Building Fish Pond down under with a J.D.Compact

[bindian]

Hi Brandi, ur project has certainly been a journey 4 u, that little M tractor had a lot harder work to do with clay than my sandy soil. however ur clay will IMO when it settles down hold water well, i have to keep topping up thru summer here. we have 90,000lt rainwater tank and over 500sqm of roofing which produces about 3X water we need, so overflow from that tank plus a bore hooked to solar panels means water is not too much of an issue so far, but as ur finding, this is all a journey into the unknown, every pond is different.
i recon theres 2 parts to life - either do & find out for better or worse, or think about it & never know.... i think us doers have more fun:laughing:
cheers OzG

OzG,
During the summer dry spell my pond level drops down about 4-5 feet. I have diversion berms that channel all water above my pond into it and from the road ditch in front.

My little M tractor is 65 hp, but the backhoe is a lifesaver and sheer joy to play on. The clay was tough on it digging, but get the bucket just right and you can roll layers of clay into it.

I am in the planning process of building another pond bigger and down stream of this pond.
hugs, Brandi

 

[OzGrasshopper]

Hi Kyle in Tex - yes east coast of oz had a lot of unseasonal flooding over last 6 weeks, still a mess in lot of places. in WA (West Aust) west coast we have 2 very different climates: winter rain in south where we are, and monsoon/cyclonic in the very north and desert in between. Our northwest area also had bad flooding, but it has very small population, so doesn't feature much in news.
interesting i note ur population for state of texas around 25million ours in WA is about 2.2million !!! land area of WA 975,000 sq miles urs 262,000 sq miles i think?? best thing is we both have a wonderful standard of living by world standards so gratefully can enjoy land ownership & mostly freedom to do as we wish with those wonderful tractors.....good to hear from u - cheers Oz G

 

[jinman]

OzG, I remember fondly being in Perth and Fremantle in the early '80s while in the US Navy. I can't remember where I ever had more fun or felt more welcomed.:thumbsup: When we were leaving, about halfway out of the port, we discovered a stowaway onboard who had slipped into a fanroom during one of many tours. This young fellow really wanted to come to the USA.:laughing:

Unlike your land, mine is hilly and water runoff has produced deep erosion gullies. I'm in the process of building two ponds in those gullies, but I have a full-sized New Holland LB75B TLB, so I've done some serious digging. I just work on it when I have time. It's one of the luxuries of being retired. What is your cost of fuel? The last diesel I bought was $3.50 per gallon. I'd bet you are paying much more for fuel there.

 

[OzGrasshopper]

Hi Jim, glad to hear u were well looked after in Freo & Perth - we used to get the smaller ships into Albany down here now & again - back in the 1970's i was a "liason officer" for those visits to Albany and we had some fine times - i could never get over how facinated your sailors were with kangaroos......& i can sit here in my office and watch them right now.
i have to congradulate u also on being 2 days longer on this planet than me (16/9/1947).
i have often seen ur posts - 2 things caught my eye - first that avatar of urs, boy thats on steep operation and where were the front wheels going? is there a larger pic somewhere? - i can really relate to that.....
second is the Rockin' Anchor Ranch logo - i thought to myself theres a man whose been to sea for sometime - its a beauty!
diesel is $5-10 per US gal - lucky most of the population in Oz is too young to remember gallons, since 1966 they sell it by the litre here so it doesn't seem so expensive to the younger folk $1-35 ltre - likes of my age still measure everything in gallons, feet, inches, acres & miles to really know what it costs!
if u have those gullies to contend with, i guess u would need a very good overflow built in so the front banks don't burst in big down pours - on the flats we can have a lot of rain and the spread is so wide height of water isn't too big to worry about. but with this increase in severity of weather events that we've seen in Oz this year, i've decided i'm going to add a rock bed to the low side of each down stream corner of the ponds, so if the water gets to that point the fish can't skip out.......
been good to chat with u Jim - i look foreward to some pics of gully ponds...when u feel ready to tackle it with that machine of urs! cheers OzG

 

[OzGrasshopper]

