Bob, it's raining! Ha! Been so long, I forgot what it sounds like. We may not get much today, but they are saying "possibly" over an inch tomorrow. I sure hope so. My pond is down over 4' from full, but I think August was the last real rain we've had. Up at our pond the guys that had alfalfa planted told me they are giving up. They haven't got nearly the yield from it that they hoped. I can't get it enrolled into CRP, so I've found a guy that wants to clean out the alfalfa and put in beans this spring, and wheat in the fall. Not sure how that'll impact my little pond. Lots of mud will probably get washed in when they get rid of the alfalfa. (It has to really rain again sometime!). Hope you get a couple of inches this round, that turns into feet in terms of pond depth. Get those FHM started!
Jeff
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
Jeff,it has been a long time.That big rain in August came right when they started digging my pond,which did help with the compaction. They are saying Thursday may be dry, but other than that some rain every day from now thru Sunday.The small rain we had last Thursday night and the light snow and rain we got Saturday morning gave me a few inches back in the pond and has the ground a little soggy already.So I'm hoping to see a couple feet in the pond with all of this,and will be surprised if I don't get at least one foot. I know all the ponds I see around me that aren't spring fed or have very large water sheds are down 3'-4'.The old silted in pond on my property is down about 3',it looses the first foot pretty fast and then slows down, but it has a very large water shed for it's size.A few weeks ago while it was frozen I went out on it and made some hole so I could see how deep it is and it only had about a foot left in it.After I build on the property and I'm living on it I may try to clean it out. Jeff,would putting some bails of straw in the right place help keep some of the mud out of your pond when they start tilling? I hope all of us caught in this drought gets a lot of rain this week!
Good idea about putting down some bales. I will do that in the main two culverts co inv out of the fields. I was talking to one of my neighbors early last week. I asked him what he thought about the "no rain, ever" situation. He said he and a few others around think we are cursed. Ha! It feels like it sometimes. We get some big rains, and my pond fills up three years now, but then the rain stops, and it starts to drop. If I could get our "average of 3.5" a month, I'd be fine. But month after month with less than an inch gets old. The good news for you is, south of I 70 seems to do better..
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
Jeff and Bob, We are in the same situation. Big rain came through this morning about 20 miles west of here, but we only got 1/10 inch. We are cursed also.
Jeff maybe we are cursed,I just figured it was my fault for building a pond.lol!Who else has luck so bad that they build a pond and it goes straight into a drought.lol! Jeff don't you live in the St. Louis area?I live on the northern edge of High Ridge in between Fenton and High Ridge,my new property with the pond is only 2,500' from where I live now.On Channel 2 News they've been showing a drought map with me being in the worse part.So right now I'm not feeling to lucky about being south of I70.lol!I hope your right that it's normally better south of it. I never watched or cared about the weather so much in my life till I built this pond.lol! When my boss found out I built a pond he told me of a Charlie Brown comic that he had read that Charlie Brown said he wished he had a pond,when it wasn't raining he could go fishing, and when it was raining his pond would be filling.It made me think that everyone should have a pond,it would make them like rainy days.lol!
Being on the west side in "D0" my place is in better shape than you guys. I have about 5.5 feet to go to fill the new pond. The dry fall and armyworms kept my grass planting from doing a good job last September so I expect to have a bit of erosion and muddy water if we get a heavy downpour. Hopefully it will warm up and the grass takes off.
John we were getting light rain at the house this morning when I left for work.We got a little thunder but I never really seen it come down hard.Watching the weather before I left the radar showed me being on the edge of things with the heaver rain being a little west of me too.It did look like heavier rain was working my way a little.I ran into a few heavier patches of rain on my way in to work and we've had a light drizzle here at work since I got here. Redonthehead,thanks for the map!I'm in the D3 Zone.I bought a little more grass seed yesterday to help with my thinner areas.I plan to wait a little longer before I put it down.
Looking at the map, I'm only in the moderate drought area at the farm. Seems a lot drier up there than down here near St Louis, which is on the line between severe and extreme. We are getting it pretty good near St Louis right now. Looking at radar up north, it's all going just south of my pond.. How's that go, if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Haha. It'll come, I've been full three times in three years. I suspect it'll be full again. Hope the fish are ok. Had 4+" of ice on it for a month. While it was down 4'. Should have still had 10' depth for the fish, but that top 4' represents a lot of water.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
Here's my way of getting a little water in the pond...transfer it from one part of the same watershed to another. It's rained just enough to get the creek flowing a little.
Jeff I work a little over a mile north of down town and it just slowed down some but it was coming down pretty good.I just looked at the radar it looks like it is clearing up some around here but it looks like it is raining pretty good up north by Hannibal.Not sure if that's where your pond is but I was thinking it was. John I wish I had creek near mine to do that!
We may even get a couple of inches from this front. That's the most since August. I'm hoping.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
That's pretty good John,I think we got around the same amount and it looks like it put a little over 2" in my pond.They say we should get more tonight and more in the morning.
Frozen ground covered with 16 inches of snow. Last night was in the 40s and it rained an inch or so. The pond came up 5 feet over night, is over the spillway and flooding the surrounding area this morning.
I am 1.5 hour drive south of my place so I try to check the web for rainfall. Of course the NWS uses radar to estimate precipitation but here is another resource that may be helpful and more accurate to some of you who live away from your pond:
USGS has stations along major rivers which include a precipitation gauge. This one is close to my land and updates about every hour:
Thanks for the links Redonthehead. I still have hope,but I've already got less rain than I thought I would by now.I got no more rain last night,but it was sprinkling this morning when I left for work,and I ran into a few good patches on my way in.I checked the radar from my phone earlier and every time I did,there was a hole in the rain right over my area.lol!Last time I cheked it showed nothing near me.Today it looks like things stayed more east of me.lol! I still need to get a rain gauge, but I did set a bucket out last when I got home so I can at least get some idea what I'm getting.
Just figured out how to work the radar thing on my phone and if I jump it forward 1 hour it shows me in the rain again.That raised my hope back up some.lol!
Well the good news is I got a lot of rain last night and it gave me around a foot of water.The bad news is it started a small mud slide.It is below the water line.There is a bit of a low area on the hill side above it so I'm sure it gets a little more water flow in that area.I'm going to go over after work and see if I can come up with an easy way to redirect some of the water flow in that area.If it doesn't slide to much maybe it will just make a small shelf.lol! First it's no rain then it's to much at a time.lol!We still have up to 3" more coming this week.I hope it doesn't slide enough to hurt things!
We got 2.1" up north. It came down so slowly though that there was zero run off. Still really helped.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
I'm glad you got some up there Jeff.I think I've gotten around 2.5" all together so for,with near 2" of it coming yesterday and last night.I think it coming down as slow as it did is what helped make the mud slide.
Hey SetterGuy and Bobbss, Please give us an update on your pond levels.
We have had over 4" rain in the past few days, and my older pond was only 4.5 vertical inches from the e spillway this morning, and the new one was only about 1/2 inch from spilling over. A little more rain expected today.
Wow! Yep, we've had a lot more down here than up my our place. We did get the 2", but that was without any runoff. I'm guessing I'm still 4' below full, as it probably came up 6" at most. Just .3" since then, with light showers predicted later today. Post a pic of your new pond, almost full.. It's been so long since I've seen one I can't remember what a full pond looks like. Here's a satellite pic of our place, showing the pond at about the level it's at now.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023