Yes, all, I've been pretty busy....sun-up to sun-down for many consecutive days now. I certainly would have preferred to have built this pond in the summer and take my time finishing it, but we don't always get our own schedule so I'm doing my best to make the best of it...besides it is a labor of pure love for me...few things are more staisfying than to sit back and look at a pier like that you built yourself.
One point of order regarding the grow out pond...it is a grow out pond, not a forage pond. There is a big difference in my mind. For me, a forage pond is very inefficient poor use of resources, but an attached grow out pond can really add functionality and value to my kind of pond management. I can buy the first Tilapia of the year and put them in the grow out pond to get to a size to protect them from predators. I can grow Pacu, for example right out of the PetSmart store aquarium until they become predator proof (which isn't long at all). Plus many other uses for the grow out pond I won't bore you with now.
Size, does it really matter? There is a story here....we started out over 18 months ago staking out the area and I wanted 2 to 3 acres, but 2 acres minimum. The preliminary results from Joe and Derrick were two affordable acres of water. Time went by and the pipeline forced somewhat of a move of the original staking. The new staking accomplished just weeks ago showed 1.4 acres of water. Joe and I talked about it considerably and I decided to raise the dam specs by two feet giving me an unknown amount of acreage, but certainly greater than 1.4 acres. Then the pond started to take shape...it looked huge, really large. The depth has to be well over 15 feet in places.
Size doesn't matter right? Well I got to thinking, the pond was specked out to 3 feet of freeboard and in my experience 2 feet is plenty. Plus Joe and Derrick trenched this thing and it was solid clay front to back on the 3 to 1, solid clay. So, I asked Joe and Derrick to cut the spillways at 2 feet of freeboard instead of three effectively raising the dam another foot. That's when I got a grow out pond as a bonus(but thats another story).
Bottom line, I honestly don't know how large or small it is and neither do Joe and Derrick. They are going to come back and GPS it in the near future...lets just say, it looks big compared to my 4 acre pond, but I know it isn't that big and most likely just over two acres. Some data...over 600 feet of dam, 3 to 1 slope, over 8000 cu yards of clay, two natural spillways, no pipes whatsoever, just solid, rock solid clay.
I'll try to post grow out pond pictures on my web site as it evolves. It will be a unique design all of my own creation. If I can get the injector pump back on my dozer, get it running, and rains allow, I should be able to build it in another couple of weeks.
What if I hadn't got the posts set, Bruce asked, there would have been no pier, no fly fishing walkways right over the predators prime locations. We got 4 inches of rain the very night after I set the 44 posts and the pond came up over four feet overnight. It rained so hard it scared my wife, but I didn't even hear it cause I was setting posts in my sleep...3600 pounds of concrete one 40 pound bag at a time...a labor of love.
