do you think the best place for a dam would be? I know you have to factor in soil, but I figure we can start with the best topo location first and the go from there.

I was also told that the water table is only 40-80 ft, so a well could easily be put on the property.

Like Dave alluded to, springs are nothing more than a permeable layer of dirt in the ground that lets water out (or through it) because there is more pressure (most likely uphill) pushing the water out. If the pond is built over the spring, and water pressure in the pond exceeds the water pressure in the spring, it will act as a drain in a bathtub, letting the water out until the pressure equalizes between the ground and the pond.

Before I made plans for a pond, I'd make sure that there was enough good clay in the area of the pond to build the dam and to properly seal the bottom of the pond.

If clay isn't found, then if you want a pond, it would have to be trucked in. At that point, (trucking in clay) start comparing prices of clay vs. a liner.

Can you put a liner over a spring or would you need to consider a new location for the pond? I would think the spring would "wash out" under the liner?

I think i lost my thread

Entrance to Property









Back side of Dam





Spillway

Small natural pond



Potential pond #3 spot. Looks like it would be around 2 acr +-

I found a place close by that has 6-8" trout. If i set up a feeder, will the have enough time to reach eater size by end of April, Mid May?

Oh gosh, even to my untrained eye that dam looks fit to wash out in the next big rain. Get some plants growing on that pronto! The spillway needs to be able to handle a lot more water and should be a few inches lower to give you more freeboard as a safety precaution. It already looks to have gone over the top once or twice. Good luck!

-Mark

we dont close until Jan 16th, so i really cant do anything until then.
They added the overflow and rocks last week, i think most of the damage came prior to adding the spillway. We have gotten a ton of rain the past 10 days and as current it looks to be handling it now. If it was to wash out, really would not be a big loss. It would have been much better if it had been placed lower in the ravine.

Closing in 10 days!

The real photographer (the wife) took some pictures this weekend as we walked the border of the property this weekend. This is the creek that forms the N border of the property.

Very nice!! beautifull. Will this be flowing into your pond, or is it the creek your pond will spill into?

Beautiful location. Looks sandy with rocks?

No the ponds would empty into the creek eventually. The only sandy rock areas seem to be the peaks of the hills. A 1000ft driveway was cut into removing 3ft of dirt on one side, and only one rock was removed and it was red clay, which is typical for this area.

Red in the creek = iron in the water?

CrazyJu that is a pretty parcel.
It is postcard-ish!
Love all the trees.
Congrats!

Essup you could be right, although it did not look like the typical iron stained water around here. The rock was colored, you could not wipe it off.

Yes, that is a beautiful piece of property. Great find! It would be a bonus if a house site were near that creek.

I dont think the creek is year round and there are not many building locations on that end. It is a pretty steep drop down to the creek. Here is the first stab at long term goals for the property. Ideally i would want one larger pond. But dam size may limit that. There are 5 or 6 good locations for a dam, so the water layout could be very different from what i am seeing now. The land bordering to the west is for sale (11 acre) and has another great pond site, but not sure if i will be able to aquire it at this time. There will eventually be 3 homesites on this property and a barn/garage.

Well, we closed on Friday, and I have spent most of the daylight time on the property. My brother came up Sat and helped clear an area for a fire pit. Put some more rocks on the spillway. It hasnt rained in a week and there is still water flowing.



Both ponds had an ice sheet on them when we arrived Sat. morning.





Picked up 10 lbs of fh and had to break the ice to put them in.
All Seemed healthy and have not seen any dead floaters. Ive walked the pond and drowned a cricket for a couple days and not one nibble, so far, no signs of any fish. Going to put in 50 lb of trout this weekend. Dont think they will make it past may.

My brother decided to cut a big oak stump flat to use as a grill stand. He worked on this for 2 hours. Going to need a better chainsaw.





He got it level and worked great.

Installed a feeder. Academy had the deer feeder on clearance. So i picked it up and made pontoons for it and now its a floating feeder. Only had enough floatation for 50lbs now, and if it works this way, i may put larger pontoons on it to hold more weight. It is anchored close to the middle with a rope running through an eye bolt, so i can pull one side of the rope to bring it to the bank, and pull the other side to pull back to the middle. It seemed to work well throwing it in about a 10ft circle.



Lisa celebrating the closing.



Athena checking out her new property

Exciting times. Big step becoming a property owner. You all will enjoy it.

And sharpen that chain saw! If it starts and runs it will cut wood if it has a decent chain and bar on it.

