[originally placed in "site selection" but didn't get a bite]

Hello All!

I feel that I just stumbled across a gold mine. I have seen the magazine but subscribing is on my personal "to do" list and not on the "honey do" list. Well, if your're married you probably get the picture.

For instance, we have a ten acre, narrow (300' x 1800'), east to west spread and our house sits on a 300' X 300' cleared plot at the top or east end of the lot (upstate NY). We bought the forested lot in 2002 and the first tool I invested in was a Husky chain saw followed by I good 300' engineers tape. Thru the grace of the Almighty, I still have all my appendages, toes and fingers but my hearing isn't as good as it once was especially when my wife is saying something to me.

I just knew that I needed a compact tractor/loader or skidsteer but ran into the "to do list" priorities conumdrum. Since then, I've herniated a lower and upper (cervical) disc and have developed chronic lyme disease (as an aside, it dosen't go away. Just goes dormant like malaria. Huge fight in the medical field on how to diagnose and treat it which is all about, you guessed it, money). As for the tractor my wife thinks I just want another toy and, besides, she tells me that I have a lot more healthy discs to go!

My kids are 11 and 9 and I am lucky enough to have figured out that my highest priority is being with them as I'm pushing 55. So we do various outside projects, tree house w/ small wood stove that secretly doubles as a tree stand overlooking our sloped wooded bottom land with mucho deer trails, zip line, etc.

We have a seasonal spring (9-10) months that drains down into the woods and goes underground. A second spring surfaces a little further down and then it goes underground finally making its way to a narrow but long wetland that goes south to north. Our last project was a raised serpentine foot bridge made out of free hardwood pallets set on raised hardwood rails with spaced footings of hardwood cordage. It is still high and dry, great for watching the different critter and gives us access to the rest of our property that continues as a hardwood forest.

Okay, here's my idea. Well, before the wetland on relatively level ground sits an area that I always felt would make a good but small (40'diameter)vernal pond site if I could "capture" the water from the two springs along with a sizable run0off from our watershed. Well, the shallow vernal pond idea gave way to a possible small swimming hole as I felt I could always get some water and spillway it to the wetland. I also came across a good and thick liner that is as large as the pond site. My idea is to build a small waterfall fed by underground piping from the spring areas about 200' feet up hill from the pond site. That way I would always have a trickle of water falling in to the pond to keep away skeeters and oxegenate the pond. I don't care for flora, fauna or fish, just something nice for the kids with perhaps a pea gravel bottom over laying the liner. The site is in the forest so it won't get much sunlight that would cause growth, etc. Of course it would be nicely landscaped with indigenous rocks and ferms and my idea is to make it as natural-looking as possible.

Now, after that rambling introduction, I would appreciate any advice on: (1) capturing and sending the "clean" spring water to the site and (2)capturing as much run off water from our watershed to send also. I envision a direct pipe underground from the spring but also want to feed any and all other water via angled and lateral branches of trenches or UG piping that would feed the main line. What I need is advice on the details, type pipe (perforated or solid) fabric, stone under/around the pipe and whether I'll need some type of sand, etc. filter before the H2O reaches the pond.

I'm sure that I could piece all of your valuable insight from the archives but it's August and I'm "burning daylight" and can't afford the time right now. So, any ideas?

Thanks so much and I am immediately adding this site to my favorite list.

Steve

Steve Schassler