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

My front yard cow pond - part 6.

10/9/18
Finally, we got some rainfall. There's enough water in there to show the elevation changes in the deep area of the basin. With
this water, the far end where the cedars are runs from nothing to about 4' depth, and the near end runs from nothing to about 3' depth.


10/10/18
More cedars in, and more rainfall overnight. Aside from what came in the two little seeps, this hole hadn't seen water since June.
It was dry down there. The level dropped almost a foot in the week after these rains, and that had me a bit nervous, but when
I considered how dry it had been that made sense. After that initial drop in water level it has been stable. The sheer cut on the
east side (left side of the photo) of the upper end is sloughing as expected. That's the spot that gets most of the runoff water.
You can see clearly that the west side of the cut, which also was a near vertical face, has hardly sloughed at all. We have some
seriously good clay here. It is deep, and it is incredibly expansive. When we built our house the building inspector guy told me
that this clay is the 6th most expansive type of clay that has been documented anywhere in the world. I can't say with certainty
if what he said is true, because I haven't researched it myself, but can say with certainty while I was cleaning this pond out,
if it rained I was pumping before I could get back in with the tractor. It is some seriously good clay.


11/10/18
We got some more rain, and the level is rising. Every time it rains I jam a stick in the mud at the new water line. So far it stays
where it stops, and both sand veins are under water. Maybe Lamont will luck out. Maybe Lamont will have to spend some $$$ on
Soilfloc. Lamont doesn't know yet, but Lamont is hoping he will be like the blind squirrel who found an acorn.


11/21/18
More cedars in the upper end, a good line of them against the cut running down the middle of the pond, and I haven't even dented my
cedar tree patch.


12/1/18
I bought 26 ton of 2"x6" crushed and cleaned limestone and placed it in the pond along the bank on the upper end. That's where the
runoff comes in. Lining that bank with stone will stop the shoreline from eroding and moving uphill, provide good hides for crayfish
and minnows, and help with the ph. Since this photo was taken I added another 25 ton of surface rock to the shelf. A week or so
prior I was down with a bad cold, and stayed home from work for a few days around Thanksgiving. That's when I found PB on the interwebs
and started reading the forum postings. And from all that reading now I know I should have put some sort of geotextile material down
before I dumped the surface rock on the shelf. I suppose I could have dug it back out and put something down, but then Fred G. wouldn't
have anything to yak at me about.


12/23/18
I went and made nice with neighbor guy today. Figured there was nothing to lose by making an attempt, and it worked out great this time.
As we walked back to the pond I told him what I was planning to stock, and I told him the story about finding bullheads in my front yard,
and that I really wanted to do whatever I could to keep them out for as long as I possibly could. I asked him if it would be alright
with him if I built a terrace to keep the overflow from his pond out of my pond. He was completely agreeable to everything that I was
hoping to do. Might have helped that I offered to put up a new fence on the property line once we were both satisfied with the dirt work,
but bottom line... the overflow channel from his pond to my pond has been diverted, and he's no longer on my list of non-person people.
I'll need to get back in there after it dries up a bit to smooth things up, and I want to make sure I've added enough dirt so that all of
the water runs down the hill rather than puddling up and making a skeeter hole. It needs some rain to settle the dirt before I can finish
it up, but it's good for now. Merry Christmas Eve Eve to me.


1/1/19
Took the Mrs. to Branson after Christmas for a few days of relaxation, and to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. Noticed things
looking rather soggy on the drive back home. Turns out we got a nice, long, soaking rain while we were away from home.
There's a couple feet of new water in the pond. More good news - the terrace I built to keep the overflow from neighbor guy's pond
out of my pond worked perfectly.



And that gets the story of my front yard cow pond to where I am at present.

I know a few things, and I don't know a whole lot more than a few things.

I know that the pond must fill up to the level of the currently existing overflow before I'll really know if I have any leaks.
I don't know if there is a core key under the dam, but considering the age, size, and original use of the pond, I believe that
it is rather unlikely, but I suppose that it is possible. Before the cattle got on it, all of the ground around and below the
dam stayed dry, except during periods of wet weather when the pond would overflow. There was a period of time, much later in
the life of the pond, when the ground below the south side of the dam had a tendency to stay a bit wet. The pond was full of
muskrats then, and the dam was in terrible condition from being stomped by cattle. There were also several large trees that had
grown up due the damage inflicted by said cattle, which made the dam unsafe to mow. Those trees were removed from the dam after
we bought the property, and it's been dry on the back side since then. It's my hope that any voids resulting from the decay of
those tree roots have filled in due to the passage of time and all of the heavy machinery traffic that has happened there since
the trees were taken out. The several-feet-thick clay cap that was placed when the back side of the dam was landscaped should
help out as well. I haven't forgotten about the two sand pockets that I hit while mining clay to close the dam. It's very
possible the pond could leak through those as the head pressure increases. If I wind up with any leakage, I'll get my wallet out
and throw a unit or two of Soilfloc in the water.

