Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? My front yard cow pond

My front yard cow pond - part 4.

6/15/17
Then it rained again, but now I don't care because I have a proper pump and can empty that hole lickety-split. Life is good again.


7/23/17
And then it rained again some more, but I still don't care because I have a proper pump and can empty that hole lickety-split.


8/13/17
On my way to China, or at least close enough that you're going to have to work to reach the bottom when you dive off the dock that
eventually will be floating on top of where Nanner is parked. And look at what's hanging off the back. I'd been needing to fashion
a counter weight since Day One of this project, and one day during the previous winter my dim bulb flickered for a moment - it came
back to me that 15 or so years back I'd bought a 6' box blade to grade a spot in the yard at our old house for the above-ground pool
my wife bought. It was a King Kutter cheapo from the local farm-n-home store, and by the time I was done with the pool site the
brackets that attached to the TPH on the tractor were pretty well pretzelized. I dumped it in the busted implement heap at Pops'
house and had all but forgotten I had it. I hauled it to my workshop over the winter, repaired the TPH bracketry, slapped a new
paint job on it, and stuck some John Deere decals on the side to make it go faster. Then I hung 760lbs of suitcase weights on it.
Now I've got a proper counter weight, AND I can peel clay from the pond bottom with very little effort. Things are looking up.


8/25/17
Wait a minute. Didn't I just say that I'd fixed up the TPH mounting bracketry on the box blade? Along came another one of those
lack of situational awareness moments. I was stripping clay one afternoon and had the rear position control set to only pick the
blade up a few inches off the ground. Got the front end on a hump, the blade dug in when I reversed, and wadded the hitch up big time.
But that wasn't the worst of it. When the hitch folded the grousers got into the rear tires on the tractor. Cut em both. Calcium
chloride ballast fluid all over everything. And I'm stuck, stuck, stuck, bad stuck. Blade stuck in the ground, hitch folded, two
rear flats. I said some bad words. Very bad words. More than some. A lot. Not a good day.


8/25/17
Yeah, this is a pickle. We tried to pull it out with Pops' big Minneapolis. No joy. More damage to the blade. By this time I'm
making up new bad words to say because all of the old bad words aren't making me feel any better. Really not a good day.


8/25/17
As Fred G. would say, "Lamont, ya big dummy!"


8/25/17
So, there was only left to do what had to be done. I loaded my acetyline torch in the truck, hauled it out to the pond, and commenced
to burning steel until the blade was free from Nanner. Pops brought Jr. Red over and hauled the blade out of the pond. I called the
local ag tire shop and asked them to send a service truck. The only good part of this whole deal was they have a top notch field tech.
He made boots (big boots) for both tires, installed tubes, pumped them full of ballast fluid, and I was back in business. I walked
funny for a few days due to my wallet hip being a whole lot lighter than it had been, but if I'd had to replace those tires I would
have been parked for a couple months. R4 tires are really expensive.


8/27/17
Tires repaired and I went back to mining clay. All of that mud is from the CaCl solution that used to be in the tractor tires.


8/31/17
Another angle of the area in the photo above. At this point in time I'm intending to excavate another 20' or so towards the little
neck on the upper end of the pond and leave some shallow water area up there. Prelude to a later lack of situational awareness moment.


9/25/17
This is my little buddy Rocket. Her momma was a chicken thief, and she wound up on the wrong end of a gun one night. The next day
we heard an awful wailing from the big hackberry tree in the chicken yard. Yep, little blind Rocket. Five days old. Cold and hungry.
I have no problem dusting a chicken thief, but I'm a sucker for almost any kind of baby critter, and I'd wanted a pet coon since I was
a kid, so instead of doing what I should have done, I bottle-raised the dang varmint. She was a hoot and absolutely loved to chase
bullfrogs in the pond. I loved her. I built a coondo for her to sleep in. Then the ungrateful little brat r-u-n-n-o-f-t.


7/8/18
So another winter and spring gone by, and here I am, back in the hole, and almost done excavating.


8/17/18
This is the day that I've long wondered, is it ever going to come? I'm done, done, done, and finished. I've got the depth I want.
I've got the dropoffs into the drink that I want. I've got plenty of shallow, gentle slope for BG beds. I'm done! All that's left
is to repack the dam. And then little Fred G. on my shoulder says "Hey Lamont, ya big dummy. Where are you going to get the
clay to repack the dam? You put all of the good stuff in the skeeter hole. You're going to need that big pile that came out earlier
to landscape the back side of the dam so you can mow it without killing yourself." Yep. I did that. I hauled out all of the best
clay from down deep and I dumped it in the woods. Recall previous note to self - stop being stupid. Yeah, not going to happen...


8/17/18
Well, it is what it is, so I commence to doing what I have to do. Go deeper. Go farther into the neck on the upper end. That's it.
This is a view of the back side after filling in the ditch with dirt I'd saved back for landscaping. The cut is all cleaned out and
has been brought back to grade in ~6" lifts with plenty of bentonite mixed in. After I destroyed the box blade I put the tiller on
the tractor. That worked out really well for this stage of the operation.


8/17/18
Another back side view of the cut. You can see the difference in soil color from what dirt guy took out when he cut the dam compared
to what has been packed on the back side of the dam.


8/17/18
A wider view of the back side after hauling in and packing a small mountain of clay.


End part 4.