Creating a Lake

[groundcover]

Wow ! Those are great pics Eddie ! If you get tired of swinging a hammer you can take pics for a living ! They remind me of another amazing photographer , Bill Ciad :Bill Caid Home Page (1&1)

 

[crbr]

Nice pics. Thank you

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Eddie, back when I showed my wife that 1st picture, we both agreed it was awesome. Now to find out it won a contest makes us feel like photo judges extraodinare(sp?).

Can see why it's your happy place. Everyone needs' their own lake to get their blood pressure down.

 

[tony Cecil]

Wonderful appreciation of God`s bounty....I`m glad you captured it, and shared, although I couldn`t telll if the lake were a little higher??

I`m getting ready to possibly buy an aluminum table with bench, so I can easily move it depending if it is a sunnny day or an overcast one...I know it (aluminum) is a poor one, so I might just get a decent long table and have light weight chairs Tony

 

[EddieWalker]

Lake Marabou is down at least six feet right now. The forecast is 90% for rain tomorrow, but there's no telling how much I'll get. In the last three weeks, it's rained three times with the heaviest being half an inch. It's great for my new grass seed, but my water levels haven't changed at all. Everything that comes down, just soaks into the dirt.

I've decided to raise my water level by pouring a concrete dam across my spillway. My plan has always been to build a bridge across the spillway for those times water is flowing through it, and to have a level walkway all the way around the pond.

Like most of my ideas, I over complicate them at first, then slowly simplify it to the point that it's what I'm wanting. I also want to increase the amount of water that I have in there because of times just like this. If I had another foot of water from the last time it was full, I would have another foot of water in there right now. What I'm probably going to do is raise it two feet. I have four feet of freeboard above the water level right now and my dam is way bigger then I needed it to be. I had the dirt and it was a great place to put it.

I had a fear of dam failure when figuring it all out before it was built. Now I have a fear of a dry hole!!!!!

Eddie

 

[MarkV]

Eddie, we are in the same boat here in N. Georgia. Our pond, about 5 acres, is down at least 5' even without as bad of drought as you have had in Texas. I have seen this before and you will be amazed how fast it fills after you get a couple of big storms. Like you mentioned though, the ground needs to get wet before the run off can fill the pond.

MarkV

 

[bindian]

Now I have a fear of a dry hole!!!!!

Eddie

Ahem Eddie, Ahem.
hugs, Brandi

 

[beppington]

Ahem Eddie, Ahem.
hugs, Brandi

...

 

[EddieWalker]

I got lucky the other night.

Eddie

 

[B7510HSD]

I got lucky the other night.

Eddie

:thumbsup::thumbsup: Nice Picture too Eddie!!!

 

[beppington]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: Nice Picture too Eddie!!!

:laughing:

 

[groundcover]

Yep, beat me to it ! :laughing::laughing:

 

[tony Cecil]

Ha tony

 

[955Lincoln]

It's finally confirmed...Old dozers really do go to heaven when they die. :laughing:

 

[tony Cecil]

Hi Eddie

Man I had to look a long way back to find you How is the lake doing `water wise`?? I was quite proud of my control flooding the pond with the flaps on two twenty four inch pipes, each tide swing, then one of the pipes developed a fairly good sized hole and the tides couldn`t keep the pond up....That control is probably fifteen years old now and I plan on replacing it --maybe this year--...Of course this happens when it gets cold and it is no fun getting down there this time of year...

We catch many crabs and alot of shrimp during the season, and have been stocking right along, sort of like you and Brandi....I ,as you, get quite concerned for all the fish etc that are dependent on the pipe, but in this case there is still alot of water in the pond....Take care and do let me know about your water level Tony

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm up a couple feet. Maybe three feet. I'm still down 4 feet, but with the more water in the ground, the more runoff that I get. I'm starting to get nervous that it will fill up before I can build my concrete dam across the spillway to raise the water level.

This is a picture that I took this evening when Oscar and I went on our walk.

Eddie

 

[tony Cecil]

Without going way back and looking, I thought in the beginning , on one end of the property you had a smallish `river`?? Couldn`t you pump from that source, or did it go dry this year....?...

I have found that if there is no active source of water, a pond just seeks it`s own depth and doesn`t vary that much ....A great picture, and I know how much fun those walks can be Later Tony

 

[beppington]

Native name: Walks with Pigs

 

[EddieWalker]

The creek is there and it's flowing nicely. What is amazing to me is that for the first time ever, the water is crystal clear.

I pumped water into it before, and it worked, but it was very expensive in gasoline, and it required daily checkups to fill it with fuel and changet the oil about every three days. The dirty oil sensor would kill it and the only way I could get it to start would be in fresh oil. Fortunately, it only takes half a quart.

I feel good with the amount of rain that I'm getting and feel that we will have a good spring. I really want to raise the spillway, and I'm more worried about the water level rising before I'm done with what I want to do.

Does anybody know how thick a concrete wall has to be that is 2 feet tall and 20 feet long?

Eddie

 

[pilot-werx]

4 inches with some bar in the middle should do it.....