It all laid in to my mind thirty-two years ago when we got this place, with a fair size ravine running down one side, and the thought of damming it. My mother's last husband (an up and down but ultimately successful oil explorer), owned ranches and also developed and sold them. Always based on running water and building lakes to enhance the value in the western Texas hill country. Finally got the pond four years ago.
CANDIDATE LIST
Going into it, given the opportunity of money and a friend with a backhoe/loader, four years ago,
my goals for a poly-lined 1/10 acre pond, 8' deep, with a recirculating 100 foot creek, cascading about twenty feet over several waterfalls, each with a mini-pond space behind it, together with some bog filters growing pretty blooming plants. Yeah right, I had little idea of what we were to discover, and the description of my goals above is really, what I got after four years. But, diving in, 2 1/3 acre lot, no HOA review approval (if you ask, it is just a water feature) and I can always ask for forgiveness. I got away with it...I'm about ready to have a neighborhood open house.
Goals:
1) Quality private fishery
19) To create and enjoy the sounds of moving water (ie; waterfall)
20) A family or personal challenge of actually building it
24) A fun place to gather with family and friends (Covering the steep sided liner of the creek, with rock, concrete and mortar, took over a year...thankfully mostly free rock...but coming to the realization that there was no way to make water holding mini-ponds using the liner and the black foam...the foam won't stick to poly...here comes the dumb tax! Covering the liner with concrete and mortar while re-building the waterfalls on that. So, gather family and friends has only just started in the last year.)
16) To provide escape, peace, and relaxation (therapeutic or otherwise) (What a Godsend of serenity this developing pond has provided, unforeseen, especially over the last year.)
What's become apparent over four years:
16) To provide escape, peace, and relaxation (gotta repeat!)
6) To attract wildlife for viewing and/or preservation (Fawns getting their first drink, birds of all types taking a bath in the creek, various frogs showing up, coons and all sorts of critters on camera.)
21) A family or personal challenge to maintain a complex ecosystem (Yep, it's an ongoing commitment that cannot be ignored, and it needs an annual stipend for maintenance. A realization of stewardship!)
9) Swimming hole...(maybe, just took out leaves and pumped muck, but seems to have liberated a lot of dissolved mineral nutrients ("ashes" left from intense bacterial treatment) that were in the muck, to cause a big bloom. )
2) To enhance land value...(maybe!? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And would you not explain to a prospective newbie the commitment they must accept?)
23) Water source for fire fighting. (I only saw this in a post recently...an insurance discount for water supply. I could be a neighborhood resource...I have about 130,000 gallons...and the nearest fire hydrant is about a half mile away...and we're near the top of the hill.)
I tried!
