Creating a Lake

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I guess you are trying to be funny Cliff. )</font>

I do apologize for having offended you. The statement was meant strictly as commiseration for the situation having seen so many posts about it here.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( But I see that many of your posts have misplaced humor. )</font>

I honestly had no idea I was considered an offensive member of TBN.

My apologies to all, especially Eddie for aparently stinking up his thread.

I'll be quiet now.

Cliff

 

[mudcat]

Cliff, I do not feel you are offensive. I think you are a model TBN member. Mr. Rob seems a little "sensitive" when it comes to TEXAS. Comments such as that should be ignored. Your input is valued here. I would hate for you not to participate because of another member's EGO. Quiet? No way, let us hear you!

 

[shadoe]

Eddie, this is an amazing project that I just came across! You are awesome!! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
Your girl is awesomer though...is that a word??? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Just kidding brother.
Can't wait to get some time to go through entire thread again! Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!

ps. Cliff, I've never read anything from you that was even close to bothersome.

 

[jinman]

Cliff, I don't think your post was offensive in any way. It's the truth that Texas is a state of extremes. With coastline, plains, mountains, and desert we have every possible situation. We know that today the rains may be rare, but even hurricane Rita's path a few months ago was devastating with wind and rain. All the while, my ponds and lake have more air than water just as your post stated. As many pictures as we Texans post, you surely must feel like you are right here sometimes. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

...and your humor. You've given me many wry smiles because you have a turn of phrase that points out subtle irony in many situations. Please don't quit. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RobJ]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Cliff, I do not feel you are offensive. I think you are a model TBN member. Mr. Rob seems a little "sensitive" when it comes to TEXAS. Comments such as that should be ignored. Your input is valued here. I would hate for you not to participate because of another member's EGO. Quiet? No way, let us hear you! )</font>

Ego? hey I wans't even born in Texas, no Texas colleges. Mr. Rob is mostly defending (or sensitive to) the folks that are in a serious situation with the water. It's not joked about around here. With the water problem there is also a hay problem. But since you are not here you don't fully see what is happening.

The water is a not problem for me or most of the weekenders who just play on our tractors for fun. But a lot of my friends up there who rely on cattle sales for some income.

And Cliff, keep the informative posts coming. May it's just your dry sense of humer, pardon the pun. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JustGary]

<font color="blue"> "How much water preasure would the lake have?" </font>

Water has a weight of one atmosphere (14.7 PSI) every 32.2 feet deeper you go. So for example, a 15' lake will have about 7 PSI at the bottom.

I think that the best way to look at it is that a spring is a drain and a drain is a spring. If you put enough water on top of your spring, you end up with a drain. But, it won't drain any deeper than the natural level of your spring. Since the level is still rising, you may be in luck.

If you choose to not plug the spring, you should expect that the water level will vary a lot more from season to season and from year to year since your lake is connected to the rest of your region's drainage via underground channels. Far away events could bring you more or less water, and it will be hard to correlate the cause and effect.

With the spring plugged you simply rely on local surface drainage to fill your lake, but you could miss out on having at least some lake during another drought like this one.

Either way, you can see how hard it would be to plug the spring if you wait until it's really deep and then decide to do it. I know you want to decide soon.

It's not like you have a "gusher" or anything, so if you expect enough surface drainage to fill your lake and still have a decent outflow, perhaps the spring won't matter at all. After a few years it will probably silt in and plug itself anyway. At this slow fill rate, I'd level the ground back in and ignore whatever is left of the spring and press on with the lake.

While I'm typing, I've enjoyed following your great posts on all of your hard work. I want to build a small pond one day, and just can't seem to get off my duff and do it. You're a great inspiration!

Good Luck.

- Just Gary

 

[Renze]

If you're not sure if it's a spring or a drain here's an idea:

Maybe you could dig it out into the gravel, then install a big pipe, backfill with solid clay around the pipe to seal off the rest of the wet hole.

The pipe must extend into the air to the water level you have in mind for your future pond. If there's enough pressure on the spring it will feed the pond. If not, only the water in the pipe may drop, this prevents your pond from draining into the spring.

Just an idea... just no spring in the next 300 km from my place though... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

Just Gary,

I'm still waiting to see watching the spring. Since we've just been through the second dryest year on record, I'm thinking the table water is gonna be at it's lowest. Before the rains, the level was rising steadily. Now that we've received a few inches of rain, (around 6 inches as of today) I'm inclined to believe that the table water should rise.

Of course, I can be totally wrong on this too and have to deal with it when it's gonna be allot harder and more dificult.


Renze,

The pipe idea has had me talking to everyone I know about it. It's briliant!!! Thanks. Now I need to make a decision to either put one in, or continue to procrastinate. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Here's a picture of the area of the spring that I dug up. It's 12 feet deep in one corner, but the rest is 4 feet deep.

If you look real close to the bottom, left side of the spring, you'll notice the flow of water overflowing down to the lake bottom.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

This is the lowest part of the lake at 12 feet. It will be the last part of the dam to be finished and until then I have a ditch dug down to the creek to keep it drained.

The rains have filled left over a foot of water in the bottom that was below where I stoped digging the drain. The spring is also adding to this level.