My thoughts too snrub. Get the chain sharpened properly. If the saw starts, most of the troubles after that is the chain, not the saw..... well--- sometimes its the operator and nothing else

That was a brand new chain. Must have been the operator then.

Hmmmm, could be. If that stump was the very first thing he cut with the new chain, probably not the chain. But if the chain was "new" and you did a little bit of clearing for the site, still a chance it was the chain. All it takes is one spot of mud, or a bump against a rock/stone and the chain dimishes cutting ability very rapidly. Most folks don't realize how critical it is to safeguard that chain from not cutting anything but wood, and how quickly it can become dull.

Either way, with the new property you will learn quickly. Lots of fun times and good memories ahead of you. Keep posting as you go. We are all excited for you.

Yep, my #1 problem is trying to cut sand and rocks. That sends me back to re sharpening every time.

I have actually seen a chain put on backwards. Don't ask me how I know.

I wrecked 3 brand new chains in less than 15 minutes. Somebody used concrete to fill a hollow in a tree. I moved about 3' each side of the first cut and still didn't find the end of the concrete. I gave up.... 32" bar on the saw.

It doesn't take much dirt to dull a chain, especially if it's a full chisel chain. I've cut trees after actual sunsest when it's been getting dark out and you'd be suprised how many times you see a spark come off the chain even when you think you are cutting in clean wood. Durn squirrels seem to carry sand up the tree and it gets lodged in the bark.

I've gone to semi-chisel chain because it doesn't dull so fast, and I had the last spool cryogenically treated. That seems to help too.

I remember cutting trees out of an old fence row. The fence was long gone but many of the trees had old fence wire buried in their trunks where they had grown around it. Talk about screwing up a chain in a hurry!

Fences in trees aren't fun. I have some here that had barbed wire stapled to the tree many years ago. I ended up cutting about 5' off of the butt of the tree to make sure I missed the wire. Tossed that piece right on the burn pile and didn't even try to mess with it.

I've seen several chains put on backwards. And have also seen more than my share of supposedly locked up chainsaws, brought in by inexperienced operators who never bothered to read that chapter in the owner's manual that talked about the CHAIN BRAKE!

You should see the looks on their faces when I pull the handguard back until it clicks, and hand it back.. "There you go"

Ahhh... Remember the old Jeff Foxworthy joke...You should have said "There ya go and here's your sign!"

Did you hear about the Aggie who bought a new chainsaw, but returned it a couple of days later, claiming that the saw must be defective because he was only able to cut down 2 small trees over the entire weekend?.... The salesman at the hardware store inspected the returned saw, flipped the ignition switch, pulled the rope, and started the engine..... Immediately, the Aggie asked, "What's that noise?"

I use only handsaws. I enjoy the sound of a handsaw sawing through the fiber, the quietness of a handsaw, the feel of sawing through the tree, and the safety advantages of a handsaw over a chainsaw.

As for the time to take down trees of size ... well I also enjoy the great outdoors and mother nature. Some of the pines were of height that kept falling into the pond no matter how much of a wedge I removed simply because 3/4 of the branches were growing toward the water and sunlight (over the pond), so I end up climbing the pines and sawing through the top quarter or third and felling that to the land instead of the pond, work my down another section and felling that to the land, etc.

Recently a rafter of turkeys came through, kicking up the leaves foraging for food when I was hanging 40' in a pine. So I stopped hand sawing and watched for 35 minutes then got back at it. They would have never approached had I used a chainsaw (noise factor).

That does sound like a simple pleasure, basslover. I wish I had the kind of free time that would allow for such an experience. Here, it's a case of get in, get it done, and get on to the next chore.

Just goes to show how different things appeal to different people. You appreciate the quiet serenity of a hand saw, while I re-work my Stihl chainsaws with muffler modifications to increase power, consequently increasing their noise level. I love the sound of an aggressive, crisp saw.

LOL Oh the chore list is large; 4 kids (ages 2, 6, 11, 13), full time work for both, home upkeep, pond work, land work, gardens, etc etc etc. All the usual suspects, right?

We've been pushing away the hustle and bustle over the years in favor of slow down and enjoy. Every day I'm on the land I see the list of things, it's a real mother! The past 2 years I've felled over 100 trees, from small 4 inch diameter to large 3.5 feet diameter. While I am aware a chainsaw could fall the targeted trees in one day's time, I still take the handsaws and go at it. One near 70' pine took me about 1.5 hours of hand sawing, and I believe that would have been maybe 10 minutes on a chainsaw?

