Creating a Lake

[bindian]

Dang it Eddie,
I haven't even got my pond stocked yet and I am envious of your 4 acre entertainment spot. I got the pier finished on mine. But like you, I have been been too busy to take photos.
hugs, Brandi

[jinman]

Nice photos Eddie. Peyton and Alissa sure look like they appreciate your Academy purchase. If your lake was any smaller, you wouldn't be able to do stuff like that.

Now, have you looked into RC boats? Peyton and Alissa need some boats to run around the lake when it's too cold to swim. Hold onto your wallet! Your $75 float will look like pocket change after you get into RC.

[EddieWalker]

Mike,

When you drove down I-20, you passed within half a mile of my place. One of the things that I was looking for when buying the land was easy access. I've been to RV Parks and tried to find Parks that were miles off the Interstate and required a dozen turns to get there. A few that I wanted to look at, I never found!!! So when I wrote down what I had to have and what I wanted to have in a piece of land, easy to find was on the Must Have list.

Brandi,

Congrats on finishing the pier. I'm really wishing that I had mine done, especially with everyone out here, but it looks like a Fall project at the earliest. I seem to get motivated to start a project and then the next thing I know, it's two months later. I bought some flood lights for working in the dark, but they are still in the box. I'm too lazy to get them out!!!

It's too warm to stock fish now, but you should be good to go in the fall. When I planted Lake Marabou, I did the minnows and bluegill in the Fall, then catfish in the spring and bass in early summer when I had several generations of food for them.

Jim,

I was thinking about the size of the pond and how much nicer would be, but also how much more work that would have been too!!! 4 acres seems like a good size for fishing, playing and just walking around. The boat doesn't go real fast, but for the kids on the tube, they think it is. With all my structure in the pond, it's a challenge to stay in the lanes where it's clear.

My brother gave Alissa and Peyton each a RC speed boat last year. They were all excited about them, so we went down to Alissa Pond right away to play with them. They spent about an hour driving them around before we ran out of power. Then they set them up in my shop to charge the batteries, and never touched them again. I even asked them if they wanted to go play with them again, but neither of them were into it. A few months ago, we gave them away to some friends.

It rained yesterday and again last night. I'm at 1.14 inches of rain since it started and hoping for more. Lake Marabou is down about a foot. I can see the yardstick from a distance, but never actually went up to it and checked to see exactly how low it was. I'm guessing a foot, wich isn't bad at all. The water is just below or to the reeds that surround the shoreline, so it's hard to tell that it's down at all. I was able to mow quite a few of them early Saturday morning, so there is an advantage to the water level being down. My goal is to dig my footings for my piers and bridge over the spillway in September, when I hope the water level is at it's lowest. I might even open the valve and lower it another foot if I think it will help. Right now, it's a wait and see type of thing without any real commitment to do anything.

Thanks,
Eddie

[MarkV]

We have a little RC electric boat, not one of the fast expensive gas ones, at our place and kids love to go trolling with it. About 3' of line with a lure off the back and you should see the kids when a Bass grabs it and almost pulls it under. Some of the kids involved are in their 50's.

MarkV

[BayouMan]

Eddie,
Next time we go to Dallas, I would love to come by and check out your projects. My cell is 225-936-9609. It will probably be several months before we head that way again.
Best of luck on getting your RV park established.

Mike

[scoutcub]

Eddie;

I've been reading the entire post over the last few weeks with great interest. I'm currently working overseas, and the internet is essentially our only extracurricular activity due to our location, so it's like returning to a good book every day.
It was fascinating to witness the transformation of an idea to the reality it has become. It was also quite interesting to get to know some of the "characters" that contributed on a regular basis, as well as the very informative information submitted by so many others.
I think you realize you have been an inspiration to myself and countless others. Your work ethic, integrity, and positive attitude speak very highly of yourself as an individual and I would daresay contagious for the rest of us.

I parallel your feelings about raising a family in the type of environment you have created, and hope to do the same in the next few years. The pics of the kids exploring and fishing around the lake were indeed heartwarming!

