Silt Happens!

jinman · Jan 4, 2006

Here's a picture of about 10 yd of dryed silt pushed up into a pile from cleaning the pond sides. I haul this off and build terraces out of it. If I line the terraces with rock, hopefully the silt won't end up back in the pond the first time it rains. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

EddieWalker · Jan 4, 2006

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99% of the water will come down the chute on the left side. I'm going to shape the sides into more of a "V" and cover the bottom with rock. On the right side, I plan to collect the water that runs off the hillside and let it drop over a small rock waterfall.
)

Jim,

From what I've read and personally experienced, most of your silt will enter your pond the first season it rains. After that, the vegitation will grow back and the level of silt will decrease dramataclly.

This is a concern I have with my lake I'm building, and it happened with the two other ponds I dug.

One of the ponds are on the land I sold with the container barn. The new owner brought in a crew to create some pastureland for cattle. They also noticed the silt starting to build up in the pond.

First they dug the silt out with a trackhoe, then they dug a pit before the pond along the main route the water traveled before entering the pond. It was sort of like your situation. The water travels to a funnle type area, then int to pond.

The pit they dug caught the water and allowed a large amount of silt to settle in the pit, then the water would enter the pond in much cleaner state.

We've only had a few rains since he bought the land, but he's had to clean out the pit each time due to the amount of silt he's cought in the pit. Anything that stays in the pit is somehting that wont go into the pond.

I'm gonna try somehting like that on my lake, but allot longer to see if it helps. I'm also going to dig a few pits on the bottom of the lake along the shoreline to catch the silt from the first few seasons of rain.

Thanks for all the updates and pics. Sure looks like it's gonna be a real nice pond when your done with it!!!

Eddie

PineRidge · Jan 4, 2006

Jim seeing just how small your TC45D looks in the picture sure puts the size of your project in real perspective.

I agree with Eddie in the respect that after finishing our pond the engineer told me that the single most important thing to do next was to establish grass on the perimeter. The first couple of heavy rains that we got before the grass came up clouded the water showing that silt was being washed into the cavity. But once the grass came up the water remained clear even after the heaviest rains, a sign that the grass was doing its intended job.

jinman · Jan 4, 2006

( I agree with Eddie in the respect that after finishing our pond the engineer told me that the single most important thing to do next was to establish grass on the perimeter. )

Absolutely! The grass has to be established, but you really have to finish all your dirt work first or you are just scraping off the seed. I'll probably first plant wheat or some other vegetation that will germinate and grow quickly. Then, I'll try to establish some bermuda for the final ground cover grass. In the meantime, I plan to use rocks as a filter and retainers for sand and silt, maybe even a few single-high crosstie barriers or straw hay bales. There's no way to keep all the silt out of the pond, but at least I can cut a lot of it down by covering the ground in rocks (and even a few loads of crushed rock if needed). My wife's land has lots of flat stone in approx. 1' ovals up to 3' ovals, so I'm sure I'll be rock haulin' a lot over the next few weeks. It's just hard to know when I should stop working the dirt and start building mud barriers in preparation for some rain. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

BB_TX · Jan 4, 2006

It's just hard to know when I should stop working the dirt and start building mud barriers in preparation for some rain. 
If its anything like most years, we will go from bone dry to overflowing your dam in a few days time. And vice versa. 2004 was one of the wettest years on record. I think it was 50+" rain. 2005 was the 5th driest on record, less than 20". /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

mikim · Jan 4, 2006

2004 was one of the wettest years on record. I think it was 50+" rain. 2005 was the 5th driest on record, less than 20". 
Well don't blame that on my office ... we're in advertising - not production! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif (nws)

jinman · Jan 4, 2006

(
Well don't blame that on my office ... we're in advertising - not production! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif (nws) )

Okay... How about a little truth in advertising. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Oops! Sorry... lost my head there for a minute. You never get truth from a weather guy. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

JustGary · Jan 4, 2006

It's easy to say this from my chair, but I think if I were going to haul and lay anything around the perimeter, I'd choose sod rolls. More expensive than free rocks, but you only have to lift them once instead of twice. Just one row around the perimeter will trap a lot of runoff. A second row several feet up the bank would trap even more. Then you have the grass and no rocks to remove later when you're tired of hitting them with the mower.

You've done a great job so far, so I'm confident that you'll get the runoff problem solved, too. Good luck!

- Just Gary

jinman · Jan 5, 2006

Gary, I'd love to put sod around the pond, but my problem is maintenance of the sod. In its infancy, sod requires a lot of water and almost daily maintenance to get it established. After it starts to root and grow, sod requires watering on a regular basis. By using native grasses and then adding coastal bermuda, I can reduce the amount of maintenance required to keep a healthy ground cover and root system.

With our ponds here in North Texas, we get rain early in a season and then the pond has to hold that water through months of dry season. That's the normal routine. This year, we didn't get the rain and we have an extended dry season. Grass that normally stays green is dry and brown. I just think native grasses have a better chance of returning once some moisture falls.

Also, most of the rocks and sand I'll use will have flowing water or be covered in water for several weeks during the wet season. Most grass also doesn't do well under water. I plan to have a sandy bottom wading pond when its wet and a sandy "beach" area as the water recedes. At least that's my plan for now. We'll see how well I do at getting that accomplished. It's all a lot of work and I am going to rely heavily on my tractor for some help. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Robert_in_NY · Jan 5, 2006

R/C tractors /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif There are a couple guys who take 1/16 Ertl tractors and turn them into R/C models. Here is One of them

And another

In Action

Also, Ertl has made some before and just recently released a 1/10 scale John Deere 9520 and 9620. It is a monstor of a RC. I attached a pic of it