Creating a Lake

[Nat]

Hey, Eddie . Did you get any water in the lake from all the rain ya'll are getting? Vickie and I are leaving to come out your way next week, we were worried about wildfires, and on TV this morning we see people flooded from their homes in Dallas, you must have even stranger weather than us. Later, Nat

 

[RobJ]

Hey Eddie here is a few interesting lake pics for you. A friend down the street is putting in this lake. Block off a spring fed creek. I might have mentioned earlier he used 4 24" pipes for his overflow on another lake. I asked him about that this weekend, he said he had to do that because a county road was close to the dam and any run off went into the creek below. This lake is a bit different. He's using a 6" drain with a valve and spill pipe (whatever you call it). He has yet to add another section to get the water level up more. Below the dam is a drainage ditch that runs into a larger creek. The area below is low and flat. He can flood from the pond for duck hunting or to water a hay field. Interesting. Firt pic you can see the drain valve (huge) and the 6" pipe stand. Concrete around the area to control the errosion. He plans on putting a spiget (sp?) so he can fill a water tank, wash his truck, etc. Should be plenty of water pressure on the line. For the pond overflow he ran the dam out wide of the pond to divert water away from the main dam and into a pasture. This is for the flooding type rains, etc. You can sort of see it in the picture, it's the black soil that tapers off.

 

[RobJ]

Next pic backup the hill. The spring fed creek is doing it's job. The water in the foreground (of the dirt mound) wastn't there 24 hours earlier. We were riding atvs there the day before. The lake will back up in the creek about 1000 feet. The dozer is a Cat D6. He has about 60 hours doing this so far. He's in his late 60's and is an absolute pro with any and all heavy equiptment. He's don it all his life. I told my wife he could icing a weeding cake with a track hoe.

 

[RobJ]

Pic of the dam, the atvs will give you some sort of size reference. Again a day later there is water below that atv now. He had more work to do around the drain pipe but I don't think he realized it was going to fill up that fast. He was in houston this weekend for the last show of the rodeo.

 

[RobJ]

one more shot of the dam and the island he built over by the dozer.

 

[EddieWalker]

Rob,

That's quite a hole your friend dug. Did you say he did it all in 60 hours???? Man, I'm sure feeling slow compared to him. I'm will into the hundreds of hours and expect to need another hundred more. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Maybe you can make me feel better and tell me he's digging in sand or somethingl like that. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Just kidding.

I'm a big fan of those who know what they are doing and how much faster they can get things done!!!!

Nat,

We were expecting 3 inches out of last weekends storm, so I closed the valve on the drain to see what would happen. I also wanted to see how much water would get into the lake even with me diverting allot of my run-off away from it. My main road is crowned with ditches directing the water off to the sides for now.

Everyone Else,

Thanks for the help identifying the Red Bud. I've always heard of it, but for some reason never made the connection.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

One of the reasons I wanted the drain to be on the bottom is to pull silt out when it's flowing. It makes sense to me, but I still want to see the results.

Here's the discharge of the pipe as it goes into the creek.

Eddie

 

[RobJ]

Hey Eddie, Yes old Edwin would be called a pro for sure. He started that pond on March 11th. The first of my pictures were taken on the 17th. The brush/trees were already gone. He can get it done in 1-2 passes where Itd take me a morning. I'll have to get a picture of the overflow bypass, eyballed all the way but a perfect curve in it.

Some sand on top but before the water covered it we saw that sort of multi colored rock hard clay. He said it was giving the D6 a bit of a load.

You might double check on the drain on the bottom. If you run it a couple times a month it may not clog but a lot of silt will fall as the water clears. You can see Edwin angles his up. The 6" pipe has holes all around it.

Keep up the good work!

 

[RobJ]

Hey Eddie!! Time to bounce this back up and get an update. It's been 2 weeks since I posted that other friends pond. Since that time they've gotten 5 inches of rain and the pond is FULL!! It didn't back up quite as far as he wanted but I think he said he's got a couple ideas to back it up more. He wants a long shallow area to bring in some ducks in the winter.

Some pics....

Before (actually 3/18/2006)

 

[RobJ]

Then last Saturday, 4/1/2006.