This photo was taken when we first purchased the property. I was standing about where the house is located on the previous picture and am looking to the northeast.
It is not real easy to tell as it has grown over, but the area to the right of the road and over to the small pine trees is a trough of sorts where they dug iron ore out. Where I'm standing in this picture is now under about 150 yards of dirt that was scraped out of the two pond areas to build up for our house and shop pad.
The southern end, or input of the settling pond is located just to the left of that largest little pine sapling just to the right of the picture center. We are looking downhill here.
Next is a picture of some of the iron ore rock still in the ground. This is located between the two ponds. I am unable to do anything to it with the equipment I own. If I decide to remove it, I would imagine it will take a fair sized excavator to get under it and bust it out. But I kind of like it the way it is and will probably use it as a waterfall for the overflow of the settling pond on its way to the larger fishing pond.
Next is a picture of the little test dam I built in the large pond area to check its watershed. This was shortly after one of the spring rains and the pond actually overflowed the dam enough to erode it. It broke the day after I took this and all the water escaped downhill, but its purpose was served, so it didn't bother me at all. It's hard to tell but that is almost five feet of water next to the dam.
The dirt in this picture is typical of all the pond area for both ponds. It had iron ore dug out down to this clay layer. Some sediment had built up over it and I pulled that off to use for the test dam and to fill some low spots elsewhere on the property. That's one reason the dam burst. I will be using this sediment dirt for the top of the dam later on as it will grow grass very well.
The clay is good quality for dam core building. Elsewhere on the property are tons of sand when I need that later. I definitely have all the resources needed for these projects, and for that I am grateful. I shouldn't have to purchase any materials.
