Building Lake Corona

[EddieWalker]

When building my pond, I read that if you can pick up a handful of soil and squeeze it into a ball without any water oozing out, it's not too wet. If it holds its shape and you can see were all of your fingers are in it, then you are just right. If it falls apart, it needs water.

My first job after the Marines was operating a water truck on construction sites. Most of it was dust control, but I also spent a lot of time watering dirt piles while a wheel loader mixed it up before they used it. The guy in the wheel loader told me when to add water and when to stop, so it was always his call on how much was added. A few times there was too much and he would bring in more dry dirt and mix it in. It takes a lot of experience to know when it's perfect, but fortunately for pond building, a little wet is better than a little dry.

From what I see in your pics, your dirt looks really good!!!

 

[jk96]

Made it out after supper this evening. I was able to drop all of rhe trees in my way and get them drug out of the way. I will be ready to start moving clay tomorrow and hoping to get a good 4 or 5 hours in.

 

[BleedingOrange]

To the OP, I really enjoy your getter done attitude, along with the pictures and updates.

 

[jk96]

To the OP, I really enjoy your getter done attitude, along with the pictures and updates.

Thank you. Wrapped up my work list early. I just finished cleaning and greasing the machine and getting ready to head out on the loader for the afternoon. The cleaning part is what I hate most. I normally start out trying to be careful from spraying myself with mud. After a few unexpected blasts back on me I usually end up throwing caution to the wind and becoming one with the water and dirt. Today was no different. I'm still hoping to get four or five hours in today.

Goal is to get all of the topsoil stripped and hopefully a good portion of the pond bottom lined. Once I get the topsoil removed I should be able to push a lot of dirt downhill pretty quick. Size of this machine along with pushing down the hill should let me pretty much doze this hillside instead of carrying a bucket at a time.

 

[mostly_gas]

JK96 hope the clay seals the pond like you hope.

 

[jk96]

JK96 hope the clay seals the pond like you hope.

Same here. The deer and wildlife will continue to enjoy it regardless but I'd really like to be able to put some fish in it.

 

[jk96]

Wrapped up for the day. My goals turned out to be a bit ambitious. I ended up spending a lot of time cutting up and hauling out 2 more trees that were eventually going to need to go. Once I started on the topsoil I found out that there was more to remove at the top of that hill than anticipated. I was still able to get the topsoil removed on the half of the hill I'm currently working on and pushed a good amount of dirt downhill.

Here's my current mound of topsoil that was removed today.

Pictures of the hillside I'm pulling clay from after wrapping up this evening

 

[jk96]

Ran the go pro taking down one of the two trees. This one was around 20" at the base.

 

[BackRoad]

Looks like a capable set up. I'm good up to about 10 inches with my tractor...you're riding a beast!!

I find taking down trees at the root as you did, to be highly satisfying for some reason...

Enjoyable video!

 

[jk96]

It's starting to look pretty good from where I was a few days ago. All of the pond bottom is covered now and ready to compact. Probably going to go ahead and run clay cover up the dam as well. I was able to dig out and fix the break in the inlet tube. Dirt is looking good. I'm seeing uniform clay soil from the top of the hill I'm pulling from all the way to the bottom. Wrapped up at dark after moving the rest of the fish structure out of the pond. There's a small chance of rain here tonight and tomorrow morning. If we miss it then weather looks good until next Friday and should have this wrapped up.