Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Got back from the pond...not good

NEED RAIN!!!!

I am starting to get a lil worried
these are pics from today the water is really falling

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AND....I think i have a beaver now I saw a new den and a tree by the dam was cut down

I am thinking smoke bomb to get him out and 22 to keep him out

what you guys think about beaver???

Fatty, most of us are down about 5 ft. Some are more. About all you can do is pray for fall rains. Last year, we didn't get them.

I wouldn't mess with the smoke bomb. Just wait until dusk. They usually get active then. Shoot him.

Roger that Dave 10-4

My pond up near Gainesville is in about the same shape about five feet low. This drought is not much fun is it?

I feel a lot better. I am only about a foot down so far. Hope to get some rain this week they got an inch yesterday about 3 miles away from me!

I'm down about 3 feet but my pond leaks.

I'm still digging my lake, so the dry weather has it's advantages. But I also have a small 3/4 acre pond with some fish in it that I worry about.

We got almost 2 inches of rain July 5th and while it was raining, I took the dozer out and built some temporary dams to divert the water to my pond. I made a mess, and ruined one of my roads, but the additional water I was able to send to the pond brought me up over 2 feet. Now I need another foot of water to be full.

Despertate times call for desperate actions!!!

Eddie

Droughts are yucky

Droughts must serve some useful purpose in the overall scheme of things...but its hard to find something useful in having our ponds so low.

If we can all make it through the next two or three months, things should get better.

About that beaver...get after it...the damage they can do to your dam can be far worse than the drought.

I think the purpose is to weed out the weaker specimens. You know, survival of the fittest. The strong pondmeisters survive, the weak ones surrender their ponds to nature.

I really feel for ya, Fatty. One of my ponds has never gotten higher than 3 feet from full...just tried to float a new swimming dock, and can't even get it to where it needs to be, cause the water at the beach is only about a foot deep and can't push it any farther with the tractor...just like the Cubs...wait'll next year...I hope.

Bobad,

Speaking of survival of the fittest...I'm down to two surviving Catalpa seedlings. Both of which came from your seeds. The Northern seedlings(from Theo's seed catalog), germinated better, but just can't survive the Texas sun. No amount of water could keep them going.

In addition, the bare root plants from Deb are still hanging in there.

Still a long way to go on summer and a lot of hot dry days ahead.

ML, my seed crop was pitiful last year. I sent you all I could find. But this year, I'm going to plant a bazillion, and maybe I'll get lucky. I could use about a dozen catalpa's to break up the monotony of oaks and elms.

I'm beginning to wonder if there are any dry days left. I finally have a big tractor and a 3 yd scraper, and was making excellent progress on my pond. Don't you know it won't stop raining!

I am trying to make lemonade out of this myself. I am using the time to correct mistakes made prior to pond boss and also use the time to expand the pond (doing the digging of shallow areas by hand )

So far I have moved over 500 yards of dirt and clay by hand and expanded the pond quite a bit. I also have lost about 25 lbs. So wife doesn't mind that work as long as it qualifies as exercise.

Thus I am trying to make the best out of this draught. The thing that is driving me mad still is that the rain goes either north or south of my area. Where we are we seem to be in an area where the rains miss all the time. Maybe this is one for a different thread, but this problem seemed to start when they turned on a wind farm about 50 miles south west of us. Those towers are giant and there are many of them and we get most of our weather from the south west. When I get rains coming in from the north west I see them, when they come from the south west they split right around us. That is something that just makes a man go hmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Eric,

You've moved 500 yards of dirt by hand! You're the man!

Yup every night out there working like a mad man. My wife says I am nuts and at this point I would have to agree. I have added about 4 to 5 ft shelf all around the pond and been using the clay that I run into lower in the pond to take care of the work that the contractor didn't do He scraped off the top soil on most of the pond are but he didn't shoot a level on the pond. Which I found out way too late ( he was only on the pond for 3 days and I was working ) Thus 2 sides of the pond have about 2 ft of top soil as the top 2 ft of the pond edge. Thus I drop 2 ft s soon as my seasonal creek stops flowing.

Well that is in the middle of changing now. I have used the soil and clay from the pond to raise the 2 sides of the pond by about 3 ft. I am using the thick red/gray clay to put on top of the banks to seal it up. I am taking out the stuff that has run in via the seasonal creek and using that to repair the damn holes created by the crayfish ...etc

All that and trying to work a real job, run a fruit farm and raise two boys and I think I still have a wife lol

My hat's off to you...seriously!

Thanks. Truth is I am looking at my buddy down the street that has the very very very small backhoe and thinking, Man I should have asked him a while back. This would have been a much easier job!

not that i dont have sympathy for folks watching their pond dwindle away, but welcome to what its like in CA if you dont have supplemental water. Mine is down 3 foot and going.....i trust though, that on past experience, there will be sufficient water to hold the fish until the rainy season......we'll see.

and Eric......please get, rent, beg, borrow, steal a bobcat or something.......you're making MY back hurt

I made the call today to the well drillers. I was informed that I need to get to the water table below my pond at 100 foot. They will drill a 4 or 8in well 100 foot, which should give me 25 to 50 gallons per-minute on the 4 inch well and 80 to 120 gallons per minute on the 8in well. I will be pumping with a trash pump so I need a check valve and a quick connect hose. Cost of the 4 in was 1200.00 and the 8 in was 1700.00 Any ideas how to sale this plain to a wife? She had no problem getting and aerator for her birthday, our anniversary is coming up …….think it will fly?

Eric, please tell us you used a wheelbarrow.

Eric,

I've been whining and complaining about digging with small-ish tractors. You're an inspiration!

Salt,

Good luck with your well! I've got to ask about your pump though. I thought trash pumps could only lift about 26 ft. max. Didn't know they could pull water from a well!

The well man said the water table is around 16foot,and that we will be tapping into an aqifer at 100 foot but the case will fill to the ground water level. I am new to this and will have to figure it out,any help or ideas would be a great help!

Thanks Theo, I am using a wheelbarrow. I am also just moving quite a bit of it off to the side by about 10 ft to add height to the side. I know I am crazy and my back feels it but hey it has kept me out of trouble for the most part. :rolleyes: