Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site starting the dream

Thanks for the story. I like Dudley's idea. Plus tell him you posted it here and hope he gets some extra business as a result. Go back in your post and add his full name and phone so others can find him.

I struggle to be optimistic but it looks good. I still would like to stock the minnows this fall. Heavy rains have caused a bit of erosion but grass is starting to fill in. I have the skidloader for 2 more weekends and hope to finish moving rock, stage clay for next year.

I have about 30 small trees to plant may just have to hold them over until next year.





Kind of gloomy day

swimming hole in front, middle pond in back


forage pond in front, swimming hole then middle pond, marsh off to far right side

You're going to have to change your signature, kurt.

Congratulations -- you overcame so much to get where you are. Enjoying these ponds is going to be awfully gratifying given what you had to do to get them.

As soon as the first fish (minnows) get stocked the name changes.

I would go ahead and stock the minnows. A barren pond is an obscenity.

Another weekend at the land working and sleeping in the skidloader. Yes, I am crazy and yes it was cold. Being on top of the hill, with no wind blocks, wind blew 20-30 miles an hour throughout the night.

I moved clay around to staging areas for next year and moved rock down to the main pond for whenever I work on it.

Middle pond is about 2 feet from being full. Will leave it that way for the winter snow and spring rains.

Upper forage pond had a bit of problem. I moved the hose to the forage pond and it filled up too quickly and one area of the levee gave out. as soon as I woke and exited the skidloader I could tell it had filled too high. I just watch as water rolled over the top and began eating away at the back side. Eventually a 1 foot gap open and some of the water rushed into the swimming hole. The rest of the forage is hold well. I think next spring I will empty it and strenghten the wall a bit and raise the wall. I would like another foot of depth to the forage pond.

Next week back at it again. Planting the last of the trees for this year and moving the rock around. Will fill up the 2 marshes to see how they hold.


Question: I am looking at putting in the minnows within the next two weeks, what will the minnows eat from water that is fresh from the well?

thanks.

LOVE THE VIEW!

main pond in the back, putting work off for a year or so.

it shouldnt take long for phytoplackton to arive and zooplankton. I dont know if they are in underground water, but my guess would be that there is already enough life in your ponds to support minnows.

Putting the minnows in now before the hard winter gives you no benefit.

Fish metabolism is slower in the winter and reproduction won't take place until spring.

I suggest putting the minnows in, if you just can't wait late winter but preferably early spring.

But minnows in now will become accustome to the pond and be able to call it home.

And if he has time to put minnows in the spring also, GREAT! But if life gets too busy and he cant tend that part until July, there should be a few crops of this years hatch adding to the ponds minnow soup!

If it were my pond i would put in a few pounds of fatheads if I could find them. They may not do much reproducing over the winter, but as fishm_n said they would be acclimated and ready to start reproducing when the water was right. They aren't very expensive.

Just found out the company is re-structuring and I am out of a job. Everything with the pond is on hold until things turn around. I wish it were spring because at least I could be working and planting now I have a long winter of nothing.

thanks for all the help see you all around soon.

kurt

kurt, that sucks. Merry Christmas, huh?

Sorry to hear of the problem.

I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune, Kurt. I hope things turn around quickly.

Unfortunately, cutbacks and layoffs seem to be the new normal.

One door closes, other doors open. Hang in there.

Nothing i can do about now. Just trying to put the pieces together. I worked and my wife stayed home so things are tight for the moment. I got some part-time work started and can landscape come spring with a friend who owns a landscaping company. My wife might go back to school to get her teaching license. She is a pre-school teacher but maybe she moves up.

thanks for the encouragement and prayers.

Hopefully the pond is holding water through the winter.

Kurt, great to see you hanging in there so strong despite all the challenges. As I read your posts, I kept thinking that you were gonna catch a break sooner or later. You didnt, but you stuck with it with an amazing level of persistance.

I can only imagine the frustration and stress but I am possitive it will be even better when you are enjoying it!

Just thought I would post a quick update.

Since last Dec 1 when I was let go from my job I shut off the well and basically walked away for the winter. I went back late April to check out how things had wintered. With the little snow and no spring rains, the ponds had dropped but since they were never truly full, and never fully finished wicking, I thought the amount was not terrible. With little rain and snow and no well running for 28 weeks, the ponds dropped about 24 inches. I am thinking that the compaction, clay and DB-200 may have created fairly strong seal.

Life has arrived inspite of me to the ponds. There are millions of tadpoles in all 5 ponds. Many raccoon tracks, deer and even saw a blue heron swoop in for a bit. I have not stocked fish so he/she probably did not spend too much time. Heard a coyote howl and lots of birds and a couple of ducks.

