Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Pond growth pictorial scrapbook

Brettski,

Your pond looks great. Looks like your investment is paying off. I envy your precipitation there. I closed the valve on my pond about 3 weeks ago and started catching water. Unfortunately things are pretty dry around here this winter, so I only have about 4 ft of water in the deepest part, and only about 1/3 acre of surface at this point. We were .75" below normal in Nov, and 2.25" behind normal as of today for the month of December. Hopefully it will fill by the end of winter and I'll have some good pics of my own to post. Keep the pics coming. Hope you get to start on your house soon. Happy New Year.

Hillbilly

Thank ya, Hillbilly. Your advice and persistence in challenging some of the construction details had a positive influence on the final product. And I, in turn, envy your ability to have created your prize as the guy in the seat of the dozer. I'll bet you'll have all the water you need WAY before I eliminate my debt. Wanna trade deficits?

1-13-07 UPDATE
I'm raining as fast as I can, but it looks like Eddie is gonna kick my butt as we race to the "pool finish line".
We took on what appears to be about another foot of water; this is a pretty substantial jump for my short history. It comes about after 2.5" of rain within 24 hours on completely saturated soil. Using the same building site pic-source reference...

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We move over to the right, still on the building pad at the extreme right side.

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Theo's cluster (bottom) has seriously wet feet. Sunil's mound (center structure)is a couple feet from needing a snorkel. The wood duck boxes taunt the slowly expanding shoreline to make my life more miserable as I try to find the time to get back out there and install their predator guards.

Figure out how to do it from a boat; that's one possibility for that job.

I stand by my prior assessment.

Looks awesome Brettski! How far up in the trees is the water going to be at full pool? From the pics it almost looks like some of the structure will not be fully underwater.

Thanks for the boost, Eric. The normal pool will be between 2 and 3 feet over the top of all the tires pyramids (assuming my laser was operating correctly AND that I can read measurements.....uh-oh). The pool level is about 2' right at the timberline. The grade in front of the timberline is steeper than the grade behind because it was scraped during construction. The lesser grade behind will allow the water to creep back into the timber about 20 - 40 feet along the entire shoreline.
FWIW, I hear we got another 1.75" of rain since these last pics taken 2 days ago. Theo The Prognosticator might be onto sumthin'.

** 1/28/07 UPDATE **
Brrrr....
It's been 2 weeks since the last pics. It was still raining when we left 2 weeks ago and the level is up about another 10 - 12" or so.
From the building site reference point:

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The water level is now touching the bottom of the concrete boat launch. I know the elevation of this concrete work from last summer. We are about 5'-4" from the spillway. The dry-hydrant intake pipe is also submerged...or should I say frozen? The Rockytopper Lunker Stopper tire array in front of the launch dock is gone.
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Theo's Cluster is definitely threatened. Sunil's Mound is pert-near a goner. The Wood Duck nesting boxes beckon me to enjoy cold, dry land and install the predator guards...NOW.

Brettski,

Looks like your water level is rising nicely!!

I don't know your area, but I'm guessing the spring rains will have no problem filling it up in a few months.

Very nice looking lake,
Eddie

That looks colder than my pond. Do you know how thick the ice was? (Don't find out the hard way, especially when Donna-ski stays home!)

nope...no hurry to find out, either. The lee end of the pond was frozen all the way along the shoreline and the opposite side was partially open along the shore. This was enough to minimize my curiosity. I expect that the coming week's prediction of consistent sub-freezing temps will raise my curiosity a bit by next week-end. What is a quick, down & dirty (hesitant to use that phrase) way to check if ice is safe to walk on?

"What is a quick, down & dirty (hesitant to use that phrase) way to check if ice is safe to walk on?"

Well, if you're asking my older brother that question, the answer is to send your younger brother (myself) out onto the ice to find out.

Sure that was about (30) years back, but who knows if it would work today?

Jumping on the ice usually will tell you, but put a hole in it and see how thick it is next time your there. Oh, and remember your iceskates. Its suppose to be wickedly cold by the end of the week.

3 solid inches of clear, dark ice and you're golden...anything less is dicey. More is always better.

Got an ice-auger? Heavy, sharp pole (4 feet of 3/4" hot-rolled steel) if you can't bang it through pretty easy, you're probably pretty safe...but hang on to it tight when testing.

B-ski,

I am curious……….. as your pond level rises, do your fish attracting devices rise also with the ice? (Only to be moved when ice thaws).
The reason I ask is; I am having trouble with railroad tie docks being lifted by 12” to 14” of ice as the ponds fill after last years dry conditions.....frustrating.

