joe,

we only test compaction on retention ponds because they make us. a normal pond usually not unless the nrcs guy is playing around with some old way of testing it that seems to be pretty accurrate. where i'm working this month if i asked the owner to use a sheepsfoot on a pond he'd think i went loco much less do a compaction test i dont even think i could get my packer to these ponds without tipping it over. i believe it was 2006 and 7 we went for about 6 months that the nrcs shut down the building of ponds due to lack of moisture in the soil. maybe it is the difference in our regions i'm not sure. i understand what is meant by walking the sheepsfoot out of the fill but if we are talking about compaction which is what we are after that means very little. on most ponds thats no big deal but i dont want people thinking that means they have compaction. you can walk one up on fat clay thats to wet yet only have 85% compaction i can get that with my dozer. i'm simply trying to show how important moisture is to compaction. dry dirt is bad news for a road base just as it would be for a pond dam in bad soil that needed all the help it could get. its bad because it wont seal its like a thirsty person wanting water we want it to be a non thirsty person refusing and shedding water which is the seal i'm speaking of. most dirt will put out a shiny look when sealed. once a person has done enough compaction test you can tell if it is going to pass before they test it. most of our subdivision jobs the owner pays for the test. if it flunks the next one is on me so i have got to know.i just did a pond for a member on here that i thought needed a packer because the core was 12' deep in places with solid rock sides. water was running in on us the whole job and i loved it we could pack it to death and not have to worry about moisture i feel real good about it holding water and being 25' deep with all that pressure thats saying a lot i'm kind of a worry wart