My house, barn and pond project

[3RRL]

rex,
Awesome pictures!
Man that pond is gonna be one deep sucker. How big is it going to be? What a great project to get your self wrapped up in. Seems like tons of fun.

 

[JHTFarmer]

Rex,

neat project. One question: why dig the pond to 25 feet? I had thought 12-15 foot is adequate and, possibly, preferable for most ponds. Perhaps the climate in your area has something do to with this decision??

thanks,

Rich

 

[rexcramer]

The pond is going to be 25 feet at the start, but that is only in the deepest hole. Once the pond settles and get a couple years of sediment I will be lucky to have 20 feet. The if we have a dry summer and my pond level drops 3 feet I am down to 17.

I dont want to have to clean out my pond every five years either so I decided to go deeper. Its true most fish will not live in the last five feet but I want to have the extra depth to give them a cool spot in the summer and extra protection against drought and freeze if the water level goes down. I plan on putting all my fish structure between five and 12 feet.

Down South no one digs a pond deeper than 12 feet it seems but up North we go a little deeper usually. Also I personally like to have a deep place to dive if I like.

The pond is going to be a half acre at the start, and once I get rid of all the sand I have now I will probably enlarge it a little towards my house with the backhoe, digging down to about 10 feet. Some day I would like to get it to an acre but that will be a little while.

 

[philbuilt]

Rex,
Awesome that was some cool digging. I know what you mean about the depth because the deep spot in my pond settled to about 3' less .
Great job!
Phil

 

[rexcramer]

Hey Phil I just finished reading your entire post, I love seeing the beginning and the results. Your place looks great.

What did you end up with for depth in your pond? It seems like you would need a good 12 feet for the fish to survive the freeze in Maine. I plan on stocking bass and hybrid bluegill in mine as trout can be pretty finicky and prone to kills.

You are lucky you could get rid of your dirt so easily, in my township you have to have a stinkin mining permit to move any significant quantity of dirt or sand.

I was able to get about 20-22 truckloads out before some clown called the township on me. I still have at least a thousand yards around the pond to get rid of before I can do anymore digging.

 

[rtdiggr]

That a great job so far. Thanks for the pics. Keep up the good work.

Shane

 

[Mackinac Joe]

Rex, your project is an inspiration. I live on 40 acres of woods in north Midland County, maybe 30 miles north of you.

My present dilemma is a pond that won't hold water. It's sand all the way down to perhaps 20 feet (originally). No clay in sight. You have to go pretty deep before you hit clay in this part of the county. The previous owner didn't want a pond so much as he wanted fill sand to build up the house site. The guy who dug the pond tells me he tried to talk the previous owner into lining it with clay.

The "pond" is low enough on water and close enough to the house to be more of an eyesore than an asset. So I'm wrestling with the decision to

a) line it with clay (which would have to be hauled in),
b) put in some kind of very expensive liner,
c) fill in the pond and expand the orchard, or
d) live with it the way it is.

But congratulations on your progress and thanks for the pix. You're an inspiration to the rest of us!

Joe

 

[scgargoyle]

I don't know if it will work on your soil, but the have a special kind of clay (Bentonite) that you sprinkle in the water. It sinks to the bottom, and swells up, plugging the 'leaks'. I wish I knew more about it for ya.

 

[rexcramer]

Joe I think it would be REALLY expensive to truck in clay and spread it around enough for a decent sized pond. Does anyone else in your immediate area have a pond?

If I were you and I really wanted a pond I think I would get a permit to sell sand and dig some more and sell the sand to pay for a good portion of the digging. You can always find a buyer for good yellow sand. If there are trees in the way you may be able to sell those to a logger and get most of the project paid for.

Unless you have someone very close with a lot of clay to get rid of, getting anything trucked in costs a fortune these days.

For me I had beautiful sand down to about 7 feet and then clay after that. There are lots of ponds around me so I was not worried about it holding water.

 

[rexcramer]

Well since I tore ligaments in my knee Friday working on my barn I now have a lot of time to post more pics for everyone.

Here are the pics of the barn when we prepared the area and were setting the poles. The barn is a 32x48 with 12' walls. I needed tall enough walls so I could get my backhoe, dozer, and dump truck in if necessary.