A Video Montage

Here is a video montage I recently did of the family, pond, etc.

Video Montage

First Fish Contact

No pics lately, as I have been too busy (really). The spring rains came and did what springs rains do--they filled the pond to overflowing again! However, I am very pleased with how the spillways are working out. I created two; one I shot with the laser a bit lower grade than the other. When the one can no longer handle the inflow, the pond rises ca. 3 inches more and the second spillway engages. It has been working beautifully, so I am glad.

Although it has not rained in nearly a week, the wet weather spring which is at the head of pond #2 (the one under construction) is still running strong. This means that not only is the large pond staying full, but that all activity on the second pond will have to wait until the spring stops flowing. Then I will pump pond #2 dry and complete it.

Over spring break, my mother and brother came down for a week. We had plenty of opportunity to fish for trout in the mountains (we are in the Shenandoah Valley, so the Blue Ridge are right nearby). In the process I was able to catch around five bluegill which I have released into the large pond. They are formally the first fish to be placed in there, and the kids have sighted them on several occasions since. I had caught a number of largemouth bass which I was going to put in, but later decided against it and let them go. My reasoning is that I am getting ready to buy some channel catfish fry around 2" long. They would be nothing more than food even to a small largemouth bass. I hope to also catch some bullhead and put them in, as not only are they fun to catch, and they reproduce well in ponds, but they are very tasty--even better than catfish.

More later . . . .

Some Final Touches

The weather was remarkable this weekend, peaking over 70 degrees. It was very enjoyable to spend nearly the entire time outside working on the the ponds. As I excavate more dirt from the second pond, it provides the needed material to produce the finishing touches on the first ponds back slope. Anyway, here is where I am now at with it:


I should have little difficulty running a mower on that angle, so I will probably wait until the last frost and then lay down my stockpile of topsoil, seed and straw it. It will be nice to see the bank green once again.

While the pond is too cold to swim or play in, the kids are still finding ways to put it to the test:

Latest Pond Updates

There is not a huge amount of work I have been able to do of late. Being February, the weather alternates between freezing and thawing temperatures. I did, however, notice that given a full month of water run-off on the overflow of the dam, the soil was quite saturated. On one of the warmer days I attempted to build up the back section of the of the dam right near where the water had been over-flowing, and noticed that I was getting a "marshmallow" feel to the dirt. What this means is that saturated dirt underneath is getting covered with dry dirt--and this is not a good thing. The only way such dirt underneath will dry out is if it were to become saturated all the way through, or if you excavated it out, set it aside to let it dry, and then repack it. I chose the latter option:


Yesterday it was just above freezing, so I spent several hours packing this moist clay in real good and compressing it down with the weight of the tractor. I would just do about 5" lifts of dirt between packings, and the moisture content seemed to be just right. Anyway, it worked out nicely:


My next goal is to trim the side bank down further around this overflow and replace what stones I do have there with rip-rap (large stones):



I need to continue filling the back portion of the dam to the slope I desire so that by spring I will then be able to put the topsoil back in place and get some grass seed down. Moving the dirt across the property by tractor loader sure does take a long time, and I am thinking of some possible alternatives to speed things up. Anyway, here are how things are looking at present:

Diversion

Well, the second pond excavation has been a bit of a seasonal challenge. I had planned to complete it during Christmas break, but I had a feeling the weather would not cooperate (we had been having such nice warm weather prior). During the last couple weeks, it has alternated between raining and then freezing. Frozen soil can be as hard as concrete and, though I knew better to even try, any efforts to work this soil have been something of a waste of time.

