Here's a video of us working in the pond shaping the bank: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fGbvs6ZjzkE.html Products in our Amazon store used in this video (costs nothing extra to use these links!). You don't have to buy these specific items to support our channel....just use a link below to get to Amazon then make any purchase: Flex Tape: amzn.to/3R4MdWm Mechanix Leather Gloves: amzn.to/3HjoZZf Under Armour Iso Chill Wicking Shirt: amzn.to/3zvSTYD Solo Seed Spreader: amzn.to/3UGIws7 Fuel jug nozzle kit with drill bit: amzn.to/3H5EeoE Orange rubber gloves: amzn.to/3xIdlEt 6’ Digging and Pry bar: amzn.to/3vH5Agx FIMCO 15 Gallon Sprayer: amzn.to/3HgxSmp Renegade Razor Hybrid Brush Cutting Blade: amzn.to/3yaJtk9 Dewalt 20V ½” Impact Wrench: amzn.to/3UOcXNH Dewalt 20V brushless Leaf blower: amzn.to/3zwJcYm
Thanks for sharing this post with me! Have y’all considered a pond liner? We’ve had the ponds installed here 30 years ago, but are having issues currently and that’s why I’m reaching out. Because of the leaks… some down to the bedrock.
@@PineyGroveHomestead that actually makes a lot of sense. I wasn’t looking at it like that. I’m not a homesteader, I work in the golf course industry. I like your videos, they are insightful
Just going to casually dig a hole without checking whether that's somebody's cemetery, or there's a gas or electric line through there, or an outcropping of arsenic- or mercury- rich rock, or the last nesting ground of an endangered species... because MUH FREEDUMB. Good stuff. Nice to know you're a responsible adult.
@@tealkerberus748 Being a good steward of the land and trying to improve it without damaging ecosystem and destroying what's there already is something we should all strive for - but you're never going to get that through to people who only care about their personal right to do whatever they want regardless of consequence. Notice how this commenter said "I just could not imagine thinking". Yep, that about sums it up.
The most informative pre pond build video I've seen so far. Thank you very much for the foresight. I'm about to leave the city life for 5 acres in Virginia.
That sure will help lots of people searching for land and wishing to have a pond. You addressed points I hadn't seen in other channels. Good things to consider keeping in mind. I do hope your pond's issues gets resolved, at least in most parts. It's beautiful and relaxing to look at.
It's already deeper than that video that we shot 5 days ago and it's raining now. Hopefully we can seal the rest of it soon and see what the summer holds in store for rain!! Thanks for supporting us!!
I looked into a natural pond and went with a rpe lined pond-low rain fall here and i have a hose running 24/7 at about a gallon per minute. It has been an issue covering up the edges with an overpayment, dirt and getting grass to grow. It’s more about protecting the liner under some dirt and roots. My fish are doing well, much help from an aerator. No permits with the county.
Beautiful property and you gave me many things to think about. going to dig a small pond this summer and should be good where I'm at ( all clay ). Liked and subbed. Thank you.
Thanks for posting! Here is what I learned... 1. Do you need a permit? 2. Do environmental survey 3. determine soil type via core sample 4. where does the water come from? plan for and identify runoff and rainfall/well 5. determine budget and include costs for culverts, drain pipes, dock, fill dirt, and maint Thanks again
Thank you! We think it's holding better now. We've got a plan to augment with our second well that we're not using right now, but we want to see how it does on it's own for awhile longer.
Not sure of the laws in Florida where you are but in our state zoning has nothing to do with whether or not you need a permit to dig a pond. Our property is zoned AG5 but regardless our state / county laws dictate a permit is required if you exceed 1.1 acres in surface area (believe this is actually a state law). Additionally, in our state what you are actually getting permitted for is legally defined as "soil disturbance". Technically, our state does not issue permits to "dig a pond". Good video. Thanks for sharing. Hope you have reasonable success with the pond sealer. Haven't heard a lot of good about those types of products but every situation is different.
I"ll give my experience. Upper texas coast. I cleared an acre and a half of trees using an old back hoe. Then I purchased an old dozer, small and had to rebuild the tracks. I dug down as far as the dozer could handle. I went through top soil, soft clay and eventually hard gray clay that the dozer couldn't dig without tilting the blade hard to one side to cut into it. The land sloped some so I pushed the soil out and built a berm around the pond. One foot or so above grade on one side and four or five foot above grade on the lower side. The berm sloped in slightly so all rain ran into the pond that ended up being at least an acre and a quarter. Depth ended up being 14' at the deepest middle of the pond. The banks sloped in so it looks really big full of water and smaller as the water goes down. I put in lots of structure. Some of the hardwood trees I removed I kept the stumps and turning them upside down buried them in the bottom of the lake making trees with the roots on the top for structure. For catfish I took two five gallon buckets and tywrapped the open sides together and then burying them in the banks five or more feet down with a large hole cut in the outside bucket bottom. I get catfish spawns every year. I keep an aerator going out in the bottom of the deepest part of the pond and I hand drilled a 25' well that runs 24/7 pumping perhaps four gallons a minute into the pond. Not enough to keep it filled but enough to slow evaporation down. I built a nice pier out into the pond with power for lights and the pumps along with water from my home well. Once dug I traded the dozer and old backhoe in on a newer backhoe that I find the most important piece of equipment around the farm. As soon as I dug the pond we had a rain that filled it to the top within weeks of me completing it. Surprised me. Next I went to a nearby lake and using a minnow trap caught a couple of hundred red fin shiners. I released them into the lake and no fish. Within one summer I had thousands of shiners in the pond and then I added catfish and bluegills. I would say the pier and power at the pond are the best features of it. I can sit out there with a fan if I want or lights to enjoy being out on summer evenings. I figure that most of the cost of the pond was for diesel for running the equipment. I did get an estimate before starting and the company wanted $30K (14 years ago) to clear and dig the pond so doing it myself was far cheaper. Someone I knew told me he had dug his own and bought an old dozer and then sold it later so that's likely the lowest cost way to dig a pond.
