Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Drone footage of pond build - Livingston Co., MO

Finally back to continue sharing the pond build journey. I'm hoping post most of the rest of the project in the next couple weeks before things get really, really busy.

To finish up the project, I had less than two days to: 1) finish pushing dirt to the dam 2) lining the front side with 2-3' of good clay 3) shape the dam and continue tracking it in with each layer of clay added 4) push the two big piles of black dirt over the top and face of the dam 5) push my rock and stumps back down into the basin to provide structure 6) general clean up and finishing touches. I finished everything I could at about 2:30 in the morning on Christmas eve. It had been really cold for over 30 hours now and had been snowing steadily for a few hours when I finally finished. I considered the dam to be 100% done as far as construction and as smooth as I could get it with a D8 dozer in the dark and snow. That would be easy to work on later, when it thawed next spring. To say that the basin was exactly as I wanted it would be a stretch. There were a few things as far as fish structure and shape that I would have liked to have spent a bit more time on. It had been a whirlwind 5 day project, and it was a lot of fun, just wish I had more time to enjoy it and change just a couple things. Now, it was time for a few other projects before it started to fill.

Here are a couple of pictures. One is a view out our back door when I was finishing pushing the black dirt over the dam on 12/23. The other is Christmas Eve after the snow had fallen. Hopefully I can get more posted soon.

As you will see in these pictures and future ones, the pond basin is pretty rough with piles of dirt (which I know will erode and be pretty flat eventually), rocks everywhere, stumps and brush all over, and even some other junk down in it. This was completely intentional as I wanted all kinds of varying areas and habitat for fish. It would have been easy to push it all up neat and clean, but that was something I did not want. Some people will look at it and shudder, and that's okay.