I did, however, manage to get a little bit accomplished on some of the warmer days. My goal was to get things to the point where when the ground thaws a bit the standing water will not be a problem. Previously, I was allowing water from the watershed and wet-weather spring to just empty into the basin I am currently excavating. Obviously all this water will need to be pumped out in order to proceed:



The question on my mind has been what to do about further inflow while work is still in progress? I finally decided to temporarily divert the flow from its two main sources. Where water flows in during rains from the adjacent property, I built a berm preventing its entrance into the work site. It now effectively flows around the basin and back out. I did something similar where the wet-weather spring emerges. In this instance I created something of a trench which empties into the same spot. My new potato plow (middle buster) was great for making a very exact ditch:




You can get an idea of the where the two water sources meet in this pic:




I also finally bought a nice 1/3 hp Water Ace utility pump from Lowes (I am thankful for Christmas gift cards!). The pump was only $88 and it will work nicely in removing the water that is currently standing as well as any that manages to collect again before the project is complete. The pump is rated for 2200 gph, so it should be more than adequate. Here is a pic of it, except mine is black and has a nice handle to grip on top:




These last two pics give something of an idea of the size the second pond will be since they are taken back a bit further:




It should be interesting trying out this utility pump. I will be running it from a power inverter in my truck, and take some photos of it in action later.

Strange Geology

I honestly cannot figure the watershed surrounding our property out. The wet-weather spring and watershed have been flowing non-stop since December 12th (though the rate of flow has diminished). The strange thing is trying to answer the question of how a day of rain prior to the 12th can result in that much continuous water flow since. From where is this water coming? We have had prior rains that seemed comparable, and the watershed and spring did not respond in the same manner. It really has me baffled.

Before starting the pond project I ordered a soil survey for this county. It mapped out soil compositions pretty good and has elevation maps. It is written so that laymen like myself can get an idea of what is going on.

My best theory is that the Weikert shale is uniformly present across the watershed (which the survey supports), regardless the depth of silt, clay, or soil above it. This shale is largely impermeable--something the locals call "black shale" (i.e., it turns black over time when water sits on top of it). There must be a tipping point for soil moisture saturation in the soil above this shale, and once it is reached, the water flows until the whole thing drains. That also explains why previous rains were not resulting in any activity, and then all of a sudden it let go and has continued for two weeks straight. That is the best I can make of it anyway.

While it did result in a full pond, the down side is that I have not been able to do any more work on the second pond excavation during Christmas break. I had hoped to finish it during this time. Oh well. I learned long ago that with this type of project it is best not to get attached to a definite time schedule since the weather has the final say. Otherwise a fun and enjoyable project becomes stressful--the exact opposite of the entire point in doing it.

The full pond, however, looks good and continues to flow the incoming water right back out:



The excavation-in-process of the second pond is full of water that will need to be pumped out before I resume work. Once the water stops flowing, I am debating whether to buy a 1/3 hp electric utility pump (as I may have more occasions for pumping it before I am done), or just renting it this one time. They are $80-$100 depending on which model. Either way, I will probably need to run it off an inverter from the truck, which should be able to handle it (ca. 10 amps).

I will report on more progress as soon as this bizarre watershed stops flowing water.

On a different note, we recently had a large flock of turkeys come through. It was the largest group I have seen to date--I counted 20 in all. Anyway, they entered our property at the base of the pond dam, came across the side hill, and then flew across the road. I was a little surprised that almost all of them decided it was best to fly instead of walk across the road. I imagine that somewhere in their bird consciousness is this image of colleagues exploding in a burst of feathers under similar circumstances:

A Surprise!

On the 12th day of the 12th month--on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

Yes, I know those words are strikingly familiar. I write them in keeping with the language of Genesis 7:11f., because this morning was a complete surprise to me. I walked out the door to go to work and the first thing I saw was this:


It had rained so hard yesterday and particularly last night that the entire pond went from ca. 1/8 full to overflowing! I stood there shocked, as that is thousands of gallons of water in under 24 hours. I was also quite pleased to see that the overflow I had designed into the earthen dam was functioning quite well, since a great deal of water was continuously flowing into the pond:







The other side of the dam has a similar spill-way, but I noticed the water was not yet going over it. I will shave it down so that it matches the same level as the other side.