Slow and steady, like a turtle, we just keep knocking things off the list. We'll never be "done", because we'll always have to "maintain". But I hope to finish some serious work this year because it would be nice to sit back and enjoy a little more. Having so many half done, quarter done, not even close, and almost done items ... there were over 15 years of neglect on this property and playing catchup takes some time. Power tools and a crew would probably get it done in a week. Hand power and one man band has taken 2 years so far, laboring here and there as time permits, but the reward and satisfaction has been massive.

Enjoy the power. I think one reason I go the other way - my pops borrowed a chainsaw when we were kids. He was supposed to take down a pussy willow tree that was hit by lightning. A couple hours later he essentially clear cut our back yard. Give a man a power tool and watch out! LOL

Looks like Google knew I was closing last friday and updated the image just for me. In now shows the pond and driveway.

wow CrazyJu that is some sweet dense woods!

i love walking thru stuff like that

takes me back to when I was in the Boy Scouts

I appreciate the satisfaction that basslover gets from going one on one with the land and literally carving my notch in the world, yet like sparky, f I can counterbalance a small block supercharged chevy engine with pneumatics, I'll attach it to a super sharp 16" chainsaw, just because I can!

I also understand and admire basslover's approach. I share his appreciation for a job done well, and as I've stated here a few times, I don't think you can call a place your own until you've shed blood, sweat, and tears all over it. I would imagine that BL's penchant for climbing into the treetops with a handsaw has afforded him ample opportunities to dispense all three bodily substances, and maybe a couple of additional ones at that. I salute his efforts, and look forward to watching his progress here on the forum.

I hope to slow down and appreciate the journey a little more, myself.




But I'm not ready to give up my Stihls just yet.

Tony, I'm sure not laughing at those guys. About a month ago, I was gonna drop a pond about 4', and got out my 3" Honda semi trash pump. It wouldn't fire. So, after messing with it, and verifying it had fresh fuel, air, and spark, I called my uncle who has been repairing small engines for going on 60 years. We brainstormed, and still couldn't get it running. So, I stripped the pump housing off that pump, and exchanged it with a 2" Honda pump that is exactly the same other than the pump. It fired right up, and everything was good.

After reassembling the 3" pump, which was now a 2" pump, I decided I'd check the oil. I know you know where this is heading. After two days of messing with pumps, the non-starting pump fired right up after adding no more than a 1/8 quart of oil. Now, it's check for air, spark, fresh fuel, and oil.

Al, you could have the same problem if it's not sitting level too....

That's why I now put a piece of plywood under them if they are on any sort of an incline.

I had dug a flat shelf into the side of a pond bank after I moved it down to be closer to the water. Vibration made the intake side walk into the flat shelf that I dug and it now was tipped to one side and not running. I couldn't figure out why it stopped - it had plenty of gas and oil.

The low oil sensors on Honda engines are very sensitive. They have to be FULL! And level.

Spent yesterday cutting logs and posting no hunting signs. Put about 60 9-10" rainbow trout in. All seemed healthy and swam away. 4 or 5 hours later, they had located the fhm and had them pushed to the top. Im guessing they will wipe them out in a hurry. Feeder went off around 6 and got to see the trout busting the floating food until dark. Got to the property around 8:00 am and had this white stuff all over the ground.

Tractor was delivered Friday I havent been on one since I was a kid, but after a few hours it started to come back. First thing I had to do is test out the backhoe. Pulled out a good sized stump pretty quick. Had more power than I expected.

My brother looking over the controls.



Our first project on the property will be building a barn. It will be 32x24 with a 24x16 overhang. The barn will be about 700 ft down the driveway. This is where we decided to put it.



Starting to clear it.



Matt pushing big rootball out of the way.




Just about cleared and level.



Had a little time to check on the trout. I put 60 9-10" in last Saturday. They were very aggressive. I only made one cast and caught one. Matt made about ten cast, hooked 2 and landed one. I think I may need to feed more. The feeder is putting out about 2 lbs a day now. Not living on the property cant really tell how long its taken them to eat. Any guesses on how much to feed? I have it feeding at sun up and about 30 minutes before sun down.

Good thread. IMHO, geared down diesel power certainly adds to quality of life!
A forum that I follow for tractor aficionados is tractorbynet.com. There are many DIY ideas posted there, suggestions for streamlining work, pics, and general smarts by a good bunch of tractor lovers. The forum approaches PB in wisdom, maturity, humor, comradery. You may like it.
Have lots of fun with that tractor. And keep it up out of the pond. At least one of our members speaks of aquatic tractor removal...