After most of the work was completed in the body of the pond we proceeded to construct the dam. Most of the material used for the dam was collected from the excavation of a large trench in the wall of the gully on the right end of the dam. This trench was originally meant to be used as a runaround spillway. I say it was originally meant to be the spillway, because, while digging it the weather forecast began to call for rain. Due to the fact that we were working in this gully, which is a drain for a large catchment area,(approx. 80 acres) and susceptible to flash floods, I freaked out and decided to build the spillway next to the dam instead of spending another day or two cutting a sufficient trench around the dam. I hated doing so, because, I had envisioned the original runaround design would look like a natural creek channel meandering around the dam, hiding the concrete spillway. As Bob dug out the spillway area and placed the dirt on top of the dam I used my tractor�s box blade to spread it. After doing so we had gathered enough material to complete the dam.
(Picture above) View from inside the track hoe. I would takeover track hoe duty in the evenings. Not to brag, but I got to be pretty good with it. It was a new machine with a cozy, air conditioned, radio equipped cab, and was a pleasure to operate. Nonetheless, an experienced operator is an invaluable asset. Not only can their knowledge save time and money, it may also prevent a costly, and possibly deadly mistake.
(Picture above) The white X marks the trench that was originally meant to be the runaround spillway. This is where a large portion of the material used to construct the dam came from.
(Picture above) Here we are setting the overflow pipe. I welded several sections of scrap 10 inch pipe together that I had accumulated over the years. Due to my frugal ways, I have a penchant for collecting free or inexpensive building materials.
(Picture above)
After frantically finishing the dam and pouring the concrete spillway, it soon began to rain. It didn�t rain as much as was forecast, but, it was enough that would have made it really messy to operate the machinery in the pond, not to mention driving a cement truck through. In my rush to finish I screwed up and set the overflow pipe and spillway one foot too low. One of those elevation calculations when I should have added instead of subtracting, visa-versa, or something like that. Anyhow, since then I�ve thought of some relatively easy fixes for both if I ever decide to correct it. In the future I may weld some offsets onto the 10 inch pipe and make a siphon overflow/drain, as well as pouring a 1 foot high extension on the front edge of the spillway. For now, the 10 inch pipe is capped and the spillway is the primary drain. The emergency spillway is located on the other end of the dam.
