My first pond

What's up permies? So I started on my first pond last week. I did a little time lapse.

I have started pond #2 So I have been able to build the dam up on this one closer to level. I think I am looking at about 7 ft deep right now. One thing I didn't anticipate was how being that close to the fence has made it pretty much impossible to get the machine over there so I have a good amount of hand work I am I going to have to do. I will get some more shots up later if any one is interested.

Peter,

Congrats on the first pond. It's looking good so far. How is the dirt quality? It didn't look very clay-like in the video.
Also, even if you do have to work by hand, it won't be that bad. My family and I dug a roughly 15,000 gallon pond by hand, in central Texas which is covered in limestone. Hopefully it won't be that bad for you.

Jon La Foy wrote:Peter,

Congrats on the first pond. It's looking good so far. How is the dirt quality? It didn't look very clay-like in the video.
Also, even if you do have to work by hand, it won't be that bad. My family and I dug a roughly 15,000 gallon pond by hand, in central Texas which is covered in limestone. Hopefully it won't be that bad for you.

There was about 2 foot of top soil on top and the rest is nearly solid clay. I will try to get a few more pictures. I am all done with the machine work now.

Here is the finished pond. I added a good amount of material to help smooth and raise the bank. There is a pretty solid 6 foot depth now.



You can see the color difference pretty clearly here.

So what's the next step? What are you referencing (books? websites?) so that you know what you are doing?

Thanks!

Can I ask why you decided to raise it so far above ground level? I don't know how much moisture you get there but a pond raised above land height isn't going to get much more water than what lands directly in it. Seems odd to me, but we don't get much rain.

Kevin Morland wrote:So what's the next step? What are you referencing (books? websites?) so that you know what you are doing?

Thanks!

Hey Kevin, I took my pdc a few years ago and I have have studied for much longer than that. We have been planting trees like crazy and a still have some hand work on the swale and the pond. Later in the summer I am going to put in one more pond on the opposite Hill.

elle sagenev wrote:Can I ask why you decided to raise it so far above ground level? I don't know how much moisture you get there but a pond raised above land height isn't going to get much more water than what lands directly in it. Seems odd to me, but we don't get much rain.

The pond is not above ground level, it is very high in the landscape. I am trying to store the water as high as I can. It can do more work for me that way. It has about twice the ponds surface area of catchment above it. The first few rains we had the pond hat a lip all the way around so it did not catch anything other than its surface area. We got a .1 inch rain since I cleaned it up bat all that just soaked in. We are supposed to get more this weekend. We get about 43 inches a year.

Peter Hartman wrote:

Kevin Morland wrote:So what's the next step? What are you referencing (books? websites?) so that you know what you are doing?

Thanks!

Hey Kevin, I took my pdc a few years ago and I have have studied for much longer than that. We have been planting trees like crazy and a still have some hand work on the swale and the pond. Later in the summer I am going to put in one more pond on the opposite Hill.

elle sagenev wrote:Can I ask why you decided to raise it so far above ground level? I don't know how much moisture you get there but a pond raised above land height isn't going to get much more water than what lands directly in it. Seems odd to me, but we don't get much rain.

The pond is not above ground level, it is very high in the landscape. I am trying to store the water as high as I can. It can do more work for me that way. It has about twice the ponds surface area of catchment above it. The first few rains we had the pond hat a lip all the way around so it did not catch anything other than its surface area. We got a .1 inch rain since I cleaned it up bat all that just soaked in. We are supposed to get more this weekend. We get about 43 inches a year.

I see. Probably just the angle of the photo had me seeing it that way. Sorry! I thought you'd bermed the whole way around.

FWIW, fooled me too!

Peter Hartman wrote:The first few rains we had the pond hat a lip all the way around so it did not catch anything other than its surface area.

Was this intentional?... to cut down on erosion?

Nope, I just pushed it up a bit with the machine while I was making the pond. I got out there and worked the lip by hand so there is some catchment now. We had a pretty decent rain this weekend. It was not enough to get any run off into the pond though. So No I am looking at plan B. The pond sets below the house so I am going to setup a rain catchment device that sets about the pond and run about 250ft of hose to the pond to help it will. I would like to get it at least half filled before our dry season sets in. That could be any day now. I think I will be able to put just over a hundred gallons into the pond with every .25" rain we get.

Anyways as it is now the pond seems to be holding and for every inch we get it seems to rise about 1.5-2".

We got another 3/4 and inch last night and it brought the upper pond up just enough that you can finally see water in it from the lane.