tednruthy
09-15-2007, 09:42 AM
It has been a busy week here at our place. Food plot earlier this week (in a separate post) and a pond here. For years we have wanted a pond and yesterday we got started digging it. A local excavator showed up and got a great start and will return Monday to continue. He dug a test 3 weeks ago and found about 7-8 foot of clay under the 2 foot of surface cover. We decided to try for a depth that would not penetrate the bottom of the clay layer thus leaving the clay to line the bottom. He dug about a 30 by 60 foot pond about 8 foot deep. As he dug we started to see water seeping in on the west side coming in through the clay in several spots maybe 2 feet below the top of the clay layer. When he got to the east end he started to run out of clay and into some light sand/gravel so we decided to stop for the day and not go further in that direction. The plan was to patch up the clay on that end thus maintaining the liner. But, the water started running into this east end quite good immediately. There was a significant amount of little streams coming in and bubbling up from the bottom. This morning after about 16 hours there is about 18 to 24 inches of water in the bottom already. We had thought the water would fill the pond eventually from the surface water above the clay but the majority of the water so far has come in from the other end of the pond and below the clay layer through the end where the clay had ended. So, now the concern of mine is whether if/when it gets drier than it is now will this flow reverse and drain through these spots where the water is coming in now. (Good news is that it has been real dry this summer as we all know). I guess this flow could be called a 'spring(s)' and may not reverse itself. Before the water covered it up, I stuck my hand into the 'spring' that was bubbling up from the bottom and could feel a 'hole' where the clay and sand had been pushed out of the way by the flow and could put my hand down the hole easily compared to the surrounding soil. Any thoughts from any of you with ponds? I took some great pictures and will post them if/when I figure out how to do it. Ted