How do I create a 12-month creek from a seasonal creek on our 40 acres?

We currently have a seasonal creek fed from the neighbor's pond (only the dam is ours we found out after living here 4 months). The creek runs about 3 months out of the year. Here's a google earth picture of our farm area. The creek is in yellow. Any suggestions out there? We farm about 3 acres on the knoll and are on the front corner of the property. The back of the pond is on the back line of our property (south property line). The creek ends by emptying into a 12-month creek on Bennett Lumber property.

cheapest easiest would be brush gabions throughout the creek, ideally toe to heel. A contour map from there could help w/ further earthworks to hold rainfall as high on the property as possible. Brad Lancaster's Rainwater Harvesting vol. 1 & 2 invaluable info.

Brush gabions? What are they? I'm a bit new to the water catchment terms.

Basically, you put brush in your creek (like a small leaky dam) to slow the water down. You may need to brace it w/ post or dig the gabion into the sides of the creekbank to keep the gabion from washing out. A gabion can be made out of any material that slows the water i.e. rocks, logs, rubble concrete. By putting the gabions toe to heel along the creek each downstream gabion will back water up no higher than the base of the gabion upstream. Start at the top. This is just one tool in the toolbox I suggest the books .
A water catchment on the northeast side of the property as high up on the property as possible w/ the overflow on contourcoming around the property to the existing creek. and a lot of other ideas just from the picture. The books will help you get a better idea of what you want to accomplish over all, and a plan to implement it.

On the other hand if you own the dam, the dam is what makes a catchment, what if you decided to remove your dam? Then the creek would flow all year. Install an adjustable drain? I find it hilarious someone can own a pond w/out owning the dam, I would much rather be in your shoes.

Thanks Chris. We read the books you referred to and there were lots of really good ideas in them. I agree about starting at the top. Makes it easier than working through wet stuff at the bottom. I was thinking you were talking about the gabions where you put rocks into and I thought that may be fairly obvious to governmental agencies. Yep, we were pretty disappointed. We thought we owned 1/3 of the pond AND the dam but we own about half the dam. What a dumb idea to build a pond spanning two sections. Sheesh. Denice (head weeder at Elk Meadow Nursery).