You also answered one of my question in one of your most recent posts....how you funded everything. I'm one of those guys that has a big house, newer truck, bunch of toys, big debts....but am planning for ways to downsize and live a much simpler life. I like your way better.

One question I do have....any rough idea of the opening of the park? I would love to load the family in the camper, and see the whole operation as well as the pleasure of meeting you.

You never said if you were an East or West coast Marine? I was in from 79-83.

Kudos to you for the project, the wonderful family you have, and the piece of paradise you occupy!

Frank

[EddieWalker]

Hi Frank, thank you for your kind words. It's a pleasure to read them and hear of others who enjoyed it. I've been slowly, and I mean VERY SLOWLY, creating a photo album that chronicles Lake Marabou from beginning to end at Picaboo - Photo Books and Cards The end is still a ways off, but that's mostly because I'm sidetracked on a few other things that I'm trying to get done first, but spend untold hours researching and day dreaming about the finishing touches that I still want to do for it to be done.

There really isn't any sort of a schedule on when I'll be ready to start the real construction of the RV Park. I'm slowly clearing trees, moving dirt and carving out the land into roads and sites. I recently finished the pads for my store and rec. building, and I have six out of seven long term roads in. The last road is about halfway cleared, then it needs to have sites cleared before moving dirt around. The short term sites are taking longer and might not be done before the opening just to start generating revenue. I had a few bids on the clearing and dirt work, which were just absured. The best price that I got to install my six inch water line was $30,000. Steph and I did it ourselves in three days after the road bore under the highway was done for less then $10,000 in materials and paying for a ten inch bore 100 feet under a State Highway!!! My remodeling, general contracting business is doing better and better, so I'm not hurting for money or in a rush to get the park open right away. As it is, I have lots of time and no pressure. When the trees are out of the way and the dirt is where I want it, then I'll take the next step. It's still quite a few years until I'm at that point.

I was in the Corps from 83 to 88. Boot Camp at SD and then stationed at Pendleton and Quantico before going overseas as an Embassy Marine at Younde Cameroon and Jakarta Indonesia. 30 months overseas was plenty!!!

What are you doing overseas and where are you?

Eddie

[scoutcub]

Eddie;

It's hard to grasp the magnitude of the RV park especially going it alone, but what a great ongoing project!
I recently bought 62 acres in Ohio and hope to start building in the next year or 2. I just bought a small dozer and have a few compacts to work the property, and will try to do a little at a time to get it where I want it. It already has a small pond and creek on it, (and a beaver dam) but I have plans for 1-2 more small ponds. Much of your Lake thread has been invaluable for my future planning. I also want to build as much of a good size pole barn and the house as possible, to keep costs down. I've always been told you could typically double the cost of materials for labor, but in your case with the water main, even triple it!
I was in the Corps from 79-83, boot camp at lovely PI then 4 years at Lejeune. Of the 4 years, I did 2 years on deployments, NATO's and MED trips. Got to see a lot of the world for free, some I would have preferred not to see!
I served in 2 other services after the Corps, ending up with 25 years military.

Now I'm working close to your old stomping grounds of Cameroon...in Nigeria, flying to offshore oil rigs. Hopefully working here will allow me to retire earlier and start the dream projects that much sooner!

Frank

[03FORD250]

Hey Eddie,

Just spent a significant portion of the last four days reading every page straight through to 160!!!! What an amazing project. Pretty sure I wouldn't have had the intestinal foritude to start it much less finish it. Makes my little 1/4 acre pond look like a puddle. Just a thought, but when I moved into my place the pond was completely covered with algae. I tried Copper Sulfate, which worked, but I was concerned that the rotting vegetation would deplete the water of oxygen and whatever fish were in there would die. I decided on a bottom aerator, and couldn't be happier, its been in for 2 years now and haven't had an algae problem since. Food for thought if you should have the same problem.

Great job and keep the progress reports coming.

Chris

[EddieWalker]

Chris,

Nice to hear you enjoyed reading it.

There is very little alge in there. I can see some growing around the shoreline, but it's very light and not really noticable. I don't know if it's because the water is cloudy from the clay in the runoff, or if it's because my shoreline drops so quickly and the conditions are not ideal for alge to grow. Either way, I'm fortunate to not have to deal with that issue and hope that it remains this way.

