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

With the improvement in the weather I've been able to get a bit done on the pond over the past couple weeks.

There was a bit of frost in the ground when I put the crushed limestone down on the north bank. It was semi-mud and semi-frozen
and extremely slick. I didn't really feel safe getting close enough to the edge with the tractor to get all of the rock over the edge,
so I wound up with a knee-high pile the length of the bank. I've been piddling at tossing that stuff into the water and finally got it done.

I figured since I had to toss all those rocks into the water I might as well do it in a way that would improve the habitat for the fish.
This gap between cedars seemed a natural place to make a long pile.

3/22/19



I built two more piles on the outside of a big cedar that lays parallel with, and right up against the bank. There's another
one underneath the big one that is visible next to the rock pile. These piles will have three to four foot of water on top
of them when the pond is full and hopefully will prove to be suitable bedding sites for the SMB.

3/23/19



I used the tiller to chew up the ground so I could improve the grade where quite a bit of water runs down to the pond from
the driveway. The soil that came out was used to build a small terrace that will catch an extra little bit of runoff and drain it
to the pond. This spot had eroded quite a bit over the winter so I dumped in a couple yards of crushed limestone.

3/23/19



Same spot from a different vantage point.

3/23/19



Tilled, graded, and ready for grass seed. I got that done and put a hay mulch on top to help the baby grass get established.
I also added about 20 ton of crushed limestone to the driveway to bring it up to roughly the same elevation as the new terrace.
That should greatly reduce the surface erosion further down the slope on the driveway by sending the water into the pond.
It will need more work after everything settles, but it'll do for now.

3/24/19



Right now the pond is a foot and half, maybe two foot from being full. A couple more good rains should do it. Then I'll decide
if I want to raise the spillway or call it good where it is.

I found some pre-owned encapsulated foam dock floats on craigslist a few days ago. $300 for enough of them to float my dock
and gangway and have a couple left over. I'm not going to build the dock until I know where the full-pool waterline is going to
wind up, but finding the floats gives me a good head start on the materials, and saves me over $1000 compared to the cost of
buying them new.

I should have a stocking quote from Curryville Fisheries in a day or two. Forage minnows, RES, and YP will go in this spring.