Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat New pond

Hopefully that storm will swing far enough south to hit you.

Hey, you are a good token, esshup!

We are getting a slow but steady rain of sleet and while it isn't a gully washer yet, the heavier stuff is supposed to come in later. I'm proud to get any and all precipitation, regardless of the form it takes on the way to the ground!

I might even get to stay home tomorrow!

I personally prefer rain or snow to ice.

Rain is ok , you can keep the frozen stuff.

I'll be there hunting tomorrow; temp supposed to be 8. That's nuts.

Dang, Dave...you're hardcore!

I got the call this morning that the late reporting set for 10 o'clock was changed...to "STAY AT HOME!!!" Woohoo!

As I drove home from work yesterday, I was once again reminded that the worst thing about driving in north Texas during inclement weather is...


wait for it...


the 50% of drivers (could be a higher percentage) that either go way too fast or crawl along waaaay too slow. When the two get together, there's going to be trouble.

People from other parts of the world laugh in disbelief when they hear how easy it is to shut this area down...working on base, I hear it all the time.

Who's nuts, the 8 degree temperature, or you?

Speaking of nuts, be sure and take along a warm seat pad to your stand.

I'm not that hardcore on hunting. I haven't shot anything this year or last year. I haven't seen anything that I wanted to shoot.

My 15 year old Grandson and his 2 buddies are predators. I've been taking them hunting for years. They are good kids and we are trying to keep them that way. Another of the Kids Dad always comes along and he also hunts. He also likes to cook. He and I haven't even had to gut a deer in years, Those guys do it all like getting the tractor out to bring the deer in to hauling the carcass off. There are a lot of discussions about unprotected sex, drugs, booze, etc. This will be my Grandsons last weekend that he can get away to buck hunt. He hasn't gotten to hunt that much. His stand(popup blind) has a lot of GOOD bucks coming in. We've avoided his area when he can't go. I doubt that we will see much. I don't recall Texas deer having that much enthusiasm for ice skating.

I won't be driving. I cleared all of the ice off the windshield of my pickup yesterday evening. After that was all done, I turned on the wipers and a chunk of one came off. So, the other Kids Dad is driving.

Thinking about it; driving 70 miles one way on ice to freeze our butts off. I have the gear to handle it but I'm the only one who does. I expect that I'll let the Kids use my gear and somebody has to make sure the fire in the trailer house stove doesn't go out. The high temp is forecasted for 22 and somebody has to make the sacrifice.

Dave:

You had to buy a coat sooner or later!

It was -8°F when I shot the cow Elk a few days ago, and the guys from Florida that were hunting were out in -21°F temps. They called home when they got back to the lodge and there was a 100°F temp difference between the two places.

It's not the lack of heat, it's the humidity.

Didn't make it hunting. About 5 miles North of Fort Worth, all traffic stopped due to icy roads and hills. Those hills go for about 100 miles. We were in line for hours until we could get to an exit. In those hours we made it about 1/4 mile. Got back home about 5 hours after leaving. 90% of the traffic was trucks.

I'd have gone crazy! That is one thing that I don't deal with very well...traffic jams. We had to go pick up the grandkids from town today, and even though the roads were slick, the half-bed of firewood for my daughter definitely helped with traction. Getting started was usually pretty easy (except when my wife had to get something from Wally World - that parking lot was slick as snot), but stopping was a little more exciting. When we took them home tonight, I threw 300# of bags of gravel in the bed over the rear axle.

If 90% of the traffic was trucks, I wonder what shortages will appear in stores this week. Just-in-time delivery gets dicey in bad weather.

Oh, both ponds are iced over pretty thick. Wife wants to skate, and depending on how long this front lasts, she might just get to do so. Today made us miss Alaska...

It was about 75% trucks. When we finally got to the exit and could turn around, we looked down and saw trucks. None had chains. They were about 100 yds apart and taking turns trying to get up a small hill. During the wait, we took naps and tried to not think about having to pee.

No tire chains in Texas? What are those guys thinking?

