Could use some help with digging a pond

[jokergerm]

We well have 3 acres and most of it is horse pasture so i got the wild idea to dig a pond, about 30x40x4 deep with a Nice burm and maybe a waterfall. If i can figure out how to do all that it will be a miracle but oh well

I started today for about 2 hours i got alot done, my idea was to make a ramp into it and rip is all up with the forks on the box scraper and then pick it up with the loader, i started with the backhoe to make the entrance to the pit and then moved on the the box scraper and loader, i got about 20 yards dug out in about 2 hours.

Im all for ideas on a better way to do this.

here are some pics

 

[NHmitch]

We well have 3 acres and most of it is horse pasture so i got the wild idea to dig a pond, about 30x40x4 deep with a Nice burm and maybe a waterfall. If i can figure out how to do all that it will be a miracle but oh well

I started today for about 2 hours i got alot done, my idea was to make a ramp into it and rip is all up with the forks on the box scraper and then pick it up with the loader, i started with the backhoe to make the entrance to the pit and then moved on the the box scraper and loader, i got about 20 yards dug out in about 2 hours.

Im all for ideas on a better way to do this.

here are some pics

View attachment 269785View attachment 269786View attachment 269787

I found a good article that may help you, its 4 pages long on building a pond. I hope it helps a bit. We have a farm with horse pasture, and our fence line that we built looks almost identical to yours. We used rough cut lumber for the cross beams, and pt 4x4's for the posts. I hope that the pond project goes well for you!

This is the article:

Build a POND

 

[koamfps]

30x40x4 sounds like the makings of a dry pond. Are you going to line it and have continues water flow from the waterfall or is the water going to be re-circulated?
I'm no pro but it would be a lot quicker to get a dozer to come in and grade it down to your dimensions and go from there. The spoils can be pushed and your burm can be completed at the same time.
:2cents:

 

[jokergerm]

I found a good article that may help you, its 4 pages long on building a pond. I hope it helps a bit. We have a farm with horse pasture, and our fence line that we built looks almost identical to yours. We used rough cut lumber for the cross beams, and pt 4x4's for the posts. I hope that the pond project goes well for you!

This is the article:

Build a POND

thanks for the link, ill read that tonight after im done digging

i forgot to mention that 6 months out of the year we have unlimited irrigation water to my house and the other 6 months the sky helps out, being in washington it rains all the dam time

By the time im done it may shirnk to 20x25 or 25x30. Not sure how big we want it yet

 

[mike69440]

Because of the size and depth of the Pond I am constructing, it has a volume about 4 times what you are building. I have a L39 and an excavator. If the soil was not rocky with ledge, I could dig a hole that size in a few days, but it still takes much longer to move the spoils. I wince at how many hours I have put on my little tractor moving thousands of yards of material.

I figure you will spend +100 hrs on your tractor. I suggest you figure cost per hour, wear and tear on your tractor and decide if you should hire a big machine for a day to rough the hole.

You can then spend your time finishing and landscaping that big messy hole in the ground.

 

[jokergerm]

100 hours? no way, i got a lot done today in about 2.5 hours

I was really impressed with my little l3800 today that thing got a work out for sure. I think im going to make the pond about twice as big as it is now, its roughly 25x15x4 right now, not sure exactly how big ill make it, guess ill know when i like how it looks lol

Here is how it sits right now. I almost rolled the tractor a couple times today but i saved it, i only got stuck once. But i was able to use the loader to push my way out

I had alot of fun today for sure

 

[tractorshopper]

I think you'd be amazed with how much a tooth bar on the FEL will help. It will give you more options in certain situations and tight turns. I'm thinking about doing a small pond now also using my FEL and BB.

 

[jokergerm]

I think you'd be amazed with how much a tooth bar on the FEL will help. It will give you more options in certain situations and tight turns. I'm thinking about doing a small pond now also using my FEL and BB.

i wish i had one but the way i did it worked quite well

right now its about 32x22x5. I am not sure how much bigger i want to make it, i was shooting to 40x30 but who knows.

So far i have spent 5 hours digging to get where i am now. I thought it would take alot longer that i did for sure

 

[joeyd]

I know you only want to build a pond but look up Eddie Walker's thread on building his lake. He covers so much it is just plain good reading I am sure some of it could be applied to your pond. Be prepared it is a long thread.

 

[tractorshopper]

I see you have your BH attached in most photos. Are you digging the walls down, then removing spoils with the FEL? Or did you do most of the ripping/digging with the BB and then using FEL to move it all? Just curious to what I might should try. I do not have a BH, but have a 6'BB and the FEL with teeth. I have dug a good bit of ditch with the FEL removing rip rap and redoing my ditch and it digs very well, but I have not taken on a pond type of dig. If I do one, it will be much the same size you're doing on a lower part of my property where a lot of watershed ends up during rains.