Here are some other shots of the full basin from other angles:




Here is an indication of the volume of water that is continuously pouring into the basin through the culvert:



Of course, this water is emerging from the other side, which looks like this going in:


Notice that on this opposite side, I am still in the middle of constructing the second pond when this rain struck. Here are some photos of my progress up to now:




The source of all this water is a saturated watershed--just as I had hoped for and anticipated. A portion comes down the middle of our neighbor's lawn and enters the head of this second pond (when it is completed):




The second source emerges from an underground wet-weather spring. Here you can see its outflow:


Of course, given the level of water now in the second pond-in-progress, I will have to wait until it dries up some to make further progress in excavation. Still, this was a wonderful and unexpected blessing which I had not anticipated until spring. More photos to come as I do further work . . . .

Phase Two -- The Second Pond

I have done all I can for now on the large pond. I will put more soil on the backside of the dam, and then in the spring I will lay down top soil on the dam and plant grass seed again.

I have now turned my attention to the second pond, which I have long referred to as phase two (out of three phases). I broke ground for this pond on the other side of the culvert, where the old hand-dug well is located. The first step was to burn the large wood pile just up from where the pond will be:



As we watched the pile burn, you can observe here the pond location in the background. Note also the fenced-off well. It took a full day for the pile to burn down:



With the pile burned, I finally break the top soil for the new pond. I used a potato plow (middle-buster) which I found for $70 new at a tractor supply store. It was the only one left of that model, and it works very well. Anyway, here are some photos of the sod and top soil initially being stripped away. The area with the tuft of high grass is the location of the wet-weather spring, which I will leave undisturbed. It brings much of the water from this watershed to this focal point above ground:





These are the drain pipes that go under the driveway and will distribute water overflow from the first pond to the second. Phase three will involve removing these culverts and the driveway above it and constructing a bridge across the chasm:


It took me quite a while to get all the stones from around the well removed (I will later use them elsewhere). This is what the well looked like with no stones prior to serious excavation. There is no telling how old this well is, but it goes back a long way. I have since kept much of the soil I took out of it separate, in the hopes of perhaps borrowing a metal detector and finding things former generations had tossed down into it (old coins, etc.):



I have more photos of my progress to publish in my next post. It appears one of my challenges is going to be in determining where to dispose of much of this dirt excavated from the basin. Much of it can go on the backside of the other pond's dam, but I am somewhat at a loss what to do with the rest. Perhaps I will post it on Craigslist for anyone to come get.

More Clay, No Straw

As the pond has filled with rain water, I noticed that some of the clay on the sides had eroded down into the basin. This left me a bit unsettled, as the silt left behind it was capable of absorbing and transferring water out of the basin.

After a good deal of reflection on the problem, the fix was pretty straightforward: excavate the shallow end of the pond deeper and place that dirt on the backside of the earthen dam. Not only is it a good place to put this extra dirt, but it also builds up the backside which will make mowing easier. It looks as follows (I have since leveled those dirt piles):


The reason for excavating that shallow end was evident when I finally got down to some clay which I knew was there from my initial excavation of the pond. Consequently, the back side of the pond is no longer shallow:


Next, I excavated the silt out of the sides of the basin bringing it down about 10". I then placed loads of moist clay along the entire length of the the sides, smoothed it out with the tractor bucket, and then proceeded to drive over it systematically until it was packed down good and solid. I even placed clay along the inside portions of the earthen dam:



I have done a few hours more work since these photos, and am very pleased with the results, confident it will provide a much better seal when the spring rains come and fill the basin:



The next post will begin my chronicle of the excavation of the second pond on the other side of the culvert.

Swimming Time!

I finally decided to let the kids swim a little yesterday and today after church, as it will soon be too cold. The pond level is the highest it has ever been, due to the good rains we had a couple days back. While they were swimming, a good rain shower came through and dropped even more.

The kids absolutely love the pond.

. . . Still Filling

I took these pics about a week ago and, since we were not getting any rain, decided to run well water into it the evenings. It brought it up considerably and it seems to be holding fine:




I took the kids down this evening with a flashlight to look at the water level and it has risen considerably with today's rain. I will take more pics tomorrow. Oh, and we saw a HUGE bullfrog--bigger than anything previously in the pond. Can't wait until this thing fills up.