Dave - Holding it? With all that roadside? Not me...not anymore. A full bladder can cause prostate infections. After the second time, and both times direct results of holding it forever in a traffic jam on the interstate, my doc asked me (the second time) if I was really that slow on the uptake of information. That was very PC, and I knew what she meant.

Normally, I wouldn't write about such, but men need to get out the word that such actions like that that we all participate in occasionally are, in fact, harmful to the prostate.

esshup, from my experience in AK, -8 isn't that bad when properly geared up and the wind is low. Here in north Texas, the wind seems to blow constantly and that's the hard part. How does the wind factor into the equation up in Indiana? Never been there (yet).

Wow dave that sounds horrible. Hope it warms up a little for you guys. South of houston we have not hit freezing yet, although looks like tuesday night we got a good shot.

As for mobilus comment about shortages I work in the retail grocery business and it is indeed causing a problem. Major beef and dairy suppliers for texas are located in and around dallas/ft worth and we have already seen major problems with trucks getting in/out of that area to the rest of the state. You probably will see some minor shortages on red meat and dairy products but nothing crazy or extended.

Two soldiers were walking guard duty in Alaska during a blizzard. One looked at the other and said "Man, it's cold here.". The response was "Sure is; Aren't you glad you're not in Amarillo?".

Mobilus, -8°F isn't bad like you said if the wind isn't blowing. It was dead calm or maybe going 5 mph then so it wasn't bad at all. Usually, when it's that cold the wind isn't blowing much here, but we've had times with temps in the negetative numbers and wind, so for here, it could be cold. I've been in -80°+F temps when figuring in the windchill, and that gets dangerous quick.

I think humidity also plays a big role. Today, 29°F felt durn cold with a 10 mph wind, MUCH colder than the -8°F felt.

I would expand your forage base. Maybe add more fatheads and then some golden shiners down the road, Im no expert though. Great looking pond though

Thanks, Culumills123.

I have a very robust FHM population, and the RES and BG spawn seem to be right where I need them now...I occasionally run a dip net off the dock to check (a big salmon hoop that I re-netted with some 1/2" mesh).

I always heard that shiners would take over small ponds, your take on it?

I realized that I never uploaded any pix of the pond since I doubled its size and installed a dock that I built:











And the best part:



Merry Christmas all, and may God's blessings fill your ponds and your lives with goodness this coming year! Mark

A little update on this small pond...



It never went dry during the drought...although it was very low. Had probably 7 to 8 feet at the lowest. This picture is full pool, overflowing to the big pond.



My wife realized her dream of having ducks on it that she could feed and watch the grandkids. We cut out the dead mesquite (yeah, it was so dry here in Texas that a mesquite tree died even though it was surrounded by water) and she wanted to put a doghouse on the island for her birds. I know better than to fight losing battles, so I just said "yes Ma'am" and did it. Soon after, she realized the ducks are perfectly fine without the shelter. When it's hot, they're in the cattails or under the dock.



I brought in a few rocks, and a couple of old slip pans. Slip pans hold a special place in my heart...my granddaddy built a pond with one and a mule a long time ago. We had many good times around (and in) that pond back in Alabama. Rocks, well they are reminders that even hard times can be put to good use.

Slip pan sounds like a fresno.

Slip pans and teams of mules built a lot of public works dams and stripped a lot of shallow coal seams in days gone by. Used to have one laying around. Can't remember what happened to it.

More than once I have thought that old timers that walked behind those things would have thought they had the world by the tail if they had something like your Kubota tractor or about any tractor or dozer.

Dave, from what I found, "fresnos" were of a little more complicated construction than slip scoops (or slip pans, as I know them). They had hoops on the ends to help with rolling the load forward, these slip pans relied on the cutting edge digging in enough to tip the load forward to empty it. Probably wasn't a job for a little feller.

snrub, I have often thought the same thing.

So, what I have a couple of and know as scoops would qualify as a slip pan?

Probably. Post up a picture if you think about it.

I just looked both up and what I have is a 3 point dirt scoop.