A very good question, Ed. This is all new to me, so I am uncertain as to the outcome. I imagine alot of that will be dictated by how much rain or melted snow is added before an appreciable thaw. Ironically, I did already consider the potential of ice movement as I sweated out the water level vs. the height of my 6' tall drain filter case unit. Fortunately, it is about 2+ feet below the water level right now.
I guess the "structure and ice" thing did come to me a few times, but brushed it off as unavoidable until the water level rises above them. I sure as heck would not want to try and place it after full pool.
As an aside, I did note that the mass of ice that had formed in the pics above was wide open around and within the tire pyramids. I gotta think that maybe the black color was absorbing some of the solar gain?

B-ski she's looking real good, it appears that any doubts you may have had on your watershed being marginal for the size pond should be lifted now. She seems to be catching plenty of runoff and the real rains haven't hit yet. Congrats

I think the key will be, to see how it holds up in the summer during a dry spell.

Thank ya, Rocky-T...your approval means alot to me. I agree that perhaps...just perhaps....I underestimated the run-off. I'll tell ya why.
I estimate, with the assistance of the local NRCS office, that we are working with about 55 - 60 acres of run-off. I have 3 main water feeds. 2 of them are draws that are reasonably easy to calculate acccurately. The third source is the wild card. It is the 8" clay field tile that I have been whinin' about on the tile overflow thread . I was pretty sure of the zones that this tile drained. Right after we purchased the property, I was able to find and contact the 80 year old guy that grew up on it, and the surrounding 180 acres, since 1935. We talked on the phone for almost 2 hours...v cool history lesson. Anyway, he was certain that he knew of the only 2 inlets for the tile and he told me about where they are. He said that they are the old fashioned inlets that are built like a french drain. The opening is well below the depth of a disc, covered in filter gravel, and topped with soil. He said that the second inlet was added by him and his brother when they were kids. They tee'd it into the longer, already existing run. I walked the areas where these 2 inlets would reside and found no breaches in the surface. This leads me to believe that the water we receive should be well filtered. Then....this last weekend I find small sections of corn cob and husk pc jammed up in the pop-up fitting that I put on our end of this drain, the outlet. Hmmmmm.
I told my contractor about this drain when I first found it at the bottom of the big 'ol blow-hole. I told him that I measured the ID about 7.5". His first response was that it might drain a heck of alot of acreage. I asked why. He said that a 7" or 8" tile was normally installed to carry a correspondingly sized flow of water. He felt that it is possible that I am getting alot more water than the old timer lead me to believe. After seeing the corn waste, I gotta think he may be right.
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Lance...right on the money; we will see. When I first laid out the pond plan and shot the elevations, I wrestled with adding 2 additional feet of depth or passing on the depth to have about 6 more acres of drainage. It was a topographical ground truth and I had to make a decision. My valued PB mentors helped me make the correct choice of adding the 2 additional feet of depth. If my observations in the above paragraph are correct, it seals the deal.

Sound like your running a detective show out in illinois. When will the show premiere on the pond boss channel?

I don't remember seeing the 2ft versus 6 acre thread. I'll have to do something in time if I want more than a bullhead pond. The pond goes down too much in the summer. I'll have to trap more of the snow runoff and spring rains by raising pool level or creating a pond above the primary one, to help store the precious water.

Looks great Brettski! I think you are gonna see full pool or 'purt near by the time the trees bud out.

Eric

I just got a copy of last year's strip map aerial from my NRCS office. Based on the stage of development, it's from August '06.
I thought it might be interesting to take a look at a series of aerial maps and photos to demonstrate my vision as it came into focus over 18 months of raw land development.
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The parcel, the way we found it, aerial taken in 2004.

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The topo map, notes entered weeks after purchasing the parcel as I dreamed (the spring pond , as it was touted by the selling realtor, wound up being nothing more than a depression that collected about 2 ft of water in a bowl about 100 ft across)

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After clearing about 90% of the timber for the pondsite, my NRCS guy took GPS readings around the clearing that was to define the pond basin, the dam, and the area behind the dam. The building site was not yet cleared at the S.E. end. He also picked up the coordinates for the new driveway. He transferred these to the older strip map in pic #1. I added the proposed clearing for the building site and beach/knoll (yellow zones). I also added the perimeter pond road and the access roads to the building site and meadow (lite green).

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All the above excavation and raw development plans have been executed. The pond is already collecting water.

In no time at all, that pond is gonna look so-o-o-o-o beautiful, Brettski! I look forward to an aerial shot about next Fall.

Looks like a meteorite hit.

excellent comparison shots brettski. i like that the house will be just about smack in the middle of property let alone looking over the pond. yer driveway really disappears in the woods, must be a nice drive in.

looks like at time of pic, there is water in the pond basin (as the really light brown in deepest areas)?

hopefully you get along with that one neighbor to the north.

also, assuming north is straight up, what is the clearing on east side of property.....looks like soil is exposed there or rock outcrop?

Brettski,

With all the documentation you have collected for your pond, when are you going to have a book naming contest? GREAT job!!