Creating a Lake

[EddieWalker]

Eddie,

I've heard it's a good luck tradition to kiss the fish before releasing them.
Just wondered if Steph followed this tradition.

Don

Don,

We have a different tradition. Steph kisses ME before releasing them. Each fish that she releases gets me another kiss!!!!!

Jim,

While I'm somewhat paranoid about what the fish will eat and how well they will do in there, I think I'm pretty good on havine enough in there for the bass to not only survive, but thrive.

The bluegill have been in there long enough to have multiple spawns. I can't prove this, but based on what they have done in my small pond, think it to be true. Conditions in the small pond are not as good as in Lake Marabou. That pond is dark brown, shallow and doesn't have much for cover. I think Lake Marabou has it all and when building it, took allot of effort to create the ideal situations for them.

Minnows are absolutely everywhere!!! There isn't a spot along the shoreline that you can without seeing schools of them. Sizes vary from the size of my pinky, down to the length of a fingernail. Just on what we've seen, there must have been at least four, maybe more, spawnings!!!

The next, and maybe most important, thing that I'm hoping for, is the colder water will make them more lethargic. It will be getting cold here pretty soon, and from what I understand, when water temps get to a certain point, the fish are no longer able to digest food. They sort of go into hybernation mode until spring.

This may be wrong, so maybe some of you who know this stuff better then me can correct me. The fish are in there, so I'm hoping for the best. Four pounds might be on the big side, but there's just no way that I'm capable of NOT putting them in there.

Eddie

 

[silverdollar6]

Eddie, I guess you just fish night and day.

 

[TBDonnelly]

Don,

We have a different tradition. Steph kisses ME before releasing them. Each fish that she releases gets me another kiss!!!!!

Eddie

I 'see' said the blind man!

New top goal added for 2008:

0. Stock Lake Marabou Daily.
1. Get my old jeep running.
2. Put my outside access bathroom together.
3. Build my storage shed.
4. Build my gazebo for my front pasture.
5. Finish back pasture and plant it in Bermuda.
6. Start my food plots.
7. Build a comfortable deer stand for two.
8. New flooring in my home.
9. Build a pasture sprayer.
10.Go fishing with my kids.

Don

 

[Defective]

I think he's got his goals in the wrong order. #10 should really be #1.

 

[k6dyc]

My Goals for 2008

1. Get my old jeep running.
2. Put my outside access bathroom together.
3. Build my storage shed.
4. Build my gazebo for my front pasture.
5. Finish back pasture and plant it in Bermuda.
6. Start my food plots.
7. Build a comfortable deer stand for two.
8. New flooring in my home.
9. Build a pasture sprayer.
10.Go fishing with my kids.

Eddie, that list, while impressive for someone like me, seems a bit light for a man with your record of building accomplishments.

Here's wishing you the best with your next challenges.

 

[patrick_g]

Eddie, that list, while impressive for someone like me, seems a bit light for a man with your record of building accomplishments.

Here's wishing you the best with your next challenges.

Rick, That list isn't all he will do. It is a list of special things he WANTS to do, most likely way above and beyond all the things he will actually do.

Unfortunately my protection software didn't want me to look at your live cam pix. I will have to beat on it a while later to get to see.

I recently installed a Davis brand weather station with radio remote sensor suite. I get wind sped and direction, indoor and outdoor humidity and temp, barometric pressure, rain, solar flux, UV, and evapotranspiration...and almost frostbite as it was cold and windy when I installed the remote sensor suite. It is solar powered and seems to work well. I like being able to display a graph of the last 25 hours of whichever sensor's input you choose.

I hope the rain gauge, especially the annual running total, works as it will be nice to not have to dash out in the rain to dump the old fashioned gauge.

Pat

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks Pat.

The list is just a reminder to me to try and get those things done. I tend to get sidetracked and even worse, I start new projects before finishing others that need finishing.

