Creating a Lake

[patrick_g]

Eddie, I hope you and your dam make it through this wet period. I suggest that you need to conside a taller dam not particularly wider (so long as the height/width ratio is within good engineering practice.)

The creek water can do you damage even if it is nearly motionless. By imersing much of the dam from both sides (lake and creek) the dam could really get saturated and with insufficient weight from dirt above the water line the dirt of the dam might not hold against the difference in hydrostatic pressure when the lake is higher than the creek. Recall the comments from the poster in Holland? Dirt above highest water level is very important. There is sometimes a reluctance to have enough dirt in the air because of aesthetics. Some folks think they have to have the lake or pond look brimming full but that is not good engineering practice.

My current pond consideration is if they will freeze over enough to make it dangerous for stock such that I need to go out early morninigs and break ice so they can drink. It is in the mid teens now. Cattle will walk out on the ice trying to break through to get a drink and can get stranded and die of exposure and exhaustion. IF they get too deep into hypothermia then if pulled out they often do not make it (neighbors experience, I haven't lost any.)

Pat

 

[EddieWalker]

Pat,

Thank you for your concern and advice. The water has receded, even though we had more rain last night. The total for this storm was 6 7/8 inches in two and a half days.

After reading your post, we went down to the lake to see what the damage was. I was very concerned with the back side of the dam where the creek had overflowed and flooded. I'm not positive, but I don't think it got high enough to touch the actual dam, but it was real close.

I walked along the side of the dam lookign for any sign of erosion, or squishy spots. It's completely solid and I wouldn't have any problems driving on it. In fact, as you can see in this first picture, there are still leaves on the ground where it was flooded. Close to the creek, the leaves are gone, bug further away, next to the dam, it looks undesterbed.

The other pictures show how much freeboard I have above the water line of the dam. We're standing in the pictures to give some idea of perspective. In boots, I'm 6 ft and Steph would be 5 and a half feet tall. The lake is about 4 1/2 inches from being full.

What do you think? Do I need more dirt?

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Here are a few pictures of the lake. The yardstick shows how much water we received from runoff. Overall, 6 7/8 fell and the water level rose 22 1/4 inches!!!!!

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[turbo36]

Here are a few pictures of the lake. The yardstick shows how much water we received from runoff. Overall, 6 7/8 fell and the water level rose 22 1/4 inches!!!!!

Thanks,
Eddie

What a special feeling that must be to look over the lake that you had the vision and the ability to build.

It truly is the ideas you act on that count.

 

[WayneB]

Eddie,

What a wonderful project! I am sure you will have a great number of stories to tell over they years while bass fishing!

Enjoyed reading the entire thread.

Wayne

 

[EddieWalker]

The first picture is of the biggest Birch Tree on my land. They are all over in the floodplain and I'm guessing that they do good in wet conditions. I have some concern about it's ability to live with the lake all around it, but figured it was worth the rist to try and keep it. If it dies, I have a problem on my hands that I'd rather not think about.

The big peninsula wasn't part of my original plan, but the more I planned a large dock or two that would be able to handle lots of people, the more complex and expensive it got. Then the liablity issue came up and the fear of an accident on it made me scrap the entire dock idea. That's when I decided on the peninsula.

To make it more attractive, I'm going to build a gazebo at the end of it. I have this picture in my brain of green grass surounding a gazebo that is built on cedar posts from the trees on my land.

The last picture is to show how much dirt is in the silt pit. I'm rough guessing that I traped over 2 yards in it, and I need to dig it out again.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[David Ferguson]

My earlier ratio was 1 inch of rain gave me 3 inches of water. Now I have another 4 5/8 inches, which gave me an additional 17 3/8 inches. Is that right?

Can somebody tell me what the ratio is of rain fallen to the rise of the lake?

Your new ratio is 1 inch rain gives 3.75 inch rise (17.375/4.625 = 3.75).

Or the other way: 1" rise for each .26" of rainfall.

 

[EddieWalker]

David,

Thank you, and welcome to TBN. It's an honor to have your first post be one to help me out.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

Eddie, those pictures just look plumb unnatural to some of us. After that much rain, I would have expected you to be at least ankle deep in mud, and if you'd had the kind of "soil" I had 60 miles south of Dallas, you'd also have 10 pounds of mud stuck to each shoe.

And we only got almost a third as much rain as you got. I'd say we were within a couple of hundredths of having exactly 2" over the three days.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hey Bird,

One of the things that I've learned about clay soil, and really love about it is what happens when it's compacted and able to drain. It sheds water and remains solid no matter how much rain it gets. But in areas that it's flat with standing water, or in areas that it's loose, it's the most miserable stuff around.

We have certain roads and trails that we walk where it almost doesn't matter if it's wet outside. But of course, we see a hog track, or a bird to take pictures of or just about any other reason to leave the safe areas, and we're ankle deep in it.

The dam is solid and did everything I'd hoped it would. My biggest fears didn't happen and I'm feeling good about it all. This was allot of rain, fairly quickly, and I came out of it without any damage at all.

As Harvey says, "Life is Good"

Eddie