The switchgrass is planted between where I mow and the pond(s). I actually have finished off the planting on the 4th pond and started on the 3rd pond dam. I am planting Blackwell which is supposed to tolerate submersion for up to a couple months and be especially good at erosion control. Time will tell. We seeded a 10' wide strip last year in another area with Cave-N-Rock.
Had beavers show up recently and clog the overflow pipe. Set up a trap and caught one, unclogged the pipe, which was a chore because it was packed quite deep, and has remained open for a few days so hopefully it was alone. I did a short video of the trapping settup and process.
The Middle of Misery has been in a drought since last fall. My pond is so low that it was becoming quite a chore to get from the ramp to the dock and then back, so I whipped up a set of stairs and attached them to the floating gangway.
When the pond is at full pool the fixed ramp and the floating ramp are at the same elevation. The stairs are 7" rise per tread and there's ~13" between the top tread and the ramp. It's much easier and safer to get on and off now. When the water eventually rises to the point the top tread is even with the ramp I'll remove the screws and yank it out of there with a gin pole on the front loader.
No excavator needed in the pond, but I did put two loader buckets full of 6"x12" crushed limestone on the water side of the dam yesterday.
I'd been needing to get back on that project for awhile, but the brakes were out on my loader tractor so not safe to attempt. lol I got that problem corrected a couple weeks ago and I'm back in business. Probably have another half dozen scoops of cobble on the pile that still need to go into the pond. It will be nice to have that job finished.
The Middle of Misery has been in a drought since last fall. My pond is so low that it was becoming quite a chore to get from the ramp to the dock and then back, so I whipped up a set of stairs and attached them to the floating gangway.
When the pond is at full pool the fixed ramp and the floating ramp are at the same elevation. The stairs are 7" rise per tread and there's ~13" between the top tread and the ramp. It's much easier and safer to get on and off now. When the water eventually rises to the point the top tread is even with the ramp I'll remove the screws and yank it out of there with a gin pole on the front loader. ]
We are so far behind on rain, it’s ridiculous. What’s driving me crazy is the continuous forecasting of rain, but we only get a few drops. Severe weather alerts, but nothing ever happens. My CRP is all up, but weeds will overtake it, if we don’t get some rain. Pond is down close to 2 feet. Bullfrogs are finding no place to hide. Pond weed is on the bank. The water is still cool, and nice for swimming. The new YP are hammering everything that comes out of the feeder. Hopefully I’ll have some keepers next year. No otters have come back, but the fish are gone, so why would they?
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
No excavator needed in the pond, but I did put two loader buckets full of 6"x12" crushed limestone on the water side of the dam yesterday.
I'd been needing to get back on that project for awhile, but the brakes were out on my loader tractor so not safe to attempt. lol I got that problem corrected a couple weeks ago and I'm back in business. Probably have another half dozen scoops of cobble on the pile that still need to go into the pond. It will be nice to have that job finished.
That size of cobble on the dam should look very nice AND stop some wave erosion.
Any plans to add some crayfish? I think they might enjoy all of the empty "crayfish condos" that you just built for them!
The Middle of Misery has been in a drought since last fall. My pond is so low that it was becoming quite a chore to get from the ramp to the dock and then back, so I whipped up a set of stairs and attached them to the floating gangway.
When the pond is at full pool the fixed ramp and the floating ramp are at the same elevation. The stairs are 7" rise per tread and there's ~13" between the top tread and the ramp. It's much easier and safer to get on and off now. When the water eventually rises to the point the top tread is even with the ramp I'll remove the screws and yank it out of there with a gin pole on the front loader. ]
We are so far behind on rain, it’s ridiculous. What’s driving me crazy is the continuous forecasting of rain, but we only get a few drops. Severe weather alerts, but nothing ever happens. My CRP is all up, but weeds will overtake it, if we don’t get some rain. Pond is down close to 2 feet. Bullfrogs are finding no place to hide. Pond weed is on the bank. The water is still cool, and nice for swimming. The new YP are hammering everything that comes out of the feeder. Hopefully I’ll have some keepers next year. No otters have come back, but the fish are gone, so why would they?
I got so tired of never getting enough rain to help the pond and just watching it go down, that most of the time I don't even bother keeping track of rain fall or losses. I was keeping real good records until this year.
