Meadowlark,
Four feet of rain in one day is just beyond my comprehension. If that happened here, the damage would be catastrophic!!!
Robinson,
I'm no expert on this, but we get our weather from the Pacific across Mexico in winter, then when it's warm out, the storms come from the Gulf. The Pacific storms are more of the big fronts that come across the country and dump water or snow on everyone. The Gulf storms usually come out of nowhere in the afternoon or at night and dump lots of water vere quickly, then they are gone. Those storms are also the most incorectly predicted by the weatherpeople.
Donnie,
I've built a few goldfish ornamental ponds for clients and smaller dirt ponds up to an acre, but nothing like this. I started it as a project to work on when I had the time weather allowed. As I progressed, I modified my plan and scale. I was hoping to get six feet of depth at the deep end and was unsure if I could get 4 feet through the rest of it. The drought really helped me out and for two years, I had perfect conditions for digging. I just kept digging until I had 12 feet of depth at the deepest end with 10 feet in over an acre and 8 feet for the most part over the rest of the lake.
This is something I could never afford to have done, but with my own equipment, and lots of time, I was able to come up with what you see.
As for freeboard, there is 3 feet of dirt above the water line when it's full. I might add another few inches just to smooth it out and give myself a rounder crown. I'm also makeing the dam thicker in one area to create a large picnic area that will be at the same height as the dam. I want this big flat area to be like a nice lawn with a view of the pond, the creek and in the trees. An added benifit of this is that I have massive amounts of dirt that I need to put somewhere, and this works out perfectly for me.
At water line, my dam is close to two dozer blades wide, or 20 feet. At the top of the dam, it's still over ten feet wide.
Family,
Your right, I've been thinking about putting some rye out. The weather is so crazy right now that the schools are closing because of snow and sleet. I'm not sure what temps rye grass needs to grow, but I'm kinda sure the ground shouldn't be frozen. Our high temps the last three days has been in the low 30's.
Thank you,
Eddie
