Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[jinman]

Ron, I'm surprised you didn't get any rain in the valley. We rely on you to bring rain every time you come down. It seems to have worked for the rest of us. Our drought is about ended.:thumbsup:

I'm up to 3.5" total after the additional rain last night. This is gonna put a lot of moisture into the ground for the trees that didn't die in the drought last year. I'll have lots of partially dead trees and limbs falling in my woods since postoaks and blackjack oaks tend to self-sustain by partially sacrificing limbs.

 

[blueriver]

I'm at 4 and 2/10ths ... here's some shots of 2 out of the 3 ponds ... the 3rd still needs about 1' ... sure is nice to have the rain !!

Still a little dark when I took these and a chance of a little rain thru noon today.

 

[Bird]

I just dumped about .18" of rain out of my gauge, so that would bring the total up to about 4.26" and we still just barely getting a sprinkle this morning.

 

[jinman]

I'm at 4 and 2/10ths ... here's some shots of 2 out of the 3 ponds ... the 3rd still needs about 1' ... sure is nice to have the rain !!

Still a little dark when I took these and a chance of a little rain thru noon today.

Your little split level ponds with a dam across is exactly what I'm doing with my ponds, but I suspect my ponds will be a bit deeper. My dam between will be nearly 40' thick at the bottom and 15'-20' wide at the top with a road across.

The photos below were taken from my deck yesterday morning. The first picture shows my progress on the dam. You can see where I have a little trench across the dam to drain off water from this rainstorm. As soon as I finish excavation, this dam is going up to final completion. The 2nd photo is where I've been putting all the excavated materials. I almost have this gully completely filled in. I'm leaving the gully to the right to drain all the water from the road ROW into my pond. I don't let water run over the top of this mound. It drains back to the left and out the far side where it mixes with water from the road. The last photo is just another view of the pond excavation viewed from my deck.

 

[NativeSon]

The storm lost a little steam by the time it got to us. Some wind, but just a good East Texas Rain......2 3/8 inches. Stock tank is full and water standing in some low spots in the pasture.

Charlie

 

[bindian]

Depending on the size and purpose of your pier, have you considered attaching plastic barrels underneath so it can float up and down with the water level changes?

Pacerron,
That would not work at all. Really it is like a deck/pier. The back end of it is the bulkhead I installed to keep dam dirt away from the Cedar Tree I wanted to keep. Some photos below, but the whole story is here....
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/135413-i-finally-started-my-pond.html
hugs, Brandi

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm dead on 2 inches for the storm. It's misting this morning, but nothing measurable. My brother lives an hour from me, near Mabank and he received 4 1/2 inches. Everything is flooding over there, but here, the ponds are still low.

Eddie

 

[Western]

Holy smoke, Don. If your part of the country isn't burnin' up, it's blowin' down.:confused2: You guys have gotta find a happy medium.

Almost exactly what I was thinking when I looked at Don's photo!!

Everyones ponds are looking nice! it has been a while since the water levels have been up. Not sure how much rain we received, but it was considerable. Hopefully it will saturate and buck back the El Nino' for a while. N Texas (D/FW area) broke the December rainfall record and at a good time too.

Area lakes did get a 1' or 2 as of last night, but I suspect they will rise even more as the water makes it's way through the creeks, Lake Bridgeport was up 1' and remains at 11' below normal, but a couple of lakes rose to over the lake level:thumbsup:

 

[EddieWalker]

Hey Dennis, any more to share on your wife's adventures of driving to work and home again?

Eddie

 

[blueriver]

Your little split level ponds with a dam across is exactly what I'm doing with my ponds, but I suspect my ponds will be a bit deeper. My dam between will be nearly 40' thick at the bottom and 15'-20' wide at the top with a road across.

The photos below were taken from my deck yesterday morning. The first picture shows my progress on the dam. You can see where I have a little trench across the dam to drain off water from this rainstorm. As soon as I finish excavation, this dam is going up to final completion. The 2nd photo is where I've been putting all the excavated materials. I almost have this gully completely filled in. I'm leaving the gully to the right to drain all the water from the road ROW into my pond. I don't let water run over the top of this mound. It drains back to the left and out the far side where it mixes with water from the road. The last photo is just another view of the pond excavation viewed from my deck.

I like ponds and the split level is nice. The one on your left was here when I bought this place and measuring from a paddle boat in several spots the deepest I found was 18' ... the second pond I had constructed. The dam for that on is 580 long ... 60' across the bottom and at the waterline 15' I've not gone out and measured the depth. I had the track hoe operator dig down two holes in the bottom before it started to fill. Pretty good sized in both diameter and depth. Had a real hard time coring that one.