Has anybody built a pond?

gmason · Apr 2, 2003

Heath, as you can see from those pictures, we had a Huricain hit just before we finished it and it blew out our overflow pipes. Depth is 13-14' in several places and mostly in the 7-8' depths.

We hadn't had .25" of rain all summer and the tracthoe still managed to bury digging out the pond. We never hit a true spring, but just a bunch of water trapped in the lower soil layers by some kind of rock layer down in the 15'-20'' range.

We are at a lower level in our development and the road ditches from about 40-50ac of 9 homesites run down to our pond. This time of year, even after 5-6 days after a rain we still have water coming out of the overflow pipes, in the summer it's closer to 2-3 days.
We built the pond because of too much water.

gary

chrisjbell · Apr 2, 2003

Shucks, your link isn't working for me. I'll try again later - would like to see what equipment you used.

My soil has lots of clay in it. Unfortunately, below the clay is rock. My neighbor built his pond too deep (he's on a steep hill and didn't have much choice) and had to line it with concrete - the dam leaked because there was too much rock.

But on the other side I have a couple of neighbors that just dug big holes and they hold water fine. Hopefully I can do the same.

dummy · Apr 3, 2003

Sometimes, Yahoo isn't the best. I'll try attaching to here. Used a Case backhoe, an old 8n and my little 1220. 8N was pulling the grader box and used a rake on the other. Being lazy, easier than switching attachments.

dummy · Apr 3, 2003

View of the pond (water feature?)

Anonymous Poster · Apr 3, 2003

Looks like a 580E. Nice machines. Love case backhoes!!

Blake
WA

chrisjbell · Apr 3, 2003

Hey, that turned out really nice! Good job, and thank you for posting the pictures.

dummy · Apr 4, 2003

Hopefully, will look better soon. Poured part of the foundation for my new millhouse last weekend. This site greg's pond has a lot of inspirational stuff on it (filters, ideas, etc.). Don't spend the extra money on pond pumps, a pool pump will work just as well and they are about 1/2 the price. Dollar wise right now, diesel fuel, beverages and concrete are the biggest expenses i've had.
Although, this can easily become an obsession /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

dummy · Apr 4, 2003

yes, it is. If only it was 4 wheel drive though! Maybe when it grows up?

Anonymous Poster · Apr 4, 2003

"We had way too much water source so we had to put in a pond to control runoff. I have a 18" pipe coming into the pond and 3 12" going out.I use mine to irrigate the whole property with it, about 7 circuits now and growing".

Here is a picture of my pond. Sorry I can't get the resolution right. It started life as a huge file... I have about 2000' of Roberts Row-Drip tape on the flowers but I would like to irrigate the field and lawn. I like to hear more about how you have your circuits set up and pump info...

thanks,
Dave

Anonymous Poster · Apr 4, 2003

Well Dave....

Have to ask the next question...when does a pond end and a LAKE begin???

Very nice!

dummy · Apr 7, 2003

Wow. That does look nice. What types of flowers are planted in the foreground?

19th_VA · Apr 7, 2003

I must be missing something. It looks like another planet!

GaryM · Apr 7, 2003

It's a LAKE if you're selling and a POND if you're buying! Regardless of the size.

Anonymous Poster · Apr 7, 2003

( Wow. That does look nice. What types of flowers are planted in the foreground? )

About 2000 dahlias. At that time of year we estimate there are about 40,000 flowers in bloom. Since the water table is so high we dig them all and replant every year. I'd like to find a tractor implement to help with that! Actually I have a friend who plants 500,000 dahlias a year (Nick Getts from Canby Oregon) and he digs them up with an old potato harvester.
On the lake vs. pond debate it's 11 acres and might be leaning more towards the lake designation...
Sorry about the poor quality picture. I don't know how to reduce a large file to only 100K. Any suggestions other then to take a small sized photo to start with?

WCarlson · Apr 9, 2003

Heath,
Before you go too far in your pond building adventure, I would recommend two books on the subject. They may be available at your library and I know are available at amazon.com (or at least they were a couple years ago.
They are:

Ponds- Building, Maintaining, Enjoying by Carolyn Garrick Stern. Published by Progressive Farmer, Inc in 1996

Earth Ponds Sourcebook by Tim Matson. Published by The Countryman Press in 1997

These two books go through the whole process, Stern's even has minimum depths by location in the country based on rainfall. I have found them most useful and would have liked to have read them before, not after, I had a pond. I would have done things differently. Kind of like finding Tractorbynet after buying a tractor. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Bill

Heath · Apr 14, 2003

Thanks for the book titles. I'll look for them at the local Barnes and Noble.

WCarlson · Apr 14, 2003

Heath,
You are most welcome. If I can provide any additional information, please don't hesitate to ask.
Bill

JamesT · Apr 28, 2003

Here are some pics of my pond 12' x 28' 6' deep

dummy · May 9, 2003

The obsession part is starting to kick in. Started my waterwheel project.

Anonymous Poster · May 12, 2003

Apparently, Ponds- Building, Maintaining, Enjoying by Stern is out of print. I tried to find it on amazon.
Anyone know of a source for it?

Has anybody built a pond?

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