Silt Happens!

[jinman]

You can't say I don't know what it's like in the trenches. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Does anyone recognize the hillside in the background? That's where we had our TBN fishfry last year. A drought sure makes the place look different, doesn't it?

 

[jinman]

And this is how you carry two buckets-full at one time. The bucket holds a little over 1/3 yard. This may not be 2/3 yard, but it ain't far from it. I really do like this 16LA loader. Others might be just as good, but this is just the one I know. It sure has performed well for me.

Oh yes... I grease it twice a day when I'm doing work like this. I want it to keep working good for a long time. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jinman]

Here is a shot across the pond with the sloping peninsula in the middle. When I finish my dirtwork, I'll put rocks all over this part of the peninsula and give a good structure for fish. That way we can cast out over this area and see if we can entice a hungry bass to take a bite. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

I still have lots of work to do around the pond, but I've almost completed all my dirt work. I know my wife is ready for me to find another project to work on for awhile. She's tired of being a "tractor widow." /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[scott_vt]

Wow Jim,
Those series of pictures are impressive!!! Your machine looks like its doin some serious work!!! I would have to say your testing the outer limits there /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I would say you will need to be a good swimmer to surface dive and touch bottom when your done /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scotty

 

[Bird]

That just looks like too much fun for one man. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Jim

I was wondering about your pond. Are you getting any water in it? Are you getting any rain???? I foget how the overflow worked. How are you gonna handle that?

One of my biggest headaches is keeping the water out!!!

Your pond is looking really nice. I'm enjoying your posts and following along with your progress. I'm especially interested in how you finish it off!!!

Have you ever read the posts on www.pondboss.com?

There's allot of good pond building and maintaining advice there like on this site. No tractor stuff, but some really good stuff on types of fish and habitat.

You have everything you need in the lake to stock your pond, but if I remember corectly, some of those fish would be better than others for stocking. Are you gonna stock your pond from the lake??

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[Cliff_Johns]

That third from the last photo looks like you're stuck farther in the mud than one would think possible. You can't see the trench from that angle. That's a poster child photo for stuck and you aren't even stuck.

Great photos.

Cliff

 

[PineRidge]

Looks like a massive project for any one person with the help of any one tractor. But seat time is always good time I reckon. Great pictures Jim.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I was wondering about your pond. Are you getting any water in it? Are you getting any rain???? I foget how the overflow worked. How are you gonna handle that? )</font>

Eddie: I guess I'm "lucky" with not having to worry about rain. We've had a little less than 2" total over the last 30 days and only once did I have to deal with any water pooling in the pond. I just dug a deep hole and let the water drain into it. I used the bucket like a big dipper and hauled out the water. THe only bad part of that was I got clay mud caked solid between the rear tires and fenders. It took me over an hour of digging just to get the tires clear and another hour of digging a few days later to get the dried clay out of the tractor. If it's that muddy again, I'll just use a trash pump to drain the pool and postpone digging. I don't want to repeat that waste of time cleaning caked mud off my tractor. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

The overflow is a channel between this pond and the next one. I had a small culvert that wasn't enough and I'm taking it out. I'll just make a cut and fill it with small football/basketball sized rocks. Kathy has plenty of those on her place just waiting for me to collect. I'm waiting for the time when I can't work down in the pond to start the rock work. With a little rain, the bigger rocks will be easier to pop out of the ground too. Sooner or later, we'll surely get some significant rain. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Cliff: In a way I feel "stuck" whether I am or not. I really should have rented a bigger tractor to do this finish work, but I just have not had the time to be able to take two or three days off and do the work. I'm just far enough out from the Dallas-Fort Worth area that getting equipment delivered is about as much as the rental or even slightly more. The nearest rental place is almost 50 miles away. The place with all the equipment I need is 70 miles away. So I kind of feel "stuck" doing this with my tractor even though at times I feel like I'm emptying the ocean with a teacup. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif The only advantage I have is I can work two hours or 10 hours. Anytime I have some time, I can jump on the tractor and do some work. The other advantage is I can do exactly what I want with the spoils as I dig them out. I've been dumping them on the back side of the dam to make it a little wider and widen my road across the dam. My tractor is just the right size for doing these jobs, so it has both advantages and disadvantages to be using a smaller machine. As PineRidge pointed out, it is a heck of a lot of seat time. I know I have at least 200 hours of seat time for this project. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif But that includes all the brush clearing, road building, and terrace building. My tractor has been like a Swiss Army Knife in performing so many different jobs. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm attaching another picture that shows some of my terracing. It's hard to see many details because there isn't enough contrast, but you can see that they are all flat. Considering the tops of these areas were 3' to 4' clay mud balls when the track loader finished, I've made good progress at getting things under control here. So all my time hasn't been spent digging down the sides of the pond. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[zipp669]