I extened the drainage ditch to the middle of the water. Fortunately the clay bottom is so hard that I can drive through it with the backhoe.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

After running around in the water and mud, the tires were pretty caked and slippery. The sides of the dam are also pretty steep. For either reason, I was unable to get up the sides of the dam with the backhoe. Stuck again. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The edge of the dirt not dug out yet is four feet tall. I used the front bucket to cut a ramp up to dry ground.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

The reason I wanted out of the wet area, beside the obvious, was to dig another drainage trench for the water on the other side of my peninsula. This is were my good spring is at.

This is also a very wet, sloppy, nasty mess. I was buried something aweful several times. The front bucket had to be tilted to act as a sled and keep the front anchors, (tires) out of the mud and in the air.

The back tires are also useless and I had to move around with the hoe stick. Both sideways and forward. Of course, half the time while pushing the tractor with the bucket, it buries itself in the mud and I end up having to pull myself back to get it out, then try it all over again, but at a different angle. One anle will dig itself deeper, another angle will push you through the mud.

This picture is of the water as it started running down the ditch. I like it because you can see the dry section before the water gets all the way through.

Eddie

 

[bmac]

Eddie,

Man, that is one big hole you've dug! I can't wait to see it filled with water. What's your best prediction for time of completion on the lake?

Will the state stock it with fish for you or is that something you have to do on your own?

I'm enjoying following this project. Keep up the good work.

 

[EddieWalker]

bmac,

Thanks. Not much getting done on it lately. Weekends I like to do things around the house and spend time with Steph and the kids. Plus the dozer wouldn't start. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Dead batteries. I put a new alternator in back in September and it's putting out over 26 volts, so that's good. I charged each battery and they each read over 13 volts, so that's good, but when I tried to crank it, nothing. I put jumpers on one of the batteries and was able to get it started. This told me one or both of the batteries was bad.

I replaced one battery when I put in the new alternator. Now everyone tells me you have to replace both when one goes bad. If not, the older one will ruin the newer one, and it will go bad real soon anyway. Who knew??? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I had both batteries tested yesterday and the new one is still ok, but the older one was bad.

From another post, it was suggested to use the anti oxidation stuff on aluminum wire to feed electricity for a house would also work on battery terminals. I cleaned my termanals really good. Got them nice and shiny, than spread that stuff on the terminals.

Sunday we all took a walk down to the lake. Steph only gets to see it on the weekeds since it's dark when she gets home during the week.

This picture shows my dozer on the shoreline road in front of the hill. If you remember from the beginning of this post, the dirt from the berm was originally going to be used to build the dam. Since we had the drought and my springs all dried up, I'm able to get all the dirt I need by digging out the bottom of the lake. Bigger dam, deeper hole all add up to better lake. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The two flat areas on the left are going to be submerged islands. They will contain the spread of lily pads, provide cover for minnows and the edges will off good holding locations for my bass.

The dirt pile on the right is what Golfgar (Garry) did while here. It's my good dirt pile for the keyway that is currently the drainage ditch to keep the water level down.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

As for finishing, I'm hopefull I'll have most of the major dirt work done by the end of February. Weather is my biggest hurdle right now. First I have to finish the inside of the dam. This will include putting in a drain and primary overflow.

The emergancy spillway will be worked into the exterior of the dam and my landscaping. I don't want it to look like a dam from a distance, but a hill gently sloping up to the lake. With enough dirt, it will be amazing!!

That's more along the end of things to get done.

Then I need to dig out the remainder of the inside, remove what's left of the burn pile and spread the stumps around the shoreline as cover for the fish.

The shoreline where my main spring is has me really concerned. I want to dig it out, but it's way to soft to work around. Just walking around it is dificult. My thought it to dig out the middle of the lake first and get as close as I can to it while staying on solid clay. Then cut some drains into the hill and get the water flowing away. Hopefully this will allow the rest of the soil to dry out enough to allow me to get in there and remove some material.

This will be a nightmare, but if I get lucky, it could turn out really well and add to the overall beauty of the lake. If I do it badly, I bet most people wont know the difference from what it could have been as oposed to what it ended up being.

It's a tricky situation that I'm still worrying around in my brain.

This picture is of me and the kids on one of the submerged islands. I like it because it shows the dam really well and gives you an idea of it's size.

Eddie

 

[donaldprice]

Congratulations! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Don

 

[EddieWalker]

I've had a little set-back on the lake.

I was minding my own business, digging and pushing some dirt, when all of a sudden I was engulfed in a white cloud.

White smoke everywhere, but mostly from the exhaust pipe. I looked in there and saw oil dripping from the exhast just past the turbo. Bad news!!

Now I need to see what's involved in getting it rebuilt. Any body every have a turbo rebuilt?

Eddie

 

[jinman]

Eddie, that Holset turbo looks just like the one on my Dodge's Cummins. If so, you should have no trouble finding a repair shop or a new one. I'm sure they aren't cheap, but they should be pretty common.

 

[ScottAR]

Turbo City Just an idea...

If I think to, I'll ask one of our customers that rebuilds stationary farm engines where he orders from...

 

[EddieWalker]

Jim,

Cummins and Case have a close working relationship and most of the Case Equipment has Cummins engines from the mid 80's on. Mine is a little odd since it has a Case engine, but I wouldn't be suprised if the turbo is the same used on the Cummins engines.

It was a real pain to take out, and I need to start asking around to see who's reliable in rebuilding them. Since I don't know anything about them, it would be real easy for somebody to take advantage of me.

Scott,

Thanks for the link. Now I have an idea of what a new one will cost. That gives me a good basis to work from.

Eddie