DIY Pond?

[cqaigy2]

I've heard water fowl feces will also help seal a pond.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Update after a week.

The truck I hired being filled. This was one of the first few loads.

But there were MANY more. Notice we had a little rain, that puddle stayed for days, until I scooped it out with the dirt.

I eventually moved the duck house out to what would be the island. They seem to approve.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I was not able to take as much time off work as I had hoped so I ended up hiring an operator to load the truck most days. I found a decent groove to get work done. I would dig and stack, then the next day the operator would just load the piles. That seemed to get more loads moved than having the operator dig and load at the same time. We made 1 lap around the pond to the shale line, then I came back and added a little more depth.

I ended up with enough shale for my driveway and pad for my house when that project starts.

I'd say we got a little deeper. These pictures seem to flatten the depth, but I think this view shows it a little better.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Got the bulk of the digging done and look what showed up!

Gary got the new part all cleaned up and tracked in. This thing moves a whole lot of dirt, and fast.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Oh Dam!

There are several videos of us attempting to save fish. It was a bit hilarious with everyone getting stuck in the mud and my wife fell down in it. But, we were able to save a lot of fish. Hopefully it was enough to get the new pond started, but they may starve to death with just dirt for now?

 

[Rockbadchild]

looked like a fun project, I can see that you folks are not afraid to get dirty... looking forward to see the final product.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

The next day we started digging down from the original pond. The dozer was able to get a lot of the muck moved over to where I could reach and load it. Eww it was schloppy.

That was a very long day. I decided the fun had worn off of running the big hoe. I dug and loaded for almost 14 hours straight. Stopped once for food, other than that only for the bathroom. This was close to the end of that day. Still had a pad to dig off the side of the levy but you get the idea. The water from the old pond fit just nicely down in the corner of the new one. The ducks seem content with it.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Glamour shot.

The controls themselves are easier on the dozer. But getting good output as an operator is WAY harder than the track hoe.

 

[Jchonline]

Its always way more dirt than you think! We enlarged our pond in TX 30 years ago with a bulldozer and a tractor. Took forever!

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

There were so many piles of dirt and shale. I would guess in the neighborhood of 200 back here.