Congrats Jinman on your project.
A couple things I have read regarding your concern with silt entering the pond when done.

You stated one to control the dirt is to plant a nurse crop of wheat. excellent. You can also throw in some oats, rye & annual rye. I assume you will throw in your permanent grasses also. I will not recommend what to throw in for a perm grass as you stated something earlier and I have no idea of your soils in Texas.
Something you can do to prevent silt entering your big bathtub is to line it with around the peremiter, or at least where the majority of the water enters, with strips of either 4' or 8' wide wood excelsior mat. the 4' roll is 180' long & the 8' is 90' long.
this product is used for erosion control to help keep dirt out of where you do not want it. It looks like ramen noodles in a mat form between a plastic netting.
you can prep your soil like you were to seed, plant your seed and then right b4 the pond to keep the silt out, unroll this and staple it down. usually use 6x6x2" staples.
when it rains this 3/4' thick mat will hold onto the silt and it will build up behind it.
you would not have to cover all the ground. just for this purpose, you have a 40' gully that funnels water in. the gully is 12' wide. you can just take a 4' piece the width of the gully and staple it at the bottom. then do another piece about 20' up from there.
hope this helps & hope I did'nt ramble

 

[jinman]

If you're looking for a stalled project, I have one for you. My pond project has been suffering while I get my garden planted. Of course, I'm watering my garden, but I don't have any hoses set up to water grass seed arond the pond and we are still in drought. If I put out my grass seed ( I have it in my garage, ready to go.) the birds will get most of it. If we don't get rain by this weekend, I'll bite the bullet and set up sprinklers.

In the meantime, I have about two feet of water in the pond from the 3" of rain we received last month. I've started adding rocks for the fish structure on the slope going down from the first terrace level. The rocks are going slow because most of them are coming from over 1/4 mile away and I have nothing better than the tractor to haul them. I could put them on a trailer, but I can't get the trailer close enough to where I need the rocks. I think it's just as fast to haul a rock bucket full at a time and dump them. I have about another 8 hours of rocks to haul for the fish structure and then I'll start hauling the ones for the retainer walls around the slopes of the terraces.

Here's a couple of pictures of my little rock pile. The first is an area shot and the second a wider shot showing the entire "mud hole." /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[jinman]

Wide shot.

It would sure look better with grass, huh? C'mon rain! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[BB_TX]

That is certainly a lot bigger "mud hole" than the little pond we saw there last year. Gonna be a really nice pond when you get it completed.

 

[PineRidge]

Jim once you get that grass established you'll be surprised at just how fast the water clears up. Great looking pond and a very good idea adding some structure for your soon-to-add fish.

 

[EddieWalker]

Jim,

I'm envious of your suppy of rocks!!! How deep are you putting them in relation to the height of the water when it's full?

From what I've read and been told, the fish spawn in about 2 feet of water, but there is some pretty big variations to this as well. The rock should be good for spawning I'd think, but I've also heard they like smaller pea gravel sized rock.

The guy at Tyler Fish Farm told me to cut up some 4 inch PVC at 18 inch lengths and set it in abouta foot of water. Two feet max. The hundred foot rolls of that ribbed drain line works great and is supper cheap.

