Creating a Lake

scott_vt · Sep 22, 2006

Afternoon Eddie,
Here is a pic of that contraption we built. You can see it in the distance off to the right, and we painted it patriotic

red /white and blue

I think its the marine in Uncle Dave

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/photos/53419d1144676277-just-another-saturday-vt-862072-vt1.jpg

By the way, the island with the flag is Gilligans Island

Thought you might want to know

EddieWalker · Sep 24, 2006

Rob,

Guess your getting more heat than I am. It was in the 60's this morning and our high's are still in the low to mid 80's. No rain though. The forecast was as high as 70 percent for rain over the last three days, but nothing happened.

Good thing I bought that unhulled seed!!!

Charlie,

Thanks for the tip on the windmill site. They seem kind of pricey, but like most things, it costs about as much to make it yourself as it is to buy brand new. If I decide to go that route, I'll be sure to post it.

Scotty,

Thanks for the pic. Very nice!!!

Everyone else,

Steph and I went out to the lake site this morning for a walk and for her to take some pictures of the wild flowers that are in bloom. I decided to take my measuring wheel to see how big the lake actually is. When I first started this, the dam wasn't going to be half as big as it turned out, and I took my measurements based on an idea of where I expected to dam to be. At that time I came up with just over 5 acres.

Today I measured off a bunch of rectangles and triangles. I added up the square footage and came up with 187,310, or 4.3 acres.

I'm a little disapointed because I had it in my head that it was 5 acres. It doesn't matter really, but then again??? hahahaha

4 acres is still pretty good sized, and I did build the dam much, much larger than I ever planned or even imagined in my wildest dreams. I also have 12 feet of depth at the deep end and 8 feet through most of it, so thats a good thing. It's just not 5 acres.

Oh well,
Eddie

RobJ · Sep 24, 2006

Eddie,

Sitting here Sunday night it is wonderful out now. We might hit the 50's tomorrow morning, I'm sure yall will. Yall didn't get any rain last night (Sat). That was a huge looking front last night, LOTS of noise but we only got 3/4". I was hoping ELkhart got some more.

Gonna be nice for another few days, then another front this weekend they say. Just in time for the bow season opener.

Bird · Sep 24, 2006

RobJ said:
Eddie,

Sitting here Sunday night it is wonderful out now. We might hit the 50's tomorrow morning, I'm sure yall will. Yall didn't get any rain last night (Sat). That was a huge looking front last night, LOTS of noise but we only got 3/4". I was hoping ELkhart got some more.

Gonna be nice for another few days, then another front this weekend they say. Just in time for the bow season opener.

Yep, that front looked impressive yesterday morning, and according to the news reports, some of this area got an inch of rain. I got less than one-tenth of an inch. However, it was 58 this morning with 55 forecast for tomorrow morning, so that's great. The electric bill should start coming down.

RobJ · Sep 25, 2006

We only managed about 64 or so, still nice! Maybe lower tonight. But time to open the windows, I hate when it's warmer inside than out and running the AC to cool the house!!!

meadowlarkponds · Sep 25, 2006

Eddie,

4.3 vs 5 acres isn't that big of a deal and with 8 foot depths over most of it, you will have as large or larger volume of water than most 5 acre ponds.

I wouldn't call it a 4 acre pond, I'd call it just under 5 acres.

Bird · Sep 25, 2006

RobJ said:
We only managed about 64 or so, still nice! Maybe lower tonight. But time to open the windows, I hate when it's warmer inside than out and running the AC to cool the house!!!

Our forecast was for 55, the "official" low at the airport was 49, but my own thermometer only got down to 56. And yes, it's nice to open windows again because it's not unusual for us to have the A/C running when it's cooler outside than inside.

kubota7800 · Sep 25, 2006

How many years is it going to take to fill your pond?

RobJ · Sep 26, 2006

kubota7800 said:
How many years is it going to take to fill your pond?

Depends on what it catched. This lake took 2 weeks earlier this year. Best guess if you count all the back up about 2 acres, maybe a little less. Pretty deep around the dam. That's an older D6 in the pictures.

EddieWalker · Sep 26, 2006

Still no rain, so if nothing changes, it could take years to fill. What you can't see from the pictures or this thread is that I've been changeing the lay of the land on my property. 300 feet above the shoreline is a road that crosses my land. It also acts as a funnel to catch more rain runoff and direct it to the lake. I've done this in other areas to get every acre of watershed that I can. I've looked at my maps and know for sure I have 40 acres of watershed, but it could be as much as 60 or more. There is lots of grey areas on my neighbors land that could go either way.

The last rain we had was 3/4 of an inch one day and 1/4 of an inch the next day. Every drop soaked into the ground. I need either a very heavy rain, or enough rain to saturate the ground so I can get some runoff.

Heavy rains are very common here, but we're into the second year of a very bad drought. A five inch rain can happen, and has plenty of times. If it does, I'd think it would half fill the lake. In theory, it could fill in a few weeks or just a few heavy storms.

Rob,

Thanks for the update and pictures of your friends pond. It really looks nice with all that water in it!!! Kind of changes the entire look of the land. Now I'd love to see some pictures in the spring when the grass is all in. I bet it will be amazing!!!!!!!!!

Eddie