Draining pond questions

I tried that, it did not work, I got the 'forbidden' message.

Today it does weork as you say.

I have a terrible time ever seeing pics posted on Photobucket & other such pic hosting sites. Don't know why. It's been suggested my ISP has something to do with that, but of course they say not so.


As to the 'pond', this is a terrible time to build or work on one, spring when the soil is mushy & water levels are high.

Looks like it worked out, but in the 'before' picture it looks like a grassy field, not an exsisting pond?

Anyhow, looks like a good project. Around me we try to get rid of water, not create more ponds, so these type of projects are always new & interesting to me. Couple people have put in a swimming pond in a ravine, but that's rare.

--->Paul

"About how deep do you think a small bulldozer can sink? "

When the built my ponds they scraped off the sand and silt down to the blue clay. It was pretty amazing watching the D8 kind of wobble around on top of the clay. I kept expecting it to disappear out of sight but it never sank more than a few inches.

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Ok I am going to pick up 50 pounds of grass seed and sow it tomorrow.. I need to find some straw too..
here are the photos I took this morning.
I think the dog did a pretty good job pushing the mudclods out. The large nasty looking pile behind the old pond will remain until it dries out sometime this summer. Then it will be dozed over the backside of the dam.
http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/110586847
http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/110586851
http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/110586852
http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/110586853
The pond is a lot longer than it is wide. due to the layout of the land.It is about 160 feet long and maybe 60 feet wide at is widest.. I am sure it will look fine once it gets filled up.

The pond is not quite full.. lacks about 3 feet.. But it already has 257 dollars worth of fish in it.. and it is looking nice.
I tried to spread some of the muck out over the back of the old dam.. But it keeps raining..It will just have to wait.. http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/112281397

http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/112281398

http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/image/112281401
It has turned out very well.. I have grass growing on the dam now..I will need to put a little fertilizer on it..But I have to be careful to avoid an algae bloom.

"How long do you think I should let my pond sit empty.. Before trying to push it out to make it larger and deeper? "

Till it's dry enough. If you hit a spring like we did with our crawler loader, never.

" About how deep do you think a small bulldozer can sink?"

Till it comes to something solid?
With skid plates under our Terratrac 656, I had 1 track buried and the other was down a good ways too before I stopped to pull it out (that was the day my wife learned to use the hand clutch on the Case DC4). Getting clay in the roller and idler bearings and wrecking them was much worse than pulling it out.

I tried enlarging my pond, by cutting and let dry... a year later, I filled the
'cut' and pushed dirt from both sides onto the dam to raise it. Wasn't really satisfied with the 25% increase. So, saved my dollars, and went below the dam about 250' and built another dam, 8 foot higher. Took two years, but it finally filled up, and swallowed the old dam.

I'd imagine it'd depend upon how your soil reacts to water... and if you've accumulated a lot of sediment. I'd say what you want to do could be done... wouldn't hurt to be in the middle of a long standing drought first!

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Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

i wouldn't attempt it with a dozer..better off to rent a backhoe for the weekend and keep the bugger up on dry land..that is what we did

say what? The pond is finished

Please excuse my ignorance, but do you have to drain a pond to enlarge it slightly? Is there a way to use a backhoe to dig out an area adjacent to the pond and keep working towards the pond until the water seeps over?