If I put them out there, I'll focus on them, and get them done. If not, I'm liable to do all sorts of thins and not have a clue where the time went. 2007 is an excellent example. I never planed on building a gazebo. I didn't even have a hot tub this time last year. I just got side tracked. hahah

Eddie

 

[k6dyc]

I recently installed a Davis brand weather station...

Pat, that is a great station. If you want to get involved in yet some additional forums (weather) drop me an IM or start a thread in the appropriate section and let me know about it. I've been at this for a lot of years and there are some fun tricks.

[back OT] Like Eddie says, I too have to focus on my goals so I don't greet 2009 wondering where the time went. I do have plans to dig a small pond for my ducks and geese early in the year, probably only 45x150. I'll start a thread with pics when I begin.

 

[EddieWalker]

My wifes sister is married to the Childrens Pastore at church, and a few weeks ago we got to talking about our trip to California for Spring Break. He had been so busy that he'd forgotten about Spring Break and didn't have anything planned for the kids at church. I told him that I had created a flat area on the back of the dam on Lake Marabou that was perfect for campouts. I was thinking of Steph's Dad when I created it. He really liked the idea and told me he'd start working on it while we were on our trip.

When I got back, we talked and he said there was allot of excitment for the campout with at least 16 kids and several parents commited. We worked out the details and hoped for clear weather. Thursday morning, a week ago, the weather was perfect!!!!!

Peyton, my 7 year old son, and I started off the day with mowing the area. He's a much better driver then his 10 year old sister, so I'm comfortable with him driving the lawn mower down to the lake on his own. I followed on my small tractor with the 7 ft finish mower. I cut the area first, then he went over it with the riide along mower. Once he gets in the "zone" his concentration is total!!

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

The vans with the kids and the parents in their vehicles showed up just after noon. The number of kids had grown to a total of 25 with a dozen parents!!!
It seems that the weather was just too nice to stay home and everyone wanted to go camping.

It was kind of a madhouse at first with kids going in all directions with total chaos. JC got them organized and told them that they couldn't go swimming or even touch the water until the tents were set and they were unpacked. That worked.

Steph's dad showed up too, he's the Chief of Police, and he brought his patrol car and a drug dog for no other reason then he's a fun dog and the kids love to play with him. He'd been out earlier with Steph's brother and split a bunch of oak for firewood. I brought down my fire ring from my house to make things simple and easy.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Spring starts in March here, but some days are nicer then others. This was one of those truly nice days. Temps were in the low 70's, but the water was still way too cold for me. Of course, the kids never even thought about water tempatures. The girls went in first, then the boys and it sort of stayed like that for most of the afternoon.

I have two boats, a 10 foot row boat and a canoe. We made them wear life jackets and let them go exploring on their own. It was fun to see them all going in different directions. A few tried fishing, but with the swimming and noise, we didn't expect them to catch anything. There are some good bass and catfish in there, but as of today, nobody has cought a fish in there yet.

The water level is still low, but with the grass growing down to the water level, it doesn't look too bad. I'm probably the only one who notices anyway.

Steph and I stood back at one point and talked about what it looked like there a few years ago and what Lake Marabou has become. It's truly an amazing transformation!!!! We're very fortunate to be able to share something that we've created.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

The kids were really excited about the hay ride. Some of the kids were ready right after getting out of the water, others took awhile to figure it all out. Some had done this before, but for allot of them, this was their first time!!

I've been working on my trails and have a pretty good course to take them on that sort of does a double figure 8 through my land. We cross paths a few times, but then keep going onto a new trail, into a new area. The kids probably don't care where I took them, but the adults like the changes in scenery.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Steph, her sister and I spent the night indoors. Everyone else slept in the tents after staying up late into the night watching the fire. The tempature droped into the 40's, which some of them were not prepared for, but they're kids and they just huddled up with each other. hahaha

The next morning, they cooked breakfast over an open fire. They were too cold to go swimming, but not too cold to go boating. Those who didn't want to paddle around Lake Marabou, wanted to go on another hay ride. I wasn't expecting that, but was all for it when they started climbing onto the trailer.

