The gully to pond project

[jinman]

I spent several days last week digging my one pond deeper and getting ready to line it with clay. When the rain came, it filled up one end of the pond about 18" deep. It's been too muddy to get down there with my pump to pump out the water, but maybe by tomorrow I can get it pumped out and continue excavation. Without my trash pump, this would be hassle, but the pump makes clearing the water easy and the caliche beneath the water only has a couple inches of mud on it. The first two photos were taken this morning.

The 2nd pond is up about 4" after the 1-1/2" rain. It actually caught a little runoff. It just keeps on slowly rising. As much as I want it full, it will probably be late next winter or early spring before it fills up. The third photo shows its current level.

 

[jinman]

I haven't updated my thread in a long time. It's not like I'm forgetting to do it, but rather that I'm just digging and digging with some very boring photos. I probably will have another 50 yards of material to remove and then start putting clay back in around the edges to seal the seeps. It doesn't show well in photos, but I still have water seeping back into the pond from the thin sand layer that filled up with water when the pond was full. The biggest change I've made is to the pond depth. It will be about 4'-5' deeper than the last time. At maximum depth, it'll be around 12' deep, I think. I haven't actually measured the depth yet, but comparing to my backhoe boom height, I'd say at least 12' deep in spots. When I finish the excavation, I'll post more photos.

Last night, for no reason at all except boredom, I logged onto Google Earth. I was shocked :shocked: to find that they have just updated their aerial photos in this area and they are superb. :thumbsup: The photo of my place now includeds both of my new ponds and even caught Ron Hall's motorhome sitting on its pad when they came to visit in April. The date on the photo is April 17, 2012. It was right before I pumped all the water out of the 1st pond into the 2nd pond. You can see the small amount of water in the 2nd pond. I've attached a screen shot.

 

[ronjhall]

Looks like the day we were looking for hydraulic fittings. Mule is setting out front of container shed.
How is dump trailer holding up to moving dirt?

 

[jinman]

How is dump trailer holding up to moving dirt?

Ron, I haven't used the dump trailer since the tractor started having hydraulic problems. I got the tractor fixed finally, but can't pull the trailer up out of the pond. My trail is too steep. As I start to haul clay to seal the sides, I'll go back to using the trailer. I don't expect any problems. The biggest problem is the weather forecast for the whole next week is 100+ every day.

 

[ben2go]

Anything new to report?

 

[Western]

Jim, this weekend looks like great weather to play in the tank!!

 

[jinman]

Anything new to report?

Thanks for asking. I've really slowed down during the hot part of the summer. Last week it was cool and I pumped a pool of rainwater out of the smaller pond so it would dry up some. I will be out today hauling clay to line the sand layer and seal the pond. That's all I have left to do at this point since making the pond bigger/deeper. I'll try to get some photos posted soon.

 

[jinman]

Jim, this weekend looks like great weather to play in the tank!!

Yep, it's supposed to be over 100 today and tomorrow and then cool off into the low 80s for this weekend. Finally! Some fall weather. The only thing I have to deal with now is the chance of a big rain storm filling the pond. If it happens, it happens, and I have a pump to clean it out. I have my tractor all greased up and ready to go.

 

[jinman]

This last weekend, I got a little clay hauled to make my pond "apron" seal. It's 3/4 done with only some compacting left and final excavation and lining the last few feet of the perimeter where my ramp is built down into the pond. I could have got more done this weekend, but I have three grandkids who had birthdays and my wife's birthday is today. Those kinds of this always take precedence over working in the pond.

In the photos you can see that everything looks nice a dry. That's only because I've repeatedly pumped out the basin at the bottom of the pond. It's been a process of pumping out the water and then waiting for a week to dry up before I can get back into the pond. If there is even 4-6 inches of mud, it's like trying to drive on banana peels. Even with 4WD and the differential locked, my backhoe just spins tires and refuses to climb out of the pond with a load in the bucket. I have to scrape away the wet mud and then traction is fine. Anyhow, these photos show the apron over the area where the sand layer is located. It will seal the off the sand and keep my water from seeping out. If I had a lot of rain, I wouldn't even worry about the small seeps, but even my ponds that are water tight are down 1/3 to 1/2 their total volume. Here are some photos to show what I'm doing.

 

[jinman]

Waiting for rain to fill my ponds makes me feel sad. I keep hoping for a significant rain storm, but most are only 1/4" with the rare storm dropping 1". Some days I feel like that reporter who kept asking silly questions to Lt. General Honore about preparations for Hurricane Rita. Waiting for rain is "being stuck on stupid.":confused2::ashamed:

Of course, we will eventually get some good rains, but I've decided to make the best use of my time by recovering topsoil silt that is exposed by the receding shoreline on our little lake. I've actually seen the lake level lower, but I don't want anything like the drought that almost dried up our lake about 7 years ago. Below is a photo of what the lake looks like today. Water normally covers the grass and cattails in the background. The lake level is down at least 5' from overflow level.



Drought has exposed a lot of very firm shoreline and made access to the silted topsoil for easy removal. Sand seems to precipitate in a different spot with the silt around my shoreline being primarily topsoil and black mud that grows weeds quite well during the summer. Launching a boat from my shoreline in mid-summer is a tale of trying to navigate the heavy thick patches of weeds and also getting a boat to the shoreline for easy boarding. What I'd like to do is build a small boat dock, but first I need to cut down the shoreline so I have deep water under and around the dock. Digging with my backhoe, I got started and rapidly accumulated huge piles of silt spoils and even clay along my shoreline.



Of course, driving a 20k lb TLB along the sloping shoreline takes a bit of faith and possibly a bit of stupidity. Thank goodness for 4WD. There's no way I could do this without 4WD. The extra traction keeps things from getting out of control if I stay near the normal shoreline and just use the backhoe to pile up materials onto the firm bank. So far I have not even been close to stuck. I've been able to create a minimum-sized boat launch basin about 25' wide. My plan is to make this 50' to 75' wide along the shoreline. If it stays dry, I may get a deep shoreline all along my bank.

Here's a closer photo of the basin.