I don't know where the full-pool water line is going to wind up, exactly. I know where it was before I started the process of
de-mucking, and I'm certain that it will be below that level now due to my use of the historical overflow as the entry ramp into the
pond. Literally thousands of trips over that area with a heavy machine have compacted the soil quite a bit. That, coupled with the
erosion that occurred due to the grass sod being beaten down to bare soil for a five year period of time has reduced the elevation
by at least a foot, and very likely more. I never shot the elevations. I couldn't change the footprint of the pond, so I didn't really
see much point in it. I'll wait for it to fill up, see where the water line comes on the dam, and decide at that time how much, if any,
I want to raise it from there. It won't be difficult to rework the overflow area if I decide to raise the water level a foot or three.

I had originally intended to do the normal Missouri BG, LMB, CC mix. I mentioned that earlier, I think, but after reading on the PB
forums all of the success folks have had with YP, RES, SMB, HSB, and WE, that's what I've decided to do. I've got no shortage of
places where I can go to catch "normal" pond fish, so I'm going to do something different. Will doing so require more intensive
management compared to doing what's easy and normal? Probably. Surely. But that's OK. If it hasn't become obvious by now that I'm
the kind of guy who enjoys a challenging project you haven't been paying attention. As far as that goes, I pretty much have to have
a project of some sort in the works or I get bored. After eleven years here almost everything else is in maintenance mode, so the timing
of this is all good for my mental health and happiness.

The plan is to stock the forage base (FHM and GSH) in the spring of 2019, and follow up in the fall with the YP and RES. SMB and HSB
will be added in spring of 2020, then I'll add the WE in the fall. Before the sport fish go in I want the pond to be at, or at least very
close, to full pool. If the rest of this winter and early spring turn out to be dry, I'll wait until there's adequate water. That would
give the forage base more time to make babies, and that would be fine. So I'll see what the weather does and I'll stock it when Mother
Nature tells me that it's time to stock it. I've contacted TJ about getting some grass shrimp in the spring. I'm also thinking I'll
add some scuds, but it would probably be best to wait until the pond has filled and the water clears up, so that will wait until next year.

I'm working with the owner of a local bait-n-tackle shop on the stocking plan. In addition to the tackle shop he does pond and lake
management on a commercial basis, and I'm confident in his ability to source good fish. I've fished several of the lakes that he manages.
The fishing and water quality in those lakes are both quite good. I do still need to find out if the hatcheries he buys from sell
pellet-trained fish. If the answer to that question is "no", I may reconsider where I go to buy my fish.

While the shallow areas are still dry land, I'm going to build pallet structures for the FHM, and spawning beds for the SMB. I have most
of the materials to do all of that already on hand. Now that I've been able to build a terrace to keep the overflow from neighbor guy's
pond out I'm not as worried as I had been about his bullheads and what-not getting into my pond. It is just a matter of time, I suppose,
that some undesirables will find their way in. I will deal with that if/when it happens, but it is my expectation that my stocking plan will
result in a healthy predator population that should be able to deal with a handful of mutt fry. I understand that the balance of life will
change over time, and I'm prepared, within limits, to accept that. If it gets too far out of whack to suit me, I'll draw the pond down, nuke
it, and start over. I'm going to toss more cedar trees in the upper end of the pond until I decide there are enough in there. I've got a
perfect spot to build a forage pond, and I'm hoping to find time to work on that this coming summer.

I'm going to install an aeration system in the spring. I've been in touch with KASCO, and they have designed a system that's suited to
my pond. I have spoken at length with the folks at the closest distributor. Haven't decided if I'll go with that one, or buy a system
from my local guy. Right now I'm leaning that way, but I still need to look at what he's got and get a bid.

I'm going to build a 12'x16' floating dock, anchored with mud poles, and connect that to shore with a gangway. The dock will be decorated
with permanent bench seating, a bait cage, a big livewell cage for fish that are destined for a grease bath, a cleaning station with a
whopper-size poly cutting board and a chum grinder, a folding swim ladder, solar accent lighting, solar/battery/invertor system for powering
additional lighting and a music system, etc. This is going to be our happy place, and I intend for it to be comfortable.

As weather and time permit, I will cover the inner face of the dam with 2"x6" crushed limestone, or maybe something a little bigger.
Based on what I placed along the north shore, that will require 100-125 ton, maybe more, depending on how thick I dump it. I'm also going
to need to do another landscape topping on the back side of the dam to account for settlement of the material that was added earlier this
fall. I still have a sizable pile of spoil that came out of the pond during the early stages of de-mucking, so I'm hopeful that I won't
need to give dirt guy any of my money. Other than what he got when the dam was cut all those years ago I've managed to avoid financing his
new dozer, and I'm hoping to keep that streak alive.


So, there it is. That's where I'm at today with my front yard cow pond. Certainly there's something I've forgotten to mention, or never
thought of in the first place, and I'm hopeful that you folks will fix my thinking (or not thinking) where I've messed up. There are some
things that simply can't be changed/moved/redesigned/etc., but there's still a lot to be done, and none of what remains is set in cement,
so please, I want to hear your thoughts.

Going forward, I'll post my progress to this thread in order to keep it all together and hopefully somewhat coherent so I'm able to share
my successes and failures, and easily find all of the good advice that I hope to receive. I've attempted to edit my ramblings to the extent
that it all makes sense. My brain tends to run far in front of my fingers, so there's bound to be something up there that will cause you to
scratch your head and wonder if American is my native language.

Thanks for reading.

Greg