Just remembered, talking of kangaroos, i had this pic of this mother & bub that i took out of the dining room window to show how friendly these animals get...

cheers OzG

 

[jinman]

OzG, that's amazing that we are only two days apart. '47 was a good year.:thumbsup:

I have to warn you that when you ask me a question about a photo, I am inclined to flood you with a bunch more. Sorry. . . I had a man with a track loader in to clean out 60 years of silt from a pond. In the deepest point, the silt was 10 feet deep. This first set of photos is the dozer and his struggle to get the sticky silt out. He had tremendous trouble with it because his bucket would half-fill with silt that would not dump. He had to keep stopping and cleaning the bucket. It made his time not the most efficient and I sent him away with still lots of silt left on the banks of the pond. The photos below tell his story.

 

[jinman]

So, after the track loader left, I decided to use my tractor to clean up the pond banks and increase the size of the pond. That's where my avatar photo came from. Below are photos that tell my story as I worked my way around the dam. It was a long, but fun project and the whole time (several months) we got no rain. One big rain storm and my job would have had to stop. The last photo is after a big 5" rainstorm.

OzG, thanks for your kind words about my logo. I wanted something unique that did just what you said and gave me that connection to the sea. It looks like it works.

I didn't go kangaroo hunting when I was in Perth, but several of my shipmates were invited out on a hunt. It seems that in some dry areas, 'roos are so thick that they eat everything in site. They are pests like our feral hogs here. I don't know if that's still true, but that was the story we were told back in '81.

When you tell me how much fuel costs there, it takes my breath away.:shocked: We are really lucky here compared to the rest of the world. Except for mideast countries and a few places in So. America, I don't know anywhere that it is as cheap as here in the USA and Canada. With fuel selling for $9 per gallon or more, you sure don't want to waste a drop. I just took seven 5-gallon containers and filled them for a bit over $132. I guess if you could do that, you'd be dancin' a jig.:dance1:

 

[EddieWalker]

Great pictures and a fantastic project. It's fun to see your progress and knowing that anything is possible if you just stick with it!!!!

Eddie

 

[OzGrasshopper]

Hey Jim those r amazing sets of pics!
firstly i could not imagine that much silt could build up.......did u realise how deep it was or was it a surprise to u once the dozer started?
secondly what a fantastic job u did with that tractor - its a lovely hole of water!
i guess that clay holds the water well & u just loose water thru evaporation?
u were certainly lucky to have a run of fine weather, cos it would be hugely sticky job otherwise.....a true amazing story, and a big tractor job.

i guess we're of a similar stage of life, i'm semi-retire, run a venison herd of deer of all things here in W.A. - been at that for 27 years. 3 years ago we lost almost 1/2 property to Govt for a long term highway development project - we were fairly compensated & it was time we started easing back anyway - that just made it happen. with smaller property i decided to start farming fish, we are blessed with a good supply of surface and underground water. luckily i was one of the first around here to go into solar power & we generate enough power for our own use plus sell excess into the power grid. i did that cos i reconed power costs will rise & i wanted to insulate ourselves against that cost as we were retired. its been a good investment and means i don't have to worry each time we use a pump.

Thanxs for all those pics - an outstanding project u had there. thanxs also for making comment on my thread, i get huge enjoyment out of finding what other "real" people around the world are doing and sharing experiences, and this forum is so good for that. thanx again - cheers Oz G.

 

[OzGrasshopper]

Hi Eddie, thanxs for dropping in, ur outstanding creation of Lake Maribou should be used world wide as an "inspiration" to those who love a challenge. when i started reading ur thread & saw that water seepage in the trees & then the backhoe got bogged, i bet u could never have dreamt what a project u were about to create.......totally inspirational. my existing pond is about .3 of an acre and the enjoyment i get from that got me started on this project - your heart must just about jump out of ur chest when u can look over 4 arces of water & beautiful suroundings at sunset like the last pics of urs!!!
congratulations - truely an inspirational & wonderful project - so pleased u & family get soooo much enjoyment from it. cheers Oz G