In my small pond, I added a bunch of sheetrock scraps to neutralize the clay particles that were suspended in the water. That pond has water that is always brown in color. The gypson in sheetrock is perfect for this, and sure enough, in just a few days, the water cleared right up. It was amazing to see the difference and astonishing at how quickly it worked. Then about a week or so later, it all turned green!!! Then the green grew into a lumpy mess. It was disgusting looking and I was wishing for that brown colored water again. The green mess remained until winter, when it froze to death. Since then, the water has remained brown and the alge is kept to a bare minimum.

With our current rains, Lake Marabou is overflowing the spillway. It started earlier in the week, and is the earliest in the year that it's happened. I expect that I'll have a full pond now and until the spring rains end!!!

A few weeks ago, I sprayed the grass around the dam with 2,4-d at a 2% solution. I went to a class to get my private applicators license so I could buy this stuff. It has been a miracle at killing off the Nutsedge that was taking over. The Bermuda grass that I like was loosing the battle to the Nutsedge, and I was in a panic that the dame and my grassy areas would all become Nutsedge. This was my second application. The first was back in early summer. The first time really did a number of killing off the Nutsedge. This time, it was more maintenance and follow up to make sure it doesn't get going again. I'm going to do it every spring and fall just to make sure it never comes back again!!!

Since then, I let it set for a couple weeks to make sure the poison worked it way to the roots. Now that it's all dead, I'm wanting to mow, but have not had an chance because of the rains. It's either raining, just stoped raining or I'm doing something else. The grass is at calf height and kind of scarry to walk through with all my snakes.

I shot one a few weeks ago that I'm pretty sure was a cotton mouth. I saw a HUGE, fat one, that might have been a cotton mouth too. I didn't see it's head, just the body as it went into some brush. My brother has killed 9 or ten in the last week and a half. Lately, with the cooler weather, they are out more then normal. These are all dark colored snakes, and they are all around the water, but not in the water. I also have water snakes in the pond, but from I'm told, if their body is under the surface of the water, they are harmless. If they are floating on top of the water, then they are cotton mouth, or water mocisin snakes. Same snake, two names.

I also have a beaver problem again. I see the trails from the creek, going across the dam, and into Lake Marabou, going through the grass. I've also found a few trees that have recently been chewed off by the beaver. So the reason I'm out shooting snakes, is that I'm really out hunting beavers. I can't let them get established just in case they start digging into my dam. If that happens, then the dam could fail. Beavers digging into dams and levies is very common and a big reason that they fail.

The wood ducks are back. I've been kicking out a pair or two almost every time I go along the shoreline. If I'm home early to meet the school bus, my son and I go for a four wheeler ride around the shoreline while exploring our roads. Lately, I've been flushing out pairs of wood ducks from the reeds and plants growing right at the edge of the water. I've also seen quite a few pairs of them flying overhead at last light. I'm still unsure if I'm scaring them off and they want to land in Lake Marabou, or if they are just flying along the path of the creek. My brother has been flushing out groups of six and ten from the creek several times a week, for the past two weeks. I like wood ducks and enjoy seeing them. Hopefully they get used to us and will just stay in the water when we're around.

Hogs are all over that area right now. I think we're having a poor acorn crop this year. It was very dry in July and August, which I think has affected the amount of acorns that we normally get. The last few years, there were places that you couldn't walk around the pond without stepping on layers of acorns. They were piling up on top of each other. This year, I'm out searching for acorns and having trouble finding them. Maybe because of that, the hogs are really tearing things up along the creek. They are also causing some damage at the shoreline, but I'm undecided if it's bad or good. They tear out some of the reeds, so that's good, but they muddy up the water, so that's bad.

I'm also clearing out some of the trees between Lake Marabou and my deer blind. When I built the blind, I could barely see the water. Now I can see most of the dam, and when the leaves all drop, I should have a fair view of it from the blind. If nothing else, it's just nice to be able to see the water while in the deer blind. It's my happy place. LOL

Eddie