Intro and a Q @ ponds.

[Jackell99]

Hello all,
My name is Jack. I live in West Tennessee on 23 acres of hills and hardwood with my wife, daughter, surrogate son, 9 goats, 10 chickens, 4 rabbits, a few cats and a brain damaged ACD. My wife and I both have work-a-day jobs so I don't guess it's an authentic homestead but it's a start.

Like I said, my place is hills. My driveway and front yard is the convergence point for 3 separate ridges that all run into a big Hollar on the far end of the property. Currently the goats have one side of the driveway (which runs down the middle ridge.) and since the bottom of the other side has a very small stream (more of a seep this time of year) is like to Dam it up for a pond.
Most of the ground is good old Tennessee red dirt and clay so I don't expect leaking to be an issue. But I have no real clue what I'd be looking at, where to start or how much it might be looking at for a dam/levee about 60' long and 15-20' high.
Ideally the finished pond would be 3-5 acres and suitable for fishing, irrigation (the garden spot is up Jill from where the pond would be) and some swimming and probably ducks or geese.
I have a neighbor with a dozer and a backhoe.
Anybody on here ever put in a pond? Or built your own?
Ideas? Advice? Suggestions? Donations?
Thanks in advance.

[nathan104]

Check out Pondboss.com
They have everything you need to know about ponds. Go to their forums and their is tons of great info.

[Darren]

The National Resource Conservation Service, NRCS is your friend. Make absolutely sure the spillway is designed correctly. This design guide is from the NRCS. Someone is selling them on eBay. You should be able to get a copy free at your NRCS office. Given your terrain you have a very different situation than someone building a pond on level ground. The last thing you want is to have a dam that isn't designed to resist an unusually heavy and prolonged rain.

Pond Planning Design and Ponds Construction Handbook | eBay

[Alice In TX/MO]

Yes, talk to the conservation service. They also help with expenses.

[solidwoods]

I'd coordinate with Soil Conservation people also. If they catch you in or crossing a creek or drainage ditch your world will change instantly.
Our County Ag extension office has Dam engineers who will be certified to help with a dam (up to a certain height), they also can survey to estimate if enough water is available to support the pond. In your case it sounds like you have allot of land above the pond.
jim

[ronbre]

may i suggest rather than a DAM you consider finding a low spot near the creek and dig that out for your pond, have the water run into the pond and out an overflow back into the creek..that way you don't have to worry about a dam failure..it will be more natural..and it will likely always stay full and clean..

if you do have the backhoe available you should dig the holes before you break thru to the creek..and dig it very deep with a shallow side that makes it easy for anything that falls in to get back out..and dig it as large as you can first..so that you don't have to worry about making it larger later..

[julieq]

Welcome Jackell99! Ronbre suggested exactly what we did on our ranch in Alabama. We didn't have the use of a dozer, so we bought a big old monstrosity that was on it's last leg and shook the ground whenever DH or crew got on it.

We had a creek running through our property, so we just started cutting back the banks and slowly building it up at the dam end. Our old dozer finally wouldn't climb the hills, so we gave it away and bought a smaller one to finish the job. When it got to a certain height we put in a drainage culvert.

We looked into getting help from the state, I think it was about 10,000.00 (back in the early '90's), to build the pond. But they had so many restrictions on how it was built, maintained, etc., plus they would then have access to our property, that we did it ourselves.

Best of luck, whichever way you go!