I met Fishman, AKA John, at the first Norte Tejas get together and I'm hoping he makes it to the next one in April. I'll probably bring a notebook just to pick everyones minds.
I think Pondboss is an excellent website. I've been reading articles there for the past two years. I'm just not much of a poster on that site.
I grew up in California and learned allot of what I'm doing from a friend with a ranch in the Bay Area. Life there was a constant battle with big brother and every agency they can invent. Sometimes we'd get new departments that were just invented to spend budget money and needed a cause to justify their existence. I've been involved in Salamander studies along with a few other species that didn't exist on the property, but "might have at one time."
Here in Texas, things are different. I'm outside city limits and can do pretty much what I want on my land. No permits.
After I finish clearing the brush and timber around the perimiter of the lake site, I'll start digging my key way.
Maximum height of the dam will be 8 feet for a short distance, with the majority of it being 6 feet tall. The top will be 8 feet wide and I'll have a 3:1 slope on both sides.
My key trench will be four feet deep and twelve feet wide. I'll use my backhoe and the dump truck I'm gonna buy to compact it. The dozer doesn't put as much preasure down on the ground to give me as much compaction as the wheels do.
Top soil at the dam location will be moved aside until I hit clay. Most clay is just a few inches down. The dirt from the key trench will also be moved aside and later reused as oustide slope material.
In 1942 the US Army built a rifle range on my land. To maintain a level shooting position, they built up these huge berms for the soldiers to shoot from. They are six hundred feet long, 20 feet wide and perfectly flat on top regardless of the slope of the land.
The photo is of the 200 yard shooting position. It ends at the beginning of my dam. It's somehting I was planning in my layout.
The dirt used to build these things is just amazing. It holds extremely well. I have to use the dozer or backhoe to break it free to load it. Then it compacts again unlike any of my other clay soil. In other words, it will be incredible building material.
I don't know the final dimensions yet, but can guess from my topo map that I'm in the three acre range.
The creek wont' work for siphoning off water to keep it filled. The bottom of the lake will be about two feet above the normal creek level. My water shed to feed the lake is in the 40 to 50 acre range. I will also add a shallow well down the road to bring in water during the summer months.