My land improvements for the ducks and forage fish might be starting up in about 10 days. Under normal years it would be to wet for any dozer work but not the case this year. The drought continues. No rain again yesterday even though it was supposed to rain. Went south of us. I am guessing when we move in the two dozers it will start raining.

Let us know the day the dozers show up so we can plan on rain.

Mobilizing two dozers is a pretty expensive "rain dance".

I am rooting for you to get the rain right AFTER finishing the dirt work. How about using the rain to wash off the dozer tracks once they are loaded on the haul trucks to leave the location!

Good luck.

They have to park the dozers someplace during the season so it might as well be my place No charge for them on stand by due to wet ground. It's raining today! First rain I have seen in quite a while.

Mike Otto can use a dozer to collect every drop of available water.

Tracy can now use a dozer to collect "extra" water for his ponds.

When you write your book showing all of us how to bring the rains on command, I predict you will sell thousands of copies on Pond Boss alone!

P.S. Hopefully, if you can't get your duck habitat finished, you will at least get enough rain in your existing ponds to raise the water to the "duck-friendly" levels.

Yep Mike is a good guy. I looked at this more like clearing brush and not pond building or i would have called Mike. I went with this other guy because he has built a 30 acre duck refuge type place near me, which is what I was looking to do. Basically, clearing brush, and build a levy or two, Add a ditch in front of the levy to catch the forage fish when we drop the water volume. Sein the ditch for transporting back to the big pond. If it was a bigger project I would call Make Otto for sure but for now, I won't know how big an area it will be until i clear the brush, shoot the elevation. It may not be a much of a job for the dozers, we shall see.

Tracy,

I am also considering adding a duck/dove portion to my uppermost silt collection pond, which is still in the planning stage.

For doves, we need some sand and gravel on the bank and then a shallow 10:1 slope in the pond that also has some sand and gravel. When you pull the pond down a foot in the fall, the doves have a big 10' wide landing zone all of the way around the pond with no cover.

What is your water depth at normal pool and your water depth after draw-down for optimal duck habitat? Or is it reversed, and you flood a terrestrial area just before duck season? Do you plant specific vegetation, or just manage the water cycle to aid the establishment of your indigenous vegetation?

Thanks,
Rod

Plans are to plant vegitation/food for the ducks and then flood. And draw down each year draining the water through the ditch i mentioned. The ditch will hold the fish for seining. Hopefully we can get a spawn with the bg during the flooded time where the fish can travel in the flooded veggies. It all sounds good but i am sure we will go through a learning curve the first year or two. When i first brought up this plan here, it was suggested i flood different portions at different times to provide food as needed. I thought that was a good suggestion. I am hoping to set this up in my plans. Now as far as Dove hunting? The dove seem to know when opening hunting season starts up. The farm has dove and then opening day they seem to leave. I believed all or most of Gods creatures are smarter than we think. Some humans might be the exception.

We'll do Frank. Just my bringing it up here on the forum got me an inch of rain at the farm.

Tracy's new call sign, "Rain Dancer". Or "Dances with Rain". Please vote here.

Duck Dancing ?

Finnaly got some rain. We might need to continue discussion of moving in the Dozers. Seems to be working

Rataplan man.

DO NOT start discussing the arrangements for a daughter's outdoor wedding.

We like rains, but not floods!

We have enough rain for a little while, the dozer can go back now,..... Thank you for the water

Send me some. My water holes are hurting; about 4 ft low.

Dave, I am also low in the pond. Wished i could help. We did get an inch or two but need more like 6". Bryan, happy for u but i still need some more as i did not see any measurable rain since July. We did not get any of the rains we usually see in late Sept and Oct. They ground sucked up alot of it before we saw any runoff into the pond. I wished i could hear the dozer starting up. I also liked the PTO pump that Bill Cody posted the other day but it would be nice if it was not needed. I would also need a 6" water line and a sock. I need to touch base with Al (Fireishot) to see where he gets is water pipe socks? May do that when I or if I get the PTO Pump. It would work good for the duck refuge and for adding water to the pond. I do have some concern when it comes to the PTO pumping high volume of water into the pond where now the water well adds water but a qtr inch per day at the most. And will not see much change if any change in the water properties when I use the water well.

Tracy, I get the socks from Pentair. I'll post a link later today.

Pentair water socks

Thanks Al, That was fast, On Top of your game!

It's a balmy 36 degrees outside. I decided to stay inside.

yep, it is messing with my fishing. I'm sorry but i am not a norhtern type fisherman. Any temps below 55 I'm not going I did when i was younger but nope not today. Not setting in any deer blind either.

Tracy, I do sometimes see PTO pumps in the online farm/equipment auctions. They do not look like junk in the photos.

I do not know if there are "wear" parts, and if so, whether they are easily replaceable. (Do you have a buddy you could ask before buying?)

It might be easier for you to justify a high-output PTO pump if you picked up a used one at 10 cents on the dollar.

I do look at used equipment for sale but never seem to buy it. My concern is i am the worst guy you have met when it comes to working with tools and any repair work. I am much better at pointing and giving instructions.

The dozer operator called and cancled the move in due to the rain. We got 3" over this past week and so bringing up this thread really helped. I might need to bring this thread back up again when I need some more rain at the farm. I am pretty sure the pond is back up to normal but have not been there since we got the rains. The pond was about 2' low because of the drought from July to Dec.

Looks like you are hedged now. If it gets dry you can build the duck pond and if not ... at least the main pond is full. Everyone needs a project like that to taunt mother nature.

That's right. I am ok with holding the dozers back till it dry's out. You just don't ever know when you can get back to the game plan. Every year seems to be different when looking at the weather when you look at the rainfall during the winter and spring. Oh well, i have other projects when it comes to the pond and it's water.

Go hog hunting Tracy.

Dave, thats not a bad idea