I had to return the rental dozer soon, so now was the time to cut my overflows on each side of the dam:
It is a little hard to explain, but basically when the water reaches a certain level, it will follow the overflows, which are sloped away from the dam back into the virgin soil cut out from the hill sides. I picked this approach up from reading Tim Matson. The red lines represent the full water line shot with my level. Since then, I have lined the hillside with large stones, and have also heavily seeded and strawed this whole area. I am going to wait and see what it looks like later, but I may also line it with some rip-rap or a bit smaller rock.
Before I had an opportunity to get some seed and straw down, it rained a couple times. As you can see, the water held well. It is still there, minus a little bit of evaporation:
I now turned to fish structure. The trees I had to take out and all the boulders that I didn't use to line the overflow area came in handy. Some of these materials also found its place up on the bank where it is quite decorative:
Now it was time for seed and straw. It was pretty hot when I put it all down:
Now I am just watering the seed until it is established, waiting for rain to come and fill the pond. I will post some more pics when it is finally full (God-willing).
Anyway, the latest addition to the oversight committee appeared happy with the work, so that is all that matters:
