Pond Build

[EddieWalker]

Loved seeing them jump off of the dock. You might want to add a dock ladder to your list. In a year, you will have all sorts of weeds and water plants growing along the side of the dock that will be a pain to have to climb through. In two years, it will be even thicker!!!!

 

[walker450]

Well it finally spilled over last month. Here are some pictures. The one with the sunset is nearly full. The other is totally dull.

 

[deezler]

Beautiful. How did you spillway area hold up to the spillover?

 

[EddieWalker]

It will be fun to see all the grass fill in and then what Mother Nature adds to your shoreline. Birds will bring in all sorts of plants that you never imagined would be there!!!! You'll also find fish in there that you didn't put in there.

 

[walker450]

Beautiful. How did you spillway area hold up to the spillover?

Worked as good as I could imagine, had about a 15-20 foot wide area with a small amount of water flowing out.

 

[walker450]

Here is a video walking around the pond, audio is bad so hard to hear what I'm saying... if anyone's has questions let me know.

 

[EddieWalker]

When did you shoot the video? Your grass looks too green and lush for it to be August!!!

Have you mowed around it yet? That's when you learn if you made the dam too steep or not.

I like the dock. That's something I really should of done before mine filled up.

 

[walker450]

The video was taken July 12th, buuuuut you wouldn't believe how green it is now, we are looking good here!

The front of the dam is mowable with my 4wd F series Kubota. The back is easy easy. I made dang sure to push extra dirt so the back wouldn't be too steep. I have a video brush hogging the back side here:

 

[bindian]

You sure got it awesome looking. Down here my pond is down over 4 feet.
hugs, Brandi

 

[EddieWalker]

Good video. I never seen a pull behind mower like that before. It looks like it does a nice job!!!!

 

[bindian]

My Uncle called them Shredders. He had an old, old version behind his old Farmall.
hugs, Brandi

 

[walker450]

This video is from yesterday evening, August 15th 2023. It shows how green everything is. I mow the pond dam face with my out front mower. Of course it doesn't look very steep in the video

 

[walker450]

My Uncle called them Shredders. He had an old, old version behind his old Farmall.
hugs, Brandi

My family from Texas also calls them shredders. In central OK where I'm at they are brush hogs.

I never knew how backwards we awoke until becoming friends with a coworker who moved here from Bismarck, North Dakota. He would point out our backwoods dialect, but it wasn't long before I picked up on his alien word usage lol. Ooofta!!!

 

[deezler]

Of course it doesn't look very steep in the video

Looks steep enough for me! Of course with the extra pucker factor of slippery/mushy conditions right near the water line and high penalty for a driving failure!

 

[EddieWalker]

It looks pretty steep in your video. Looks like you are sliding down while going forward on your mower. When I built my dam, I tried real hard to make it easy to mow and not have anything too steep, but I totally blew it on the side where the water flows into the dam. I should of spent more time lowering the natural slope of the land. This is my pucker area, and eventually, where I'll remove a lot of dirt to get it down where it's not so steep.

 

[walker450]

Yeap, it crabs sideways to stay on the slope! There has been several times where I'm thinking that I'm going to have to stop and pull it up with a tractor but it hasn't let me down so far!

 

[walker450]

I was able to do some late season bermuda grass sprigging of the spillway. I made a video of the whole process. If anyone has questions let me know. I have followed this process several times and it has always worked well.

 

[jim jroftx]

A friend with scrapers You got better friends than I do. wow pulling two scrapers son that is a hell of a deal right there!
I am like every body else here that is a lake. That Damn is sexy wish mine look that good. I built a 2 ac pond it was Hell I tell you. You started clean your doing it right and will be very nice when you get done, I can tell this is not your first rodeo. Good job very good job congrats.

 

[walker450]

A friend with scrapers...

Thanks Jim!

I went through my old phone and spliced together the timelapse I took... which isn't much. The last segment I'm pushing up dirt for a shooting berm but the dirt came from the pond are so I included it anyways.

 

[bindian]

Does that dam have a core trench inside it? Looks like you are piling clay over grass to build it.