Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? New old pond

esshup, we have no restrictions in the community, and yes, we are planning on putting a few head of cattle on it by year's end.

I've been busy, not on the pond as much as I'd like, but with travel and family issues. I have made about a million trips with my little Kubota digging out the muck and depositing it on the dam. At 1/3 yard per trip, it's a long process. I consoled myself by remembering my grandfather dug his pond with a slip pan and a couple of mules.

Got a lot done while not rushing (as advised here back in June) and during that time I figured that a John Deere 524K wheeled loader with a 2.5 yard bucket is a smarter move than the excavator. I can get a lot more done with a week's rental...so, in the next few days I'll have one delivered and take a couple days off work. It'll be my version of Disney World...y'all wish me luck. I'll take a few pictures.

I had pulled a lot of muck and clay out of the pond with my little Kubota, but it hadn't accomplished much other than proving to myself just how detrimental the muck was to retaining what little water we've gotten. After our one good hard rain, retention without the evaporative effects of the muck was evidently much better. There's still a bit of muck out in the center of the water...not for long though.


DSC - 4087 pic before starting with loader

Problem was, it still wasn't anywhere near deep enough...and the work with the tractor was just too slow. My intent was/is to get this pond ready for the rain whenever it comes, so on to the big boy toy. The JD 524K wheeled loader is the ticket, and I'm about six hours into the 40 hour rental. Doesn't look like much in the picture, but I'm happy with the progress.

You know that you're in a north Texas drought when you take the time and effort to save every drop of water...a cheap Harbor Freight pump and some leaky fire hose, some IBCs and a trailer...we moved around 8K gallons to water trees and to the small pond.




The second day and the project is beginning to take rough shape, but it's giving me an approximate timeframe for what I want to accomplish.

Nice progress report and photo series. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

Your right, that muck can hold a lot of water yet it looks like solid ground. Getting it out of there can never hurt. Looks like you have a lot of dirt to move!!! If I was in your same situation, I'd be saving every bit of water too.


Jim

Thanks for the compliment, Jim.

At the end of the loader rental, I think it was definitely worth it...although I'm glad to get out of the machine! 40 operating ours in a week's time is a lot of windshield time.

Speaking of windshields...if you ever find yourself in one of these pieces of equipment, WEAR YOUR SEATBELT! Once I had finished digging out the pond, I switched gears (literally) to moving the berm of dirt that came out of the small pond near the house. I made countless trips back and forth from the berm to the dam of the new pond, and on one of those trips hit a depression in the pasture that caused the loader to buck forward. Instead of dropping the bucket, I hit the brakes, and my forehead made contact with the windshield. The only suffering I'm doing is paying the $500 for the glass and $300 to install it. So, even on flat ground, you never know. Protect your body, wear your seatbelt. Protect your wallet, wear your seatbelt.

Anyway, I parked my truck at the dam end so that the scale is a little more visible. If I am to go deeper, I need an excavator because the blue clay is harder than...well, you know. The picture doesn't do it justice, and I haven't pulled any measurements yet, but we're headed in the right direction. Now, for some rain!



Next, I'll start carving in some ledges and adding cover.

Cripes, consistently you guys in Texas are not shy of doing things bigger! I wish...

liquidsquid, you make a pretty valid point. Here's my new shooting range, still in work, hopefully finished soon with lighting and a gazebo to hang out under. This stuff drives my wife crazy...but she's still around.

That's neat. I started out with just a mound of dirt. However, over the years, it has just about disappeared. I'm starting on a new one this weekend but it won't be as good as yours. That looks like a lot of work. Well done.

BTW, I have a picnic table that looks about like yours. I've been "gonna fix it" for years.

That's a really nice backstop!!!

Thanks for the compliments on the shootin' gallery. I had to relocate it due to the house that was built in-line with my old one...so I went bigger this time. We enjoy shooting.

I got a lot done on installing the cover in the new pond. Using what I had on hand, this is where I'm at now. I will be getting some pea gravel to make a few beds, and I'll add some concrete chunks in mounds as soon as I go get it. I cut in a few shelves along the slope as well. I kept all this in the shallow end because the grandkids and I will swim the deep end.

Please critique it and let me know what more I can do and what to improve on. Hopefully, it'll start raining one day and I don't want to have any "I should have" thoughts then.

First, those yard tools ain't gonna help a whole lot.

