I just registered to try and learn everything I can about eventually having a recreational pond built on 11 acres my daughters and I own near Armuchee, GA. It's in the Floyd Springs area with land dry as a bone part of the year, and of course marshy in areas at other times.
I'm a 52 year old retired Marine and divorced Dad who thinks BEING a Dad to three grown daughters is better than anything else in this world.
A few years ago a neighbor floated the idea of building a pond, with the dam on my property, that would span both of our long, thin tracts. We think it would be no more than two acres in size. We're working with a lawyer now to finalize the operating and easement agreement.
I immediately see some of the challenges people have faced properly working through the design/authorize/build process and the many required agencies, but that's what I intend to do.
I guess my biggest concern is paying to have a hole dug that won't hold water. I've heard the importance of a clay base dam, and the porosity of the soil in the area (if that's the right term). I hope to answer questions I have for myself, before getting too involved with contractors, about the size of the "rainwater catchment area" necessary to keep a pond full (11 acres per acre of pond area?), if a well would help keep a pond full that wouldn't stay full otherwise, how water tables and occasional springs come into play, stuff like that. And this would be a free standing pond; there's no stream that would be dammed. Rain and spring water, I guess, would be the only water source.
I figure I'll be overwhelmed for quite a while trying to learn what I can. I'm not in any rush, though. I'll go slow and methodically. This certainly looks like the right site to learn from, though!
Welcome to the forum from a fellow north west Ga. member and THANKS for your service to our country. You'll find many other members that are former military here. Congrats on finding the best place on the web for info about ponds. If you get started reading, you'll find this site can get very addictive and is full of all of the info your gonna need. The folks here are friendly and full of stories that will help Ya out. Good luck on your plans, having a place to spend time with your young ones, or theirs, will make memories that you all will carry forever. PM me if you want to come over and drown a little bait a few counties over, about 50 mile as a crow flies.
Great point about sharing a pond. We've actually tried to address that in the "POND RECIPROCAL EASEMENT AND OPERATING AGREEMENT" a lawyer drew up. Since the dam is on my property, the entire, legally enforceable decision to have a pond or not is mine; I can remove it at any time as long as I'm willing to return the land to the previous state.
Probably more than that, though, my great neighbor has owned and will own his property in the area for a really long time, and it'll stay in his family. Same with mine/ours. Between my three daughters and I, we have a right of first refusal agreement in place among us too. All in all, we think Southern neighborliness and the desire to keep land in the families for a very long time will keep things in order. If not, though, the lawyer said things are in order in case one set of parties sells.
Welcome to the forum from a fellow north west Ga. member and THANKS for your service to our country.
Thank you taz. It's an honor serving this country.
Appreciate the invite, too. I'm in northern Virginia until we get that land fully developed, but it could be any year now I get down there for good. I bush hog ten cleared acres and visit with one daughter in Rome a couple times a year, usually.
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