First Contacts

I had mentioned previously that the very first life-form which came to the pond was a bullfrog. Unfortunately, I could never find the frog, I would only hear his croak or see his splash into the water when he saw me coming.

I finally decided to try the old midnight trick with a flashlight, and sure enough I was finally able to see him real close. It is strange how a flashlight completely blinds/paralyzes the frog, so that you could just reach out and grab them if you liked. I will try to get a picture of him soon.

The second creature to make its way into the pond is a turtle. I have not yet seen it, but the kids have, and my oldest daughter has touched it (mud turtle, not snapper). Again, I will try to get a picture of it, but first I need to see it for myself.

The third creature, which I have been the only one to see, is a blue heron. I was driving to go to work last week, and a large blue heron was walking the pond. Of course, as soon as it saw me it flew away, but it was still fascinating to see. If the frog is not fleet of foot, the heron will surely pick him off.

Saving Heating and Cooling Costs With a Pond

I have a good friend who owns a portion of river with a continuous flow of a very strong (and deep) water current. I have repeatedly encouraged him to install a hydro-electric generator in this location, as it would result not only in a consistent and year-long supply of electricity for his home, but would likely result in a surplus for which the power company would have to pay him. To my knowledge he has not yet installed one.

I do not own a stretch of river, but a pond can likewise produce significant savings in electricity. Here is how it works: traditional heat pumps and central air-conditioners work on the principle of heat exchange. In the case of a heat pump, heat is extracted (exchanged) and delivered inside the house--even from cold winter air. With an a/c unit, heat (and humidity) are extracted and deposited outside, allowing a cooler and dryer air to be distributed inside the house. The two systems operate nearly identically; just in reverse application.

Anyone who pays heating and a/c bills knows that a good amount of electricity is required in order to accomplish this heat exchange. Fortunately, it is right at this point where a pond can be of significant benefit. In most regions, at depths of 10'+ deep a pond's water remains warmer than the coldest freezing winter temperatures above, and cooler than the warmest summer temperatures above. In other words, the pond's water itself becomes the source for heat exchange--providing warmth in the winter and cooling in the summer.

The process is really pretty straightforward as seen in this pic (found at http://www.waterfurnace.com/):


In the summer, the coils circulate warm fluid (typically a form of anti-freeze) from the house to the pond, which is cooled by the pond's lower temperature. This cooler fluid is then circulated back and, through an air blower, is distributes as lower air temperature throughout the house (i.e., central air-conditioning). The opposite exchange occurs during the winter. This is precisely the same principle for how standard electric heat pumps and air-conditioners operate. However, rather than consuming electricity to affect the transfer, the pond water temperature becomes the medium.

Here is a pic of destination and return trenches for one of these systems going to a pond (as found at http://geothermaldiy.com/gallery.html):


In short, in a year or two (God-willing) when I turn my attention to major changes to the house, this heating and air solution will be at the top of my list to install.

Deere

My wife has posted these pics on her blog, but since they spend a good deal of time in and around the pond basin, I thought it would be good to chronicle it here as well. In these pics they have come to visit the apple tree and get some fruit from our back yard.

The first three are two bucks and a doe. Notice the late summer velvet on the antlers. They will rub that off on trees as rutting season begins. The second set are three fawns that were born just this spring. I saw them when they were really small, so they have put on quite a bit of growth over the summer:

Water Aeration

In spite of having little rain, the pond basin is holding water very well so far. There has been sufficient time for the clay sediment to separate from the water and sink to the bottom. Accordingly, the water clarity is very good.

However, this raises another issue that I knew in advance I would have to address, and that is aeration. Left untouched by human hands, ponds eventually fill themselves back in. That is nature's way (I have seen ponds created two generation prior left untouched and they are mere hollows in the ground). The obvious exception to this rule is when there is a strong feeder creek, or springs, etc., but even then over more time you will likely end up with a marsh or swamp area.