Overall, I like it but you need to strap or use aluminum wire to tie everything together. None of that stuff is going to stay together by itself. But, I figure you know that.

Are you going to put any closer to shore so small fish have someplace to hide? I prefer cedar. If you only have mesquite, come on down to Bowie and I can fix you up in a hurry.

I knew someone would comment on those tools! Believe me, they'll find their way back into the shed!

Aluminum wire! Dagnabit, every time I haul off some scrap I find a use for what i just got rid of! I'll hit up an electrician friend of mine. Yes, I have already driven a few pieces of rebar in, and bent them over some of the larger pieces, but I have yet to do the rest.

You recognized the mesquite, I see. I don't have any cedar, and I might just take you up on your offer. I'll time it with a trip to Second Monday.

BTW, if you get any rain to fill the water hole, send some South.

We're still "under the dome", so it seems...the rain either passes to the North/West or over in the East. It's a shame that some of that rain in Colorado didn't get spread out over us.

Weather is unlike anything I remember in my 50 years, the new norm is too much in too little time for any given area while a great majority of the land is parched.

My constant hope is that I'll see that pond overflowing before I die...seems like a good way to wish for a long life.

Ok, that made me LOL!

My thoughts as of late as we have been skipped at my location quite often with our "Wet" year. Pond is now down 2' and counting. Lost a lot of water to steam last night since the pond was 70F, and we had our first frost.

liquidsquid, I never really thought about the increased water loss from steam, it is such a rare event here.

I remember seeing it all the time while growing up in Alabama. Beautiful sight to see as you come up on a creek while driving early in the morning. Silly as it is, when I was about five years old, my grandmother told me that it was caused by frogs cooking their breakfast. Funny how simple things like that come to mind when thinking about water. I've had some great experiences on/around water and that is a major reason I started my first pond...I want my grandkids to have similar memories.

We've been under that dome for quite a while. I was in Bowie last Friday. It rained pretty hard. By the time I got 4 miles South, I was kicking up dust on the road. Later a heckuva storm hit Sunset about 5 miles South. Me? nada!

re: backstop.

I have something like that planned, but never got around to doing it yet. What I also planned on doing was having a false front that was about 18" in front of the railroad ties in the back. I'd fill that with sand so it would catch the bullets, and they wouldn't chew up the RR ties.

Sure, the wood would go bad, and it'd have to be replaced, but at the same time I'd sift the sand for the lead/copper.

Haven't decided yet whether to make target butts in the ground to place 1"x2"s to staple the paper targets to, or use a plywood front that would have the targets stapled directly to it. Just add another sheet of plywood when it got too shot up, then when it really got bad, do the replace/sift thing.

I'm about to build one out of 4x6 timbers. It will be about 4 ft high and 5 ft wide. Surely, I can keep a bullet within 20 sq ft.

Scott, I don't worry much about sifting for lead. I have about 100 lbs of wheel weight lead that I've accumulated. I buy them from a small recycling place for 50 cents per pound. That's about what they get at the large recycling place. Of course, an occasional 6 pack of beer is involved. I haven't actually casted any boolits in over 20 years. But, I'm thinking about it.

re: backstop:

esshup, I got the pier posts from a demo job I did at the lake. That's the back layer holding back the berm. When we bought the new place, it had the big loading dock timbers on it. I had enough so that I could double up the material in the bullet catching zone. I had used plywood the way you describe on my last one...worked pretty good.

Dave, no doubt the backstop is huge for experienced shooters, but we have a lot of friends/family that are just getting into shooting. That's why I built it so big.

Y'all have a great day!

Mobilus, thanks for the feedback. Good information to know from practical experience!


Dave:

If mounting a scope on a semi-auto, and firing it for the first time at 100 yds, there's the possibility that the backstop won't be large enough. Plus I've seen inexperienced shooters where a side of a barn wouldn't be large enough......

Scott, it just may not be big enough for me anyway.

The rain we got last week resulted in a good catch for as little as we got...1.25 inches. Still, it's a start, and looks good.







I've added pea gravel in this bowl...and have a couple smaller ones out there as well.



I finished the fingers that hopefully will project out into the water one day.



I finally measured it...about 350' long x 85' wide in deepest area. At full pool, about 300' wide. So that's 2.4 acres if full. Smaller than I first thought...

One of the things to keep in mind is the stocking rates in arid areas. You need to stock by what you think you will have if it doesn't rain a lot.

Got a crystal ball handy?