the word is dam, lol unless you meant to cuss him...lol
HAHAHAHA! Dam autocorrect!! I guess I cuss too much!
Right now it's as low as its been in a long time. Probably 2 to 3ft other than the deeper section by the dam. It needs about 6 or 7 feet. We haven't had any significant rain for a long time. The dirt back here is just powder at the moment. Couple of pics looking at the dam.
It has good clay no sand and seems to hold ok, I just dont get enough runoff to overcome the loss between rains. Even in a good 2"+ rain I'm lucky to gain a foot. Since beginning of July it's down about 2 feet. The last 3 months July 9 to Oct 9 we have only recieved 7.5" of rain. We had 1 rain event of 2.6", 1 of 1.3" and 2 of 1/2". All others have been less than 1/2". I'm hoping the work I'm doing now will increase the water runoff quite a bit.
Everything runs to the pond that's been cleared. It can't go anywhere else. I can probably add another 5 acres but don't really want watershed from our beanfield into the pond. I'll see what happens next year. All of the watershed is pretty steep which will also help as long as I can keep the soil stable.
Eddie believe me I understand. I thought the same thing and looking at it thought 9 acres of watershed was plenty given the terrain. I was scratching my head on why it was not filling until I finally walked the pond during a heavy rainfall. The surrounding timber is like a sponge when walking on it.. Several inches of just leaves and very soft soil. Even with a heavy rain there is not a significant amount of runoff. There is just a small amount of water running the ravines into the pond. I think the most I have ever gained in 1 rain event is 2 ft and that was 4" of rain in a short timeframe. There is no change in water level during a normal rain. It takes a 3"+ rain to gain any amount of water to speak of. It's not that it's filling then quickly receding, it's just not getting enough watershed to to make a significant gain when it rains. When I only gain 6 inches during a decent rain it's just not enough if the next good rain comes 3 or 4 weeks later. I've measured over the last year and a rainfall of 2" will raise the pond 1ft. An inch of rain does nothing. And that gets smaller as it climbs the banks and increases in surface area. Runoff is the issue. Can't blame a leak when it doesn't fill in the first place.
Correct and from what Im reading that doubles to 20 to 1 for timber. I thought the steepness of the terrain would overcome that but I was wrong which is why I'm now working to thin everything out enough to promote grass cover surrounding the pond.