But in between this terminal end of ponds is an ongoing invasion of natural plant growth. On the one hand, some plant growth in the pond is necessary for establishing a balanced ecosystem. On the other hand, no one builds a pond just to come and look at scum floating in the surface and weeds tangled underneath. Unfortunately, you can smell it also. Anyone who has tried to fish or swim in these conditions knows exactly what I mean.

My plan is to head this off at the pass by introducing a pond aerator. While there are many different designs and ways this system works, the basic idea is to introduce oxygen into the water as well as rotate oxygen-depleted water off the bottom (thermal layer stale water). The short of it is that this keeps a pond fresh, clear, and minimizes nasty scum (algae).

This type of aerator sits on the bottom and injects or bubbles up (images from http://www.lifountain.com/strata-fuser-series-products.html):


Others sit on the top and introduce an air mix downward:



Other systems, often seen as "fountains," pump water from the stale water below and spray it into the air. It lands back into the water introducing oxygen. There are many different nozzles and spray patterns from which to choose, but I like ones that look the most natural. Among various possibilities are:



I will need to do some more investigation as to which aeration system would work best for our size pond, while simultaneously being economical in energy use. In a later post I will also describe my plans to build a rock waterfall, so hopefully I can incorporate one pump to handle both systems. But more on the waterfalls later.

White Birch

Having grown up in the northeast, perhaps my favorite tree is the white birch. They have a look of purity about them--standing out among the other trees in the forest without being ostentatious. Their bark is like paper and sheds off in rolls. Very nice.

I have discovered that you don't really appreciate these trees until you have lived in warmer regions where they simply cannot grow and are not found. I suppose some southern folks feel the same way about magnolias or palm trees when they come north.

Anyway, my plan is to plant several of these white birch around the pond. They often grow together in groups of two or three, and that is how I would do it--probably a total of three at various locations on pond's edge.

Perhaps these pics will give you an idea of why I like these trees so much:

This is a pic of a solitary tree. From a distance it may look something like a weeping willow, but they are nothing like them (willows are kind of nasty bug-riddled trees):


Here is a pic of how you will often see them in their natural environment in the forest:


A bit closer:


. . . and closer yet:


The birch family of trees naturally do well in moist soil near bodies of water. There is also a variation of the white birch which seems to thrive well in Virginia heat. It's bark is a little more cream colored. I have a bit more investigation to do before I make a final decision.

What Critters May Come

I have not placed any life forms (artificial or otherwise) in the pond. At this stage I am curious to see what shows up on its own.

Technically, the first animals drawn to the pond we typically see in our back yard, but at night they are all around the pond edge. Come morning, I find these deere tracks everywhere:


The first creature I know was in the pond was a bullfrog. In the middle of the day he was hanging out around my fish structure. I could hear him loud and clear, but never did locate him visibly (shifty little frog).

The next critters to show up were also right in the middle of the day. They can sometimes be found wearing shorts, making messes in and around houses, and sometimes make very loud noises. We were lucky to catch them with the camera:




I have a feeling this particular species will take over the pond once it is full, as they are known to love wading, splashing, swimming, fishing, and having fun in water.


My wife was the first to discover the arrival of dragon flies. She caught them laying eggs on the water. Personally I like dragon flies. They remind me of fishing, since they would often decide to land on the end of my pole and just sit there. They are friendly little insects with the most fascinating wing and flight design. More evidence that our Creator loves to design things in various and sundry ways:



I have observed a number of wild turkeys living down the road near a creek that drains our immediate region's watershed into the Opequon River. I began to suspect that they were visiting the pond at night based on the tracks. Today I found a turkey feather in the pond basin. Even more interesting was the adult and baby turkeys which we managed to photograph in our backyard today. Since they require water for eating, I have a feeling we will be seeing more of them in the vicinity of the pond in the future; but you have to be fleet of foot and look quick because they are pretty wary creatures:

Filling & Holding Water

We have not had rain recently, but the last few times it has rained the level in the pond began to steadily rise. It is retaining water good and even continues to feed water from the watershed for several days after a rain through a wet-weather spring.

