Summer Project Pond

[Topstrap]

Hello, I am new here and thought I'd put up some pics of my lil pond I started in the spring. Been working on it off and on all summer in between real life jobs. I had a spring and swamp in my lower yard for the past 25 years and thought it was time to do something about it. One day I was bored and started to dig and rid myself of that mess but many times I think I created more of a mess than if I had left it alone. It's still not finished and will add more pictures since it is full of water now but not finished with the rock ledges or hillside above the pond with walkways and landscaping. Mabe that will be next years project, I have a pretty good pile of old foundation stones still available to use on that hillside and also want to create an old fake mine entrance above where the spring with old timbers and an old coal car to give a purpose for the water coming out of the hillside.

 

[weldingisfun]

Impressive!
Keep the pics coming as you progress.

 

[20 20]

Very nice, what size is it? I like your idea about the mine and ole coal car.

 

[EddieWalker]

Great pictures. I really like those foudation blocks. Are they something that you had on your land or did you go buy them? I'd love to have something like that aroudn my peninsula, but rock is extremly expensive here. We don't have any and it all has to be trucked in.

Are the steps for getting in and out for swimming? Sure is something that I've never seen before in a pond. More like a giant,swimming pool!!!

And those boulders set into the hillside are just awesome. What is the quickrete for? Are you locking the rocks together? or is it something to do with that pipe with water flowing out of it? Could it be the spring and that's going to be a water fall? Or is it the coolest walkway ever?

Eddie

 

[Topstrap]

I"m going to try and edit my post and add comments to each picture but it seems the edit tab is not available for me to do that yet. Maybe I have to have more posts first. My spring that was filling the pond has slowed down due to a dry summer so I'm going to be running a 2" pipe to one of the small streams on the property to maintain the water level. It will be directed to the same spot the spring was flowing over the rocks but will have more water and create more of the effect I was wanting initially. The steps were added to make it easier to get in and out of the pond when swimming. The foundation stones were gathered over the years from different jobs I've done and was able to bring them home to save for a future project. The big ones around the dam were from an old house here locally so they still get to stay in the area ane were put to good use. The larger flat ones for the rock ledges were gathered all over, when I dug one out that looked right I'd haul it home and add to the pile. Luckily I was able to get them free, haul them as needed and move and place them with my equipment. The poor old Hitachi excavator was recently retired but it did manage to get the pond dug but undercarriage was in really bad condition and was retired recently and a Yanmar B6 has taken it's place.

Finding a site like this was great, nice to see how others do their projects and also inspires the rest of us to get out there and tackle those projects.

Topstrap

 

[GT2]

Very creative!
What are the blue pipe risers for?

 

[Topstrap]

The pond is not very big, about 45ft wide and 85ft long and 8 1/2ft deep for about half the length and then drops to about 4ft deep. The blue riser near the white pipe is just a shrould so I can slide a pipe down that is slotted to turn a 2" valve to drain the pond down to within 3ft of the bottom in case I ever need to do any work on it and be in the dry. The white 4" pipe is the regular drain that handles normal drainage. That pipe goes to a small stream below the pond but during heavy rains that stream will rise higher than my drain and not allow the pond to drain. If by some chance we get some super rain then the green 8" riser on the long side of the pond goes to another small stream that lets any overflow exit. That stream is regulated by a 3" culvert under a road nearby so it never comes high enough to block that 8" pipe. That is why I did not put in a spillway on this pond. Normally I'll add one to a pond for emergency lined with rocks but in this case I didn't have to and it keeps the dam area looking neater and easier to mow.

That quickcrete Eddie asked about in that one picture was being used to try and seal up the edges of a rubber liner at the spring to try and capture all the water and make it go over the rocks. It was coming in so fast it didn't work so I'm opening it back up and letting it flow and using the water from the stream to keep pond filled.

Topstrap

 

[MarkV]

Great job and like Eddie said the stone work really sets it off. On your first post you said "one day I got bored and started to dig". That happens to me and my wife gets real nervous.

MarkV