Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site update on pond construction

for those of you that have shared your thoughts with me i appreciate it (theo & others)--am into week 2 of building pond---understand now why the bid was 20K---there is a lot of dirt moving and dam coring--we are coring from one hill all across bottom and to tie into other hill so it is a very long "dam" ---am still concerned about runoff maintaining the pond due to the drought we had this summer--neighbor down there tells me over the past two months has had 1/10 inch of rain---historically that is not nearly normal--but we are adding the extra drainage from more property and am also going to fix a "pumping" station to help fill it over the next few months and to assist in dry summer months if push comes to shove. am taking pictures and if can figure how to scan them into my computer and post a few i will do so---they will be from "start" to "finish" if i can--- this board is a great resource especially to a novice as myself---my advice in ga. is forget nrcs and find a contractor you trust to work thru any problems you might encounter--also one that has years of experience in your area. they know what to expect. i'll feel better when i see it full of water and i can stock it. thanks again all

Good luck and keep us posted (pics when you can).

Hey ga pond rookie

Thats GREAT that dirt is being moved. I am not far from you so maybe we can get together in the next few weeks. The "normal" annual rain for our area in Jones/Baldwin county is approx 48 inches. At my place in Jones Co I have only had 28 inches so far this year.

Good luck

Frank

further update---still working on pond---not enough rain to do a whole lot of filling up but miracles never cease--i have discovered two small springs near the shallow end of the pond and and piped under the road down to the pond to feed them into the pond---(actually one of them---will have to ditch the other one over to catchment area to get it in there but it is the smaller of the two springs)--also they aren't in the pond basin so they will not reverse and drain pond --Greg you should be hearing from me in a couple of weeks to get some BG/CC/FH. Frank still look forward to showing you the place and seeing yours.
as far as building a pond on a site such as mine
in retrospect i would advise doing so only if the addition to your home/view would warrant the expense--it was expensive. (app. 28K for a 1.5 to 1.75 acre pond)--it will be pretty though so there in lies the rub. if you're building a standard farm pond not worth it--if you're building your "backyard" --definitely worth it. thanks to all who took time to respond to my questions---i'm sure there will be more.

ga pond rookie, congratulations. 1.5 to 1.75 acre pond will be a really nice size and i'm sure you'll have a great fishery in a couple years. FWIW, i spent over 20k to renovate a ~1 acre pond, and did the work myself (with a couple great friends and rented equip). if i'd hired it all out, it would have run well over 30k and i had bids as high as 50k, so relative to kahli-FOR-neeya prices it sounds like you did just fine in the dollar department.

el dorado dave--good grief i'da stroked out over that bid--that makes my cost sound great except that without having to construct a dam that surrounds 60% of the prerimeter i could have come out much cheaper. the brothers constructing this pond earned their money although it still hurts me to part with dough--there was much, much dirt dug and moved to get this done--i imagine if they were to rebid it now it would be higher. i dug the trench this weekend and ran pipe to feed the spring into the pond--i now have a flow about like a good bathtub faucet in it 24hr/day now. though it will probably dry up in summer the spring will at least let me start the summer with a full pond so i am grateful for that. i don't have a digital camera but have many photos i can scan and put on the board if someone can give me some advice on doing that. thanks

ga pond rookie

Sounds like you are making great progress. Keep us posted.

Your scanner probably came with software to scan a photo and save it as a file on your hard drive.

Frank