Here are a few shots of the increasing capacity:



It then rained again resulting in this:





I am pleased with how quickly it is filling. Here is a pic of that wet-weather spring:



The rye grass is also taking hold real well:




It takes about two weeks for the fescue seed to germinate, so I am keeping the rye grass watered to ward off heat shock and keep it from dying out prematurely.

Starting to Take Shape

Well, the final steps of rough work were nearly done and none too soon. I had to return the rental dozer soon, so now was the time to cut my overflows on each side of the dam:



It is a little hard to explain, but basically when the water reaches a certain level, it will follow the overflows, which are sloped away from the dam back into the virgin soil cut out from the hill sides. I picked this approach up from reading pond expert and author Tim Matson. The red lines represent the full water line shot with my level. Since then, I have lined the hillside with large stones and have also heavily seeded and strawed this whole area. I am going to wait and see what it looks like later, but I may also line it with some rip-rap or a bit smaller rock.

Before I had an opportunity to get some seed and straw down, it rained a couple times. As you can see, the water held well. It is still there, minus a little bit of evaporation:





I now turned to fish structure. The trees I had to take out and all the boulders that I didn't use to line the overflow area came in handy. Some of these materials also found its place up on the bank where it is quite decorative:




Now it was time for seed and straw. It was pretty hot when I put it all down. I bought 100lbs of fescue/rhye mix and about 15 bales of straw. All that was finally spread and covered. I could have been done sooner I suppose, but some other things came up that needed attention. Also, I never look forward to spreading straw--I spent a lot of time working in blistering hot barns stacking it non-stop off the hay elevator as a kid. Probably some Pavlovian behavioral response on my part now as an adult:







Now I am just watering the seed until it is established, waiting for rain to come and fill the pond.

Anyway, the latest addition to the oversight committee appeared happy with the work, and that is important:


Of course, there were six others . . . .

On the other side of the driveway culvert is an old hand-dug well and watershed spring. There are some really nice trees as well. My plan is to put a second pond there (a bit smaller). Phase three will be to dig out the driveway in between the two and connect the two ponds. I then want to put a covered bridge across the expanse. I want to model it after the old New England style from the 19th century (hopefully).

It would be nice to do a small version of this one in Newfield, NY. It is the only one from the 19th century being used in NY, and we used to live just down the road from it when I was little kid:



I can't remember where I found this online, but it is more to the size and design I am interested in actually doing:

Lining the Bottom and Sides With Clay

As mentioned earlier, I hit the dreaded Weikert shale in one strip adjacent to where the ground eroded from the seasonal run off down the middle. The best plan would have been to immediately cover it with clay, but I had to go deeper in this particular location. Here is where renting a larger dozer would have been nice, but the finish dozer still did a good job. The trick was to get the edge of the blade angled down, and to move downhill and across. It is hard to explain, but it worked well and dug the shale deposit right out. This was encouraging since the guy who came with the backhoe to dig the test holes could barely pierce the stuff.

I was a bit nervous at this point since hitting hard-pan or other subsurface base of this nature isn't the best route to ensure a sealing pond (which was my original concern to begin with). However, here is where the unexpected bonus of a nice deposit right in the basin of both pure grey clay and a rich mixture of clay and dirt paid off nicely. I had enough to completely smother the shale area I had excavated . . . in fact, I had enough to line the entire basin of the pond fairly deep.

Here you can see more compaction of this clay with the tractor:







I had to use the tractor's brakes so much while compacting that some liquid was oozing out some overflow holes in the rear axle. I thought I had heated them so much that the gasket behind the brakes shoes had failed allowing transmission fluid to leak. I pulled the covers and discovered that the rotor had gotten hot enough to actually cause whatever factory grease was in there to become runny. I redressed the shoes and rotors, cleaned everything up real good, and put it back together. Everything was fine after that. I wasn't looking forward to pulling those seals.

As I was compacting this clay, sometimes the sun would take too much moisture out and I would have to hose it down. Everyone around quickly discovered to beware of six-year-old's with water hoses!