I dug a pond too and it leaks. Lined it with 2 feet of blue clay too. Over the years tree roots and cattails open holes and the water follows and so do pests.
A lot of good pond-building information! Hate to see the pond leaking-off. Hopefully the spring rains, gutter-feed, bentonite and damnit* (🤣) help you all get back in order. 🙏👍🏻 - Samuel
Those are some really good things to consider. I would have thought the same way you guys did. There is water sitting there already let make it deeper. Hopefully when you seal the other half of the pond it will retain water better.
If you throw out old hay into the water and some bentonite, or use some of you native red clay, you can create what is known as “glay”. It’s basically what a blue clay is. It’s carbon and clay and water has a very hard time getting through. Keep stirring up the clays add clay when you able to, also throw in all your old leaves. Get as much clay and carbon in the pond and it will seal up real nice for cheap.
K as a person who did a small pond. Permit if the permit is needed. If you do a farm pond you need to know it's not a build and use immediately no matter how good you filter system is. Best thing is dig it. Use any clay you dig to pack it on the floor and walls use only round rocks any jaded ones on the shore and walls. Use gladed chicken wire to protect the plants on the shore and use flowing platforms to grow future plants. To clean the water. Don't add any fish for a while. Make one area into a watering area. Use a concrete platform that is deep enough to drink from but is fenced off from the pound. Think a sunken fence off deck. For water foul. Don't. Just don't. Make a creek that feeds a smaller pond.
My soil is Sandy Loam with small traces of clay which is not suitable for a pond build. I dug a small pond about 30ft in diameter and it filled with about 4ft of rain water. The pond dried out in under 1 week and then I added 3 inch's of clay to form a test seal. The pond filled again and water lasted about 3 months. I have 3 tons of sodium bentonite to put in a new pond but will need about 200 yards of clay to make an 8" clay liner. I really want a pond for wild life and eventually drill a water well. The first pond had about 10 yards of clay that I hand dug and hauled out a yard at a time.
@@PineyGroveHomestead I have seen several of your videos and have tested my soil. I think I had about 20 percent clay at most but most samples were really low in clay.
Make sure you want this pond before you start! Once there is water in your pond or puddle, you no longer have control of that property. On one job before we started the owner did not do the work he wanted to do. He had big boulders in the edge of the pond, He wanted to use the boulders for landscaping. He was told that the boulders were in the pond and he could not remove them. Before you start call all four agencies that will have control of what you do. That is how it is in Minnesota!
You could have brought in clay like a lot of people. You can also look at bama bass 5 acre pond RU-vid videos he had leaks, and use a product that plugged the leaks. Looks like you did seal, but you lost a lot to the wind. Maybe see how others do it.
Have you noticed that the damit worked as a flocculant? Also I know y'all talked to the manufacturer and that it's non-toxic, but can it be used with fish already in a pond?
You missed the third type of soil: anything that dissolves if you soak it in water for a bit. Or the fourth type, those clays that if you soak them and then shock them they liquify instantly.
I installed bennonite clay in mine and wasted money still leaks down from.20 ft to 15 often. . . My pinds bottom is aticky gray clay. 2nd time its been dug deeper and now has been stocked and id hate to drain it back down.
Im never ever asking the government to come poke around my land thats guaranteed trouble. I promise you if I look hard enough I will find a chipped rock that's an "Arrowhead" or some endangered soil fungus.
You make think this is really expensive now this was 10 to 15 years ago but he said you can do a 5 acre pond for 2000 dollars when going straight to abc roofing supplies
Rubber roof line your pond an old man who builds stock ponds will tell you anyone who will dig you a pond with out that is only try to take your money especially if you do not have a source feed pond
you should have sued the pants off the contractor he should have known better about sandy clay soils you may want to think of buying some bentonite clay to seal that pond, and find a contractor that knows what he is doing, ive built and dredged ponds for over 15 yrs
The less government you have in your life the better... Just dig and don't brag about it to government karens...It's your land. Dig a hole if you want. FJ B.
