DIY Pond?

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 15, 2022

My family and I moved onto a little piece of property, about 11 acres, a year or so ago. It had a tiny pond on it already and we have really enjoyed it. I have had in my head that I wanted to enlarge it from just under 1/10 acre out to about 1/2 acre. I guess now is as good of a time as any...

I should have taken a good before picture... This is the best I have.

The water has gotten really low this summer so I expanded it out over the course of a full weekend with Little Bitty Big John. I thought I did a decent job with the tiller and the box blade.

Then... My brother-in-law called this morning and said "You home? I need to drop something off by your house"... Merry Christmas, he said. I have this for a week, and an operator for a day. I guess I gotta learn quick...

My 1025R and my neighbor's 990 are no match for a real digging machine.

mike0000 · Oct 15, 2022

That’s a great Brother-in-law! Going to be tough topping that Christmas gift. Good luck with the rest of the pond build.

Mike

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 15, 2022

A bunch of dirt has already moved today. This is about 5.5 to 6 ft deep to the grass.

Just after I had my first "lesson".

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 15, 2022

More to go tomorrow. I've hired a tri-axle dump truck for tomorrow to move the spoils to the back of the property. The whole property slopes down from the center, and the back side is very wet in the winter. I'm going to use this to build the property up back there. It's all mostly clay the top soil is no different than several feet down. There are a few small vanes of shale but they are very narrow. So, it should all be good for ground building or fill.

jaxs · Oct 15, 2022

You didn't ask so if you have already btdt carry on. It isn't unusual for ponds to leak so make sure the soil will hold water and if necessary import clay to line the pond. The black clay near where I live makes great ponds but it's possible to dig through to porous soil and have to line pond with top soil.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 16, 2022

I have not already been there and done that... But i am aware of the concept. The dirt we are pulling out will be good to seal with

cqaigy2 · Oct 16, 2022

Nice!

Hopefully you have 5 gallon bucket of grease.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 17, 2022

cqaigy2 said:
Nice!

Hopefully you have 5 gallon bucket of grease.

I did notice that tubes go awfully fast.

NoTrespassing · Oct 17, 2022

My neighbor and I had a pond dug 20 years ago. My main objective was achieved, to build up the road about 15 ft. His objective was to have a nice pond to fish in. That goal was not achieved, the pond has leaked since it was dug. There's a sand vein running along one end of the pond. In the spring the pond is full but by mid-summer the water level drops about 15 feet right down to the sand vein.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 17, 2022

NoTrespassing said:
My neighbor and I had a pond dug 20 years ago. My main objective was achieved, to build up the road about 15 ft. His objective was to have a nice pond to fish in. That goal was not achieved, the pond has leaked since it was dug. There's a sand vein running along one end of the pond. In the spring the pond is full but by mid-summer the water level drops about 15 feet right down to the sand vein.

That's no fun. I have been told by 2 different old timers that if a pond leaks, fence it off and get several pigs or hogs. They say the pigs will wallow around enough at the water line to seal it. They also said throw paper in. apparently it brakes down and gets filtered into the porous areas. I don't know if that would hold true for a sand vein though.

I wish I was going to be able to get mine 10 feet or so deep. But, in the time allotted I'm going to have to be happy with about 5' water depth. It will still be pretty though. I have time to either have the footprint I want, or smaller and deeper. I opted for larger. I have no idea if that was the right choice. But it will be just a touch deeper than the current one that's out there.

cqaigy2 · Oct 18, 2022

I've heard water fowl feces will also help seal a pond.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 25, 2022

Update after a week.

The truck I hired being filled. This was one of the first few loads.

But there were MANY more. Notice we had a little rain, that puddle stayed for days, until I scooped it out with the dirt.

I eventually moved the duck house out to what would be the island. They seem to approve.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 25, 2022

I was not able to take as much time off work as I had hoped so I ended up hiring an operator to load the truck most days. I found a decent groove to get work done. I would dig and stack, then the next day the operator would just load the piles. That seemed to get more loads moved than having the operator dig and load at the same time. We made 1 lap around the pond to the shale line, then I came back and added a little more depth.

I ended up with enough shale for my driveway and pad for my house when that project starts.

I'd say we got a little deeper. These pictures seem to flatten the depth, but I think this view shows it a little better.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 25, 2022

Got the bulk of the digging done and look what showed up!

Gary got the new part all cleaned up and tracked in. This thing moves a whole lot of dirt, and fast.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 25, 2022

Oh Dam!

There are several videos of us attempting to save fish. It was a bit hilarious with everyone getting stuck in the mud and my wife fell down in it. But, we were able to save a lot of fish. Hopefully it was enough to get the new pond started, but they may starve to death with just dirt for now?

Rockbadchild · Oct 25, 2022

looked like a fun project, I can see that you folks are not afraid to get dirty... looking forward to see the final product.

LittleBittyBigJohn · Oct 25, 2022

The next day we started digging down from the original pond. The dozer was able to get a lot of the muck moved over to where I could reach and load it. Eww it was schloppy.

That was a very long day. I decided the fun had worn off of running the big hoe. I dug and loaded for almost 14 hours straight. Stopped once for food, other than that only for the bathroom. This was close to the end of that day. Still had a pad to dig off the side of the levy but you get the idea. The water from the old pond fit just nicely down in the corner of the new one. The ducks seem content with it.