I only put in 4 or five hours a day so progress is slow. Still pushing muck. Got down to clay and thought I had it made. Pushed really well for about an hour then hit pocket of muck and was back to pushing muck.
Taking the spoil around to the back of the old dam. Not too worried about leaks as the old dam seems sound except for the break in the overflow. Will look for some good clay for that repair. I'll have a lot of excessive dirt to get rid of so the dam will end up really thick with a really nice gentle slope on the back side - maybe a 5 to 1. The old dam was typical of farm ponds of the day created primarily for livestock watering - thin and steep sides. Too steep to mow. A good place to get rid of all the old mucky dirt.
You can see how wet the dirt is by the dozer tracks.
There are two trees visible in the photo growing in the dam. I know trees are a no-no in a dam but am going to leave them anyway. Will add about a 20 foot pad on the front side about a foot above water level to make a nice spot for the grandkids to fish in the shade and to make some extra thickness in the dam to help prevent future problems the tree might cause. Along with all the dirt I am putting on the back side of the dam along with the fact that there will only be about 5 foot of water depth against the dam I don't forsee the trees causing any serious problems for at least twenty years. I debated on taking the trees out, but liked the shade and did not like the idea of destroying that portion of the old dam and worry about getting a sound patch there.
Rebuilding old ponds compared to just building a new one has advantages and disadvantages. The trees around the perimeter and the "character" that people spend lots of money to create in their new pond is already there. On the other hand, when built form scratch you know exactly what the core of the dam consists of and that old nutrients and whatever lurks in the old dirt of an old pond are not going to be a problem.