With no job still, moving slowly and really watching the budget. Since the ponds are down I have decided to alter the plans and bit. I spent last weekend digging down and installing and drain down pipe with overflow pipe in the forage pond, strenghtening walls. Forage pond will overflow into the swimming hole and at the end of the sseason, I can drain it down and move the minnows to the swimming hole for trout (maybe) or to the catfish pond. Mark Lasig of "On Lasig Pond" dropped off 2000 lbs of bentonite left over from his pond which I am using when installing pipes and flows. Thank you Mark. I tell you, you all are a weird group of people and I mean that in the nicest way. I have never met Mark before but it did not take long before he is showing me pictures of his fish and swapping short stories about other pond boss people. Mark has been around a while and met far more people than I have. Someday, I hope to get to meet more of you and learn. Thanks again, Mark.

I am building or wiring up a valve and timer to the well so I can set it up and have the well turn on one day a week and flow to the different ponds for som many hours. I need to connect the forage pond with the 2 marshes with PVC piping and then set the overflow from the swimming hole to the catfish pond.

Things are moving slow, another 12 days without rain really puts a kink in the grass seed planting. Erosion hit a few areas hard so they need fixing.

I have ordered the fatheads and catfish so I should be stocking next week, fingers crossed. Once the fish are in, I will have the summer to finish up all the details around the ponds.

Last detail...I want to raise the swimming hole by 1-2 feet. Deepth is 5 feet 1/4 acre. My wife will not swim with fish larger than minnows. I want to swim in the summer, and stock trout in the fall, fish them out bu late spring before we start swimming again. With the electrical box for the timer on the well, I will add a circuit for areation which the trout will need during the winter.

Enough boring stuff from me. I will try and post a picture of the BIG day when fish finally get stocked. 2 years and counting but closer than ever.

Wow! A dream slowly realized, but coming true! I hope you land a good job soon, and enjoy your ponds this summer. Long hard road, but it will be worth it.

Great update, Kurt. Sorry the job situation is not improved but praying for you to land where you are supposed to be workwise.

Would love to see some pictures now that things have had some time to settle in. Sounds like you've got some good projects lined up and are tackling them very sensibly and methodically. Good for you!

Best of luck on all of it!

Pictures coming soon but just needed to share good news.

The fatheads have already spawned!!!! Walking around the pond's edge and I could see hundreds of small minnows everywhere. Beautiful.

Pictures next time but we are in our second streetch of 100 degree weather so I am staying home this week.

Kurt,

I hate to see bad stuff happen to a guy with a dream like you, but I'm glad that I'm not the only one that life poops on with what seems like quickening frequency these days.

If your wife don't wanna swim with fish bigger than minnows don't tell her that they're in there LOL.

I swam my whole life in a pond full of bass and cats better than five pounds and in three decades I've yet to bump into one while swimming. Occasionally some little a-hole bluegill will try to eat a mole on your leg or something, but that's it.

Remember that no matter how crappy things get, I'm kind of jealous of you LOL.

Finally got a few new pictures. With the heat passing in our neck of the woods, I can finally start working again. It is getting harder and harder to go out on Tuesday work all day, sleep in a tent and work Wednesday.

I received my renewal form for pond boss. Without even asking, my wife stated, "renew it". Like all of you great husbands out there, you know to listen to your wives so I listened and sent in a check to cover the next 2 years. Seriously, even though we are both working only part-time, she stated that the money we save from the mistakes "I DO NOT MAKE AS OFTEN" (her words)save money in the long run. I think that is a complement to pond boss somehow.

Here is the forage pond. I have added a drain down pipe and an overflow pipe. The overflow is not yet cut to the depth I want. I spent the spring hauling in dirt and leveling the far bank and widening it so we can traverse the pond. I built 2 pallet floats to serve as spawning areas for the fatheads. I chained them to a stake but put is vetical pipes so they can move up and down with water changes and then be removed in the fall. 1 has pop bottles and the other does not. Just seeing if I need more floats. Far end I put in rocks to build a rock wall and it is where the waterfall will go eventually.




I built a wall foundation or sunken wall as described by Bob Lusk several issues ago and just as Bob said, the minnows love hanging out in and around the rocks. What do you know, 'Old Bob' got that one right! Just kidding. I was and am amazed at the number of minnows swarming the rocks. I want to build another rock bed at the other end of the catfish pond.







Lower catfish



upper catfish




Irrigation
I have been diggin in about 500 feet of 3" irrigation tubing to start to control run off and control water flow. With a minimal watershed being on top of thehill, I am hoping to capture as much of the water as possible, filter it through several sendiment basins.



I have golden shinners and a few more catfish going in this fall. Next spring the largemouth and I start feeding the catfish.

winter aeration is ordered and will be installed soon.

What do you do if you have lots of time and no money both due to no job? You work on the ponds by hand. Unfortunately the camera was not cooperating so I only was able to take a couple of pictures.


Built a holder for the diffuser to keep it off the bottom




Installed the winter aerator




elephant god, given to me by a retired chicago detective as good luck, trunk up and facing east.


I have also added 4 fishing docks. I went back and forth on floating docks or removal docks but instead built docks that sit above the water line, more like fishing piers that should have to be removed. pictures later...