Bruce's Journal

[Devonviolet]

Very nice Bruce. Your hard work shows! I have serious pond envy! Our property is only 150 Feet across, so it isn’t really feasable to put a decent pond. Maybe when we get more of the woods cleared we can take another look at that.

 

[Bruce]

You need a long SKINNY pond, REALLY skinny Must be your place is quite deep. Is this one of those places where they hack up a whole lot of acres into a lot of skinny lots along a road?

You might not have had much pond envy when it looked like this in 2012


Or last year when it went totally dry and I was digging it out

 

[Devonviolet]

You need a long SKINNY pond, REALLY skinny Must be your place is quite deep. Is this one of those places where they hack up a whole lot of acres into a lot of skinny lots along a road?

You might not have had much pond envy when it looked like this in 2012
View attachment 57590

Or last year when it went totally dry and I was digging it out
View attachment 57591

You make a good point about the long, skinny pond. Yes, our lot is 150 feet wide and 1465 feet long. The people that build our house, bought 25 acres and divided out this 5 acres, for themselves and 20 acres for their son.

When we found this place, we had looked for six months and our lease, in Dallas was coming to an end. We really didnt want to havvee to sign another six month lease. This was the nicest plac e we had seen, that we could afford, and that didn’t need a LOT of work.

To be honest, since there wasn’t a fence or dividing line, it didn’t look that narrow . . . Until we came and saw the surveyor’s marks, we didn’t realize how narrow it was. I told DH I didn’t want a “spaghetti farm” and that is exactly what we got.

Truth be told, I don’t know that we have enough elevation and water runoff to keep a pond full most of the year. If I dug a pond, it would be at least 8 feet deep.

 

[greybeard]

Truth be told, I don’t know that we have enough elevation and water runoff to keep a pond full most of the year. If I dug a pond, it would be at least 8 feet deep.

Those type are often called 'tanks' in Texas, which is only a little different than a 'pond'. You don't need or want a lot of run off/watershed area, and often, you have to include some neighboring property in determining how much runoff you may have. The bigger watershed you have, and the more angled/steep the landscape is, means you have to have a much stronger dam or a much more complex overflow system.

Gallons in a round, straight sided pool:
Diameter x Diameter x Average Depth x 5.9 = Total gallons
Your depth is going to be partially dependent upon substrata....which kind of soil is down there. If you get to desired depth, and it's sandy, it will not hold water.

One inch of rain btw, falling on 1 acre of ground is equal to about 27,000 gallons. If you ever do decide to build one, there is a forum type website called PondBoss that can be of great help.

 

[Devonviolet]

Thanks. That’s good to know. I have heard about PondBoss, and from that site, I learned how much is involved in building an effective dam. Now if the neighbor, who owns the 160 acres across the road from us whould have known about PondBoss, maybe the dam (and I use the term lightly) that he built four years ago, (to replace the previously failed dam) wouldn’t have failed six months later. I strongly suspect he wouldn’t have listened to me if I had made any suggestions.

 

[greybeard]

Well, a lot goes into the design of a dam, and unless one does plenty of research, it's difficult to determine just how much water flows into a new pond. I'm not a fan of long skinny ponds, as they are generally more difficult to maintain. If I were younger, and intended to keep this place, I would do away with my pond altogether and build a smaller simpler pond closer to the house in a 5 ac pasture that doesn't get as much runoff. My current pond gets runoff from about 400 acres, maybe even twice that, most of which is national forest.
The dam did survive Harvey, Rita, Allison, and Ike tho.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Mr. @Bruce,

You have a really nice piece of property. You and your wife should be very proud of what you have accomplished. I am proud for you.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

I will take credit for any improvements Wife has a paying job and does laundry though she does help when we shear/scissor the 2 alpacas. And she can do the alpaca and chicken chores if no one else is home like when the DDs and I went to So. Cal. in November.

 

[Bruce]

Warmed up today, and is cooling down now, approaching freezing. WINDY!!!!!!!!!!!! Really started cranking around 4 AM. Trash pickup was supposed to be yesterday but I think they didn't finish their Wednesday houses due to the ice and we got pushed out so our cans were still out from yesterday. Our 32 gallon cans had been blown over, DW picked them up when she left for work at 6:45, I guess not much fell out.

The guy that lives "next door" on the other side of the road that runs up our property came down about 7:40. The girl (who I think is about 13) was already down waiting for the school bus. Their recycle bin was knocked over, stuff all in the snow. He started picking it up, son came down the long driveway. Dad still picking up. Floors me that neither kid helped at all, but then I wouldn't be surprised if my kids wouldn't have been just as 'helpful' unless I told them to help. My guess is the girl called Dad to tell him about the problem (assuming she actually got a cell signal), I don't think he could have seen it from the house it is over 100 yards from the road.

I went to town to pay the property taxes (1/3, just shy of $2K), stopped twice on our road to pick up a 96 gallon can that had been blown into the middle of the road. Those were empty recycle cans but I saw a number of other cans, empty recycle and full trash that had blown over. Went to get cat food and 3 bales of pine shavings. When I got back our trash was over again. I righted it and put the few things that had fallen out back in. The trash truck came by as I was taking the first bale to the barn. Supposed to be gusting to mid 30's all the way until tomorrow afternoon when the high will be 18°F.

Last spring I bought a bag of 5 horizontal chicken water nipples. Planned to take the pipe out from the "basement" of the nest box in the coop and replace the 5 vertical saddle nipples and attach the pipe OUTSIDE the nest box. Didn't get to it, figured I had the heated dog dish and it worked fine the last 2 winters so no rush. The last time I had a failure in the 5 nipple pipe a few years ago I made a 2 nipple pipe and attached it under the (crappy) box that holds the 5 gallon drink cooler, removed it when I fixed the 5 nipple pipe. But that had some leakers 2 years ago I think. I decided yesterday that since the element in the dog dish seems to have failed (solid block of ice Tuesday morning) to replace the 2 vertical saddle nipples with 2 horizontals and reattach it. Seems the birds have taken to it just fine, I saw several drinking from it from the original June 2012 chicks that were used to the old nipples to at least one of the girls from last spring. This even though their dog dish is full. I might skip replacing the dog dish, the nipple waterers are more convenient.

 

[RollingAcres]

It was 41 degrees this morning and now 34 degrees. It will be down to 21 degrees by tomorrow morning.

Those kids were in their school clothes, can't get them dirty you know.