I told him that I had put stacks of pallets in about three to four feet of water with cinder blocks on tip to weigh them down. He asked how far from the surface it was and when I told him a foot, he said those would be perfect.

Do you ever go to Pondboss.com? It's a forum similar to this site, but just for ponds. The guy in charge is in your area and allot of the members are from Texas.

Thanks for the update and picutres. I'm really looking forward to your dock project!!!

Eddie

 

[KentT]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If you're looking for a stalled project, I have one for you. My pond project has been suffering while I get my garden planted. Of course, I'm watering my garden, but I don't have any hoses set up to water grass seed arond the pond and we are still in drought. If I put out my grass seed ( I have it in my garage, ready to go.) the birds will get most of it. If we don't get rain by this weekend, I'll bite the bullet and set up sprinklers. )</font>

Pump out of the pond to water the grass seed -- kill two of those birds with one stone... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[jinman]

Bill B: Thanks! It really is a lot larger than it looks in the picture. It's going to be very deep too when we finally get rain. I'm torn between wishing I cold take my good and easy time about putting in the rocks and wanting the pond to fill up.

Mike: A few half-inch rains a few days apart would really help me get some grass established at least. I am all set to plant some rye grass and wheat for immediate cover, but three days near and over 100º sure kicks butt on rye grass. My well is about 500' away. By this weekend, I'll be ready to buy some more hose and sprinkler heads to get the grass started. I know it would help a lot to clear things up.

KentT: It kills me to think about pumping the water out of this shallow pond to irrigate. I have nightmares of having a lot of nice green grass around a completely dry hole. We do have a semi-trash pump we could use, but I sure would like for Mother Nature to help with a shower or two.

Eddie: You know, I hadn't really thought about fish spawning in this pond. I was putting in the rocks because little minnows and critters tend to need a place to hide and the big fish are drawn to the same areas to try and catch the little ones. I figure I can sit on the terrace and cast out over the rock bed to catch a few fish. I'm also hoping the rocks discourage weed growth to some extent. I do know the turtles and frogs already have discovered them as a favorite spot.

The rocks pretty much go all the way to the bottom of the pond and will extend up to just below the normal waterline. They will form a basin just below the first terrace level. The basin will be filled with about 24" of creek bottom sand. When the water level is down, the sand will be a little beach. When the water is higher, it will probably make a decent spawning bed. It's not pea gravel, but it is very coarse sand.

I do have plenty of rocks on Kathy's property. The problem is they are surrounded by trees and it's a heck of a lot of work to get them out. That's okay, my rock bucket lets me scrape the big rocks into a pile and then I can scoop them up and haul them. I could haul more on a skid, but not at the speeds I carry them in the bucket. Bigger equipment would do more damage in the woods and then I'd have an angry wife. I'll stick with my little blue workhorse for now and keep hauling small loads. Sooner or later, I'll get it like I want it.

I've been to Pondboss.com a few times and they do have good info. When I start doing my big lake which needs a lot of engineering, I'll sure spend more time there. Heck, I haven't even started on my ponds up by my house. I've got plenty of projects to last me well into retirement. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jinman]

We finally got a little shower of rain, but while the folks just 50 miles south of use got 1-1/2 to 2 inches, we only got 6/10. I'll take it, but it sure doesn't fill up ponds. It just keeps me from having to water the garden.

I was looking back at this thread and realized I hadn't shown any pictures of my rock bucket being used to collect and haul small rocks. I can use the bucket to dig and pick up rocks until it's about 2/3 full. Then to fill it up completely, I get off the tractor and hand-toss rocks until I get a full load. Here's an example of the average load of small rocks. Of course, I can only get two or three large rocks in the bucket and then I have to fill in with small ones by hand. It's hard work.

 

[jinman]

Another angle...

 

[jinman]

Woohoo! 5" of rain. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

I'll have to wait awhile to add more rocks to my fish structure. After the last picture, I got about 6 more loads hauled. I wanted another 10 loads, but I'll have to wait until the next dry spell (hopefully never). /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif When the water goes down a little, I'll put the rock face on the first terrace. I've got plenty of flat rock for that job.