Bobbss, I was keeping temp and clarity records. Trying to decide on aeration. Last time I was at the pond, I thought, why am I doing this? 88% chance on Wed 56% on Friday. Maybe it’ll rain this week.. Hahaha! I’m going to go ahead and put in foodplots for the deer. Of course, if I don’t plant them, we will get perfect rain.. Agh!
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
Two of our three ponds went totally dry due to our two-year drought.
We have now had 9" of rain in the last four days, including 4.5" of rain two nights ago!
I feel like the statistician that has one foot in a bucket of ice water and one foot in a bucket of boiling water and says, "On average, I feel just fine."
There is a USGS streamflow station on the river just downstream of where our tributary creek joins the river. It hit flood stage yesterday afternoon. Fortunately, it has already dropped below flood stage as the depleted surface aquifers are taking a big drink!
The Middle of Misery has been in a drought since last fall. My pond is so low that it was becoming quite a chore to get from the ramp to the dock and then back, so I whipped up a set of stairs and attached them to the floating gangway.
When the pond is at full pool the fixed ramp and the floating ramp are at the same elevation. The stairs are 7" rise per tread and there's ~13" between the top tread and the ramp. It's much easier and safer to get on and off now. When the water eventually rises to the point the top tread is even with the ramp I'll remove the screws and yank it out of there with a gin pole on the front loader. ]
We are so far behind on rain, it’s ridiculous. What’s driving me crazy is the continuous forecasting of rain, but we only get a few drops. Severe weather alerts, but nothing ever happens. My CRP is all up, but weeds will overtake it, if we don’t get some rain. Pond is down close to 2 feet. Bullfrogs are finding no place to hide. Pond weed is on the bank. The water is still cool, and nice for swimming. The new YP are hammering everything that comes out of the feeder. Hopefully I’ll have some keepers next year. No otters have come back, but the fish are gone, so why would they?
I got so tired of never getting enough rain to help the pond and just watching it go down, that most of the time I don't even bother keeping track of rain fall or losses. I was keeping real good records until this year.
Bob, I agree, its like watching gas prices, you're going to buy it anyhow, so if you dont look at them it cant depress you as much.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
It is so wet at the farm under these conditions that I can't drive around without tearing up my roads.
I suspect my silt pond that keeps the run-off out of the wheat field from reaching the creek is probably full. My deepest groundwater pond should be going up.
My "best pond" was built with a drag line almost 100 years ago (I think). It WAS a really nice groundwater pond, but the water table has dropped so far that it only gets about half full during very wet extended periods. It actually has very little watershed to feed it with surface water, but I think I can seal it and divert water to it when I finally get heavy iron back on the farm!
That size of cobble on the dam should look very nice AND stop some wave erosion.
Any plans to add some crayfish? I think they might enjoy all of the empty "crayfish condos" that you just built for them!
It does look nice and makes lots of hidey spots for crayfish, minnows and fry.
I got crayfish from QA the summer of '19. For a while I was almost wishing I hadn't because they ate every speck of greenery in the pond. Then the HSB and SMB were stocked fall of '20. Once they sized up a bit they started working on the crayfish and have reduced their numbers substantially.
I'm hoping to get a resurgence of APW and arrowhead after the water level gets back to where it belongs. We will see...
We got 4.8" of rain and a bit of wind at the house yesterday evening. Most of it came in a pair of 15 minutes downpours. The plastic film on my hoop house is shredded. Sweet corn flattened. Tree limbs busted all over the place. It's a mess.
On the bright side, I installed the replacement power unit on Judy's Garmin Force trolling motor before we lost electricity. It will be nice to have that functional again... if I ever have time to use it.
On the brighter side, there's a foot of new water in my pond. I flipped the timer switch to constant run while the power was out. Checked it this morning and saw that we were without power for right at eight hours. I reset the timer but I'm going to leave it running until the clouds break and it starts to heat up outside then I'll flip it back to timer mode.
