Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Pond growth pictorial scrapbook

Great pond and video Bski.

Time to take the boat out for a ride.

We did....yesterday. I swiped the back-up battery for the sump pump, clamped the new trolling motor to the beater jon boat, and went for a cruise. I took D-ski for a ride; told her to bring along her new binocs to investigate the wetland area that is easiest to access by boat only. It was kinda fun.
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Because of the water clarity, I was able to use the decoy markers to locate the sunken PVC trees. I was surprised to see that they all had very little algae growing on them. I expected them to be more green. They appeared to still be all white.
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Thank ya kindly, GW. Your inspiration to upgrade to the Kodak Z812IS made a diff.

...a small, one-post video pondumentary
all 3 vid clips taken from the same vantage point
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taken with old digi-cam; 12 second vid, about 1 month after closing the drain valve; the only structure set is Sunil's Mound

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another 12 sec vid; about 3 months later; all the structure is set except the polyvinylphipian saucers

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new digi-cam, 1st summer after reaching full pool

Beauty, clerk.

Well done sir - well done.

Very nice, very nice

Just another atta boy for all your hard work. Hey, that video pan could be easier than trying to stitch photos with digital camera. Think I try that if my pond ever fills up. You mentioned water loss... mine went down 4' over the last month with 100+ temps & no rain..

FIRST CLASS

U learn well grasshopper!

It kills me that even though there are such great things with ponds that don't have to do with the fish, that you've built such a sweet place, and haven't gotten hooked into the fish.

It's coming. Who can get to Brettski for a crash course on fishing his pond?

Brettski, I love what you've done with the place! I have a slightly smaller pond and simliar drainage in Western IL. I'm hoping to get some rain in 09 like we did in the summer of 08'.

welcome midwest Dave:
This is a great place to get info and share success stories.

Thank ya, Dave. With a new pond and unestablished vegetation around the perimeter, you might want to be careful whatcha wish for when it comes to your first rains.

...not to beat a dead horse
My NRCS guy just sent me an email with some very cool shots. He has the 2008 strip maps and cropped out our LNP project. 2008 is a significant year for our pond project as it was the first year we sent water thru the overflow pipe.
I borrowed a set of growth aerial pics from earlier in this thread, adding the new aerial at the end.
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2004, raw property

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Topo map

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original pondsite projection by NRCS

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Just starting to collect water

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Summer 2007

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The new aerial; summer 2008

That is indeed cool!

Nice, real nice!

Awesome!

Can you find the cow in that last photo?


Oh sorry, just had a flashback.

You must get a lot of that.

I grew up in Southern California in the seventies. Nuff said.

Brettski:

That's nice! Knowing what I'm going thru to get rid of all the dirt, (still dealing with that) where did all of yours go? Mine is just a puddle in comparison.

That is the reason it took some 4 years to find the right property. The pondsite was a natural bowl waiting for a dam. When my dirt guy first walked the woods of the pondsite and we got to the area where the dam would be located, he stopped and his eyes widened as he noted "do you know what you've got here? If you could just drop a dam in this valley, you've got a natural pond, even without excavation". I think he was waiting for a big reaction like "Wow...really?". Instead, he got "yeah, I know...thats' why I bought it. Why is that such a big deal?". He said that he doesn't very many of 'em that are this natural.
Make no mistake; we moved thousands of yards of clay and dirt. The trick is to push to somewhere closeby to make it disappear. This is where a good dirt guy earns his keep. He suggested that we sacrafice some of the shoreline to create a roadway around the perimeter, providing a place to move the soil from the pond basin. Same thing with a building site. Of course, the dam and filling in the valley behind it was substantial.
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summary

This is the last pile that I have to deal with. It'll be gone by mid March. Some will be moved to my parents place 7 miles away because they need the fill, and the rest will be distributed down a 350 Yd x 25 ft wide lane that I cut in the woods. It's 95% sand.

The pond came up another 18" from when this pic was taken. I can't wait to get the banks planted and get the place green again!
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Is the lake full?
What kind of tree is on the island?