Cement Bag Retaining Wall

WoodChuckDad · May 7, 2017

I have passing consideration to building forms and having cement poured in. It might have been cheaper in the long run. It certainly would not have been easy. But really, neither was building it this way. We have had significant rain the last few weeks, including more than two inches of rain this past Wednesday. The pond was flooded with debris that washed down the mountain. The stream rose more than a foot above its banks and my bridge got its first real test. I saw it handling a fair amount of water last week when I was here but this was much more. The water marks on the inside of the tubes indicate that there was more than a foot of water rushing down the pipes. The regular spillway pipe outlet had also clogged and I had to attend to that yeasterday morning. So my bridge overflow spillway was handling all the water. It did an outstanding job. I did see some erosion at the outlet side of the bridge that needs my attention and more rock to mitigate but all in all it worked as designed.

cat fever · May 7, 2017

Nice, glad it's working out as planned.
It's impressive how much work you have done, and yes, I'm still jealous of anyone with a pond.:laughing:

WoodChuckDad · May 8, 2017

cat fever said:
Nice, glad it's working out as planned.
It's impressive how much work you have done, and yes, I'm still jealous of anyone with a pond.:laughing:

Ponds require maintenance. The amount of water that passed thru this weekend was phenomenal. I wonder how many fish were washed away. It's crazy. The creek swelled a foot up, but that is in a serious crevice. So 1 feet up and about 10 to 15 feet wide. We spend hours pulling debris out of the pond yesterday and today. Each time when you cleared the spillway pipe, it would start draining fast and hard. That is the only reason I bought a canoe two years ago, was for pond maintenance. You also get snakes....now we have lots of snakes anyway, because we are out in the country. But we have some large snakes in that pond. We got up close and personal with one of the biggest copperheads I have ever seen in the wild, on Saturday. And I still have not caught one of the bass. Someday I will take a whole day to just fish.

EddieWalker · May 13, 2017

I've never been into fishing, but I've found that I enjoy seeing other catch fish in my pond. Especially my wife!!!! Her son has a friend out visiting from FL this week and at 25 years of age, he has never caught a fish before. He caught 11 bass in my pond yesterday with the biggest just over 2 pounds!!! His excitement was contagious. What ever you do, be sure to make time to enjoy your pond every now and then.