I've been browsing here for a week or so and decided i'd post some pics of our land and see what advice everybody has.
We recently purchased 3.03 acres to build a house on. It was covered with trees and brush from being clear cut 10 or so years ago. While the bulldozer man was clearing all the brush off he found that the Eastern side of the land was quite wet.
The longer line in the 2nd picture represents the location of the land line (about) and is the bottom of a 40 acre line running east/west. West is the bottom of the picture, East is the top. The line is about 1250 feet long. The property is located at 31 32 20.61 N 85 59 14.28 W just for reference.
We recently purchased 3.03 acres to build a house on. It was covered with trees and brush from being clear cut 10 or so years ago. While the bulldozer man was clearing all the brush off he found that the Eastern side of the land was quite wet.
His suggestion was to build a pond. He says it will help dry up the wet areas around the pond as well. It stays pretty muddy there all the time. i can't pick out a real starting point for the water other than it seems to come from under the road lol. The idea of a pond has been weighing on my mind pretty heavily since he mentioned it.
If i get him to build it, he wants me to rent an excavator (he doesn't have one). He wants the biggest one they have so that it goes quickly. It costed $2800 to rent it the last time they built a pond. He wouldn't actually be running it, it would be his son, who i work with. So payment for that labor would be between his son and I. I haven't really talked to his son about it very much yet.
I also talked to another man who lives about a 1/2 mile from the home site. He's retired and now does bulldozer and excavator work. He's got his own excavator and just dug a pond less a mile from the house. He's stopped by to chat several times and he would like to build me a pond too. He seems to think he could build it alot cheaper since he already has an excavator and i wouldn't have to drop $2800 on the rental.
Either way, i'm still several months away from actually starting this. We'll need to sell our current house before we can do this, but i'd like to know as much as i can about this BEFORE i get knee deep in this.
Now, the first 3 pictures are the area where i want the pond, you might be able to see how wet this area is in the pics. Especially the 3rd one, the white stripes near the tree line on the right are bulldozer tracks filled with water reflecting the sun. In these pictures, east is downward.
My idea of how to place the pond is drawn in the pic below. The road is the high side of the area, with the tree line being several feet lower. My estimate would be 8-10 lower? So clearly the dam would be along the tree line.
Now, for all my questions. The web soil survey indicates that the area for the pond is Orangeburg soil. From what i read on the description there, this isn't too a good place for a pond? Maybe i'm not understanding the info there very well. It stays very wet so to me that means it doesn't drain very well but according to the info there it should drain well? What do all the experts think? And what should i do next to plan for my pond?