By noon, they were packed up and back at church.

This was our first campout, and we learned one big lesson. Rent a port-a-potty!!!! They tried to put up tarps and use toilet seats on buckets, but that was a disaster. I almost fealt sorry for the parents who cleaned up that mess!!!! Another lesson was to not cook breakfast. Honey buns and pop tarts are allot easier and it's what they prefer. Eggs and bacon sound good, but are not worth the effort. You can never have too many chips or sodas!!!

We're looking forward to the next time. We built Lake Marabou for people to enjoy and it's amazing to see it happen.

Eddie

 

[patrick_g]

Eddie, Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

Helping to create an opportunity for that many folks to have fun is a very nice thing for you to have done.

As adults we sometimes forget that little outings like this, simple things like sleeping in a tent, watching a fire late into the evening, paddling around a lake, and such make memories that can last a lifetime for a child (and just may make an impression on an adult.)

Pat

 

[Tororider]

I second everything that Patrick G said. It is so fun to see kids having fun, especially when you have worked so hard to create the environment in which that situation can occur. Great work Eddie!

 

[3RRL]

I agree too.
Kids and fun at Lake Maribu... what a combination.
Looks like you really had a lot of people over. The porta pottie is a good idea for large gatherings like that. I've got a couple at my camp but we have to empty them ourselves. That's no fun. At least they're clean and comfortable. Funny the little things you learn at camp out like that. Best thing of all is I saw the faces on all the kids and they all looked like they were truly having a blast.

Eddie, I have to say I've sure enjoyed what you guys created, reading about it over the last few years now. You have created your own dream come true and you should be proud of it.
Thanks for the many pleasurable hours you've shared with all of us.

 

[RobJ]

Good pics Eddie, this time of year we can get some great weather and that's what you got! Nothing wrong with those temps. Who wants to sit around a campfire when it's 70!!

They'll be back!!

 

[Kendrick]

eddie a trick learned in boyscouts... the dutch oven is your friend! biscuts are the way to go. you can also do some interesting recopies in the oven. bacon is always good from a fire and can usually be easy to cook just make sure to let the pots heat proper first. with many people an assembly line works well... one pan o bacon while starting to serve the first batch. usually as they are clearing out you can get your second batch o bacon going and ready for the next couple of ppl..

We hope to put in a dry hydrent next to the road where it already makes a puddle. might be 40'x300' x 10' have no idea of the mesurements right now but will have fun with a group of ppl invading the area hopefully this summer. may get 20 familys in tents on my 8ac hay field. if not they will be up on the hill we shal see how it plays out. this sounds like a great thing for you though. wish we had enough land to do a proper lake :/

 

[rox]

Eddie,
It's fun to see your hard work being enjoyed, oh and your dad's hard work also if I recall the beginning of this very long thread. I have got a good campout game for you. First off when orgainzing the campout you tell everyone they must bring a flashlight, each kid msut have a flashlight.

Then around the campfire you tell a scary story about a wild animal and how you know it is now living near the campsite. Eariler in the evening you serripticiously hide a stuffed animal in the trees. You hold a bag of candy in front of the kids and you tell them that the group that brings home the animal gets the bag of candy. The kids go off in the woods with their flashlight looking for the animal. If you ahve it up in the trees they ahve to figure a way to get it down so plan that when you plant the stuffed animal. They can throw rocks at it or perhaps it is planted in a tree they can get on one anothers shoulders to reach up high enough to climb. You don't want to make the retrivel to easy or to hard. Of vital importance is that bag of candy, that is what is going to incentivize them to go out in the woods. Please don't tell your own kids or you will ruin their surprise. Depending on their age group if the kids are younger you might tell them that it is no more than 100 steps or 200 steps, whatever, away. Middle school kids and up no need they will jsut take off looking. This is a real fun campout game, in the meantime the adults hang around the campfire for some down time from the kids.

 

[patrick_g]

Rox, How very erudite of you. At no time did you mention "Snipe!"

Pat