Creating a Lake

[meadowlarkponds]

Eddie,

Recognizing your goal to move the dirt out, but if you don't get it all out that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Those mounds could become islands (underwater) which can help in the effective utilization of deep water. Provides great structure/habitat for fish. The steeper the slope the better on those islands and if they come up to within a couple of feet of the surface they can really be effective.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hey Meadowlark,

I agree, it's a win-win situation for me. If didn't do anything, I'd still have a lake well beyond my dreams. Right now, I'm being greedy and trying to get as much dirt out of there as I can.

My deep end is 12 feet and my shallow side is 4 to 6 feet deep. Overall, I'm guessing I'm close to 8 feet down the middle. I'm just trying to get the entire bottom as deep as I can.

I have two very large submerged islands, two medium sized and three small ones. I also have those logs that kind of connect the submerged islands. If my fish arn't happy, then they'll just have to deal with it. hahahaha

I had my Dad pick up the block today since I was busy. He forgot the heads. hahaha

I'll update the thread on the dumptruck engine rebuild in the Construction Equipment section tomorrow when I get some decent pictures.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

While waiting on the dump truck, I decided to put my culverts in. The shoreline road will act as a dam for the rain runnoff. I need to channel it to the lowest point and get it under the road and into the lake.

Based on the size of my watershed and extreme rains, I decided to use an 18 inch and a 15 inch culvert. There is also an open trench along my property line that carry the majority of the water shed.

The first picture shows my truck and trailer on the shoreline road.

The second picutre shows the 18 inch culvert in the area I want it to go.

Third picture shows the culvert in the trench with my backhoe. I have a 24 inch bucket and the 18 inch culvert just fits in the trench.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

The second culvert is the smaller one. It's only gonna handle about ten acres of watershed, but in a heavy rain, that can still add up to allot of water!!

First picture shows the culvert on my shoreline road.

Second pic shows the trench and a nice flat bottom. For culverts, it's not that big adeal to have a perfect bottom, not like water or sewer lines, but I still try to do a nice job.

The third picture shows my backhoe and in the background, my dozer.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Now that I have the dump truck running, it's time to remove those dirt piles.

First picture shows a full 6 yard load.

Second and third pictures show the dump truck dumping the dirt off the edge of the dam. I want to build up the width of the dam to creat a large picnic area that is eleveated above the water level and surrounded by shade trees.

Eddie

 

[Bulldog160]

Man, I wish I had that dirt. I could use all of it. Want to ship it to WNY?

This project amazes me. You have by far more ambition than anybody I know. It'll be amazing when it's done.

Thanks for keeping us posted.

 

[RobJ]

Eddie,

you gonna pour some concrete on the discharge side of those culverts? They look a little short and close to the day. I've seen that mistake before, couple hard rains and that dirt melts like butter. Plus it looks like that is some top soil instead of the good ole red clay.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Rob,

I have a pile of busted up concrete that will be used to stop, or at least cut down on the amount of erosion from the culverts. I think it's also called Rip-Rap, but that might just be a term for lining the banks.

The soil you see on that road is from about four feet down in my lake site. There are three main colors of clay on my land. Red, grey and brown. The brown dries to a grayish shade, but it's totally different than my gray clay.

The red and the brown compact real nice and hard. The gray turns to chalk and remaines loose. It won't compact at all. It's worse than topsoil and very difficult to get rid of. I have to bury it with several feet of red or brown clay over it just to get plants to grow. It's completely sterile and nothing will grown on it.

Eddie

 

[patrick_g]

Eddie. I'm not sure I followed everything correctly but could you dig as deep and big of a lake as you want... AND THEN run a ditch to it from the "swamp" and perhaps another from the creek to the lake. If you desired it you could put a sluice gate like is used in irrigation in the ditch from the creek so you could control the rate at which youi "borrow" water from the creek. Once the lake is filled you probably wouldn't need to use the control any more.

"Draining" the swamp might firm up its edges enough over time to permit you to dig it out for more lake area. My personal view is better a lake than a swamp.

Since you mention fishing, consider the surface area vs the volume when choosing an average depth. LOts of folks erroneously assume deeper is better. It can be for stock watering as a hedge against periods of drought but not such a good idea for fish.

If the air-water interface area is insuficient to oxygenate the volume of water then the deep water will be oxygen deprived and fish will not be able to live in it. OK, fish will sort of avoid it so what is the problem? Ever hear about a pond "TURNING OVER?" A condition where the density of the bottom non-oxygenated water is less dense that the surface water during temp changes with turn of the seasons. If the non-oxygenated water gets mixed with the other water the result is too low of an O2 content and you lose fish, starting with the most effected species.

You can aereate the water with large bublers and air pumps like a big aquarium. There are windmill type air pumps for aereating ponds. I have even seen a Sevonius rotor type windmill attached by a shaft to an impeller near the bottom of a deep section of pond. Whenever the wind blows, the rotor spins the "prop" at the bottom and stirs the water. Pretty simple actually. Any way you can oxygenate the water sufficiently is a "GOOD" way. Atwoods is selling a small windmill for about $1100. It has a pump at the head. If you pump water up from the bottom and pour it on the surface from a height you will both mix and aereate the water as well as have something interesting to look at.

Depending on the lay of the land you might not have to have a working dam. Just dig out a lake and use the excavated soil to "BURY" the swamp and for other things where you might need a little dirt.

Pat

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Pat. Are you the "Pat" from Countrybynet?? I'm a big fan of your home building project if that's you!!!!

Your pretty close in what you describe as to what I did with the lake. The reason I chose this area was the water it held during the summer. My land is extremely thick jungle. Just about impossible to climb through with all the vines I have. I looked on a topo map and was curious to see what it was like in there, so one day I just pointed the dozer in that direction and started knocking over trees.

I was suprised at all the surfacewater I came across and also pretty scared of getting stuck.

When I decided to put a lake in there, it was still on the assumption that the land would never dry out and I'd be working in wet conditions. Then we had the worse drought in 30 years along with taking out almost 7 acres in trees, it all dried out. I still had surface water in spots, but worked around those.

This year the drought is even worse and the surface water areas are just mildly wet. No water,but darker collored dirt.

The lake is dug down below the water level that I started with 4 to 10 feet. My thinking is, and I know it's a fantasy, but I think that when the rains come back and the water table rises again, that the lake should fill to 80 percent just from the water table. I said it was a fantasy. hahahaha

I dug down below that far and it could happen, I just don't know if it will or not.

If it wasn't for the drought, the lake would probably have turned out a disaster. I don't know, but I had all sorts of crazy ideas on how to clear it and dig it out that I now realize were just plain silly. I started with those assumptions, but fortunately, I didn't have to try any of them.

Here are a few pics that I tool yesterday. The dirt pile is just about gone, but I need to spread some more dirt along the width of the dam. My dam is about 6 feet tall on the outside with the water level rising about 4 feet up it when the lake is full. The inside of the lake is about ten feet deep about 30 or 40 feet from the dam and continues to drop to 12 feet in the middle.

My dam doesn't need to be any wider, but it's more attractive, the wider I make it. I like the gently slope of it and a nice wide open top to walk on. Too many dams that I've come across are barely wide enough for two people to walk on side by side. On mine, you can drive cars in two directions!!! Not that anybody will be allowed to drive on it, but I could if I wanted to. hahaha

Eddie