They were predicting over an inch of rain here but we got only 1/10th inch. One of our wetlands built by the state (but owned by us) has been mostly dry for 3 years now. I finally went out with a backhoe and dug a trench about 30 feet long inside the dam near the deepest point and found an open clay field tile. Did my best to remove and seal up the tile without breeching the dam because they installed chain link fence in it to prevent muskrats from boring holes, so going further into the dam would have created quite a mess. Hoping that my packing with clay will stop that leak and that there are not more open tiles. Contract, that the state wrote up, called for removing old tile, but their approach seemed to be haphazard... Hard to find folks that understand the concepts and follow through on the processes. Without this forum, I would be one of those ignorant to those same concepts. Another big thank you to those here that share their expertise so freely!
We got a whopping 3/4”. But that’s a lot better than anything in the last couple of months. It’ll keep my CRP alive, but I don’t think it’s going to help the corn or beans. They both still look pretty bad. I found a used 54” mowing deck for my JD X540. It was about the price of 2 new mower belts from JD. My old deck was bent, and eating belts. I quit using JD belts after 2. Not much is growing with the drought, but crabgrass and other weeds are very drought resistant. So I mowed them down with the new to me deck. It’s from a lot older JD than mine, but fit perfectly, and it’s better, smoother, and quieter.. $2,000 for a new deck from JD.. Not happening.. I’ll get down to the pond in about 2hrs. I’ll see how warm the water is getting when I dive in. Ha
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
They were predicting over an inch of rain here but we got only 1/10th inch. One of our wetlands built by the state (but owned by us) has been mostly dry for 3 years now. I finally went out with a backhoe and dug a trench about 30 feet long inside the dam near the deepest point and found an open clay field tile. Did my best to remove and seal up the tile without breeching the dam because they installed chain link fence in it to prevent muskrats from boring holes, so going further into the dam would have created quite a mess. Hoping that my packing with clay will stop that leak and that there are not more open tiles. Contract, that the state wrote up, called for removing old tile, but their approach seemed to be haphazard... Hard to find folks that understand the concepts and follow through on the processes. Without this forum, I would be one of those ignorant to those same concepts. Another big thank you to those here that share their expertise so freely!
Not going to lie, we built a sewage lagoon in a farm field, didnt realize we came within a couple inches of a field drain tile when we built it, never could figure out why it wouldn't hold a drop of water till we seen a sink hole in one corner where the water was running out, when we tried to repair it is when we found the drain tile. see it happens to even the best of us!
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
Won't happen if you trench the length of the lower end of the area as I now do. With the cost the state paid for this project, I think they could have done this easily.
Won't happen if you trench the length of the lower end of the area as I now do. With the cost the state paid for this project, I think they could have done this easily.
I am no rocket surgeon, but it seems to me that sealing a pond or wetland would be exceedingly difficult with a previously installed outlet pipe!
Since the state people probably helped advise the farmers on installing the drain tiles a generation ago, you would think they would at least have "Check for drain tiles." on their pond job planning sheets.
I am glad to hear you found the tile in the basin of your wetland. I suspect packing it with clay should be effective in sealing it completely. Especially if there is less than 10 feet of water on the tile when your wetland is at full pool.
Hopefully you will have a multitude of happy wetland creatures by the end of next spring!
The plan did call for exploring for field tiles and removing them, but I don't think it gave specific instructions on how to do this. This wetland was constructed for me in lieu of paying me for land where they constructed a mitigation wetland. The mitigation wetland also leaks badly but has a fair amount of seasonal inflow. We actually saw where one tile was draining the mitigation wetland while they were constructing it and they broke the tile inside the wetland and brought in a truck and poured concrete on it. I honestly don't think anyone knew what they were doing, but it still provides wildlife habitat even though multiple tiles drain it during dry spells. It has no emergency spillway either, but rather runs over the dam/berm right where the exit pipe is during flooding events. Lots of erosion and eventually it will likely breach the dam in this spot. At that point, maybe I'll see if I can get permission to fix it right myself...
It has no emergency spillway either, but rather runs over the dam/berm right where the exit pipe is during flooding events. Lots of erosion and eventually it will likely breach the dam in this spot. At that point, maybe I'll see if I can get permission to fix it right myself...
I actually sighed out loud when I read this part!
I know you would rather do a long-term plan for the wildlife in and around that wetland. Hopefully you can get many years before the eventual breach.
It has already supplied many years of good wildlife habitat. It just amazes me that some folks can spend so many years in a specific field and not learn more about it. What a boring way to go through life.
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