Nice! I like seeing a well thought out plan come together and work as intended.
Thanks. But I think it has been more luck than careful planning so far. I do admit to always having a backup plan, and I have had to implement several of them.
Any ideas on how best to proceed? I think I do need to add a little height to the dam and push the emergency spillway farther from the dam itself. And I think I ought to try to add some more dirt to the width to bring it up to the 10' originally planned.
Current plans are to try to weather the spring rains and if the dam is still holding, drain it, add to the dam and excavate the pond to about four feet with somewhat steep edges. But I have been reading that most of the critters I want to attract prefer gradual slopes and shallow water. That would suggest that I should leave it pretty much as is (about three feet deep in the center with gradually sloping sides).
BTW. In looking this over I guess it sounds pretty strange to build a dam, let the pond fill, then plan to drain it and only then excavate it to its final depth. My reasoning was that with my lack of experience there was and still is a pretty good chance of the dam just washing away entirely. If that does happen, then I will be left with just a lot of wasted time and effort and a wet-weather stream pretty much as it was. That's a lot better in my book than a big ugly muddy hole in the ground.
