No man is an island, but he can build one!

[shibumiseeker]

Man, this has been a great day so far. A week ago I decided that what my lake was needing was an island, and since the water has been so low as I both had a leak in the lake (repaired now) and the summer drought, I decided it was time to start building that island. Every summer when the water gets low I get down in there with the tractor and backhoe and scoop the edge of the water back to enlarge the low pool some. So after I got the goats staked out on the dam where they have been doing a fine job of clearing the weeds from the dam, I fired up the tractor and resumed working on the island. An hour or so of that and it is back to the shop to get some work done. A little later I take a break to reload some .40 and get another 30 rounds loaded. The weather outside is just perfect, the mosquitoes are mostly gone, and the chickens are clucking away happily to themselves.

Work in the shop a little more, then another break to finish loading some .50bmg. I now have 14 more shiny rounds loaded. Right now I'm avoiding work by typing at you people, but I'll resume shortly. Then it's into town to meet my mom and the girls and we'll be having a birthday dinner (today isn't my birthday, but we rarely can do dinner on my birthday since I have another birthday tradition that takes most of the day). Then it's off for Kentucky for the weekend.

Man, I can't wait to get the island done then have the water come back up once the fall rains hit. We want to put a fire pit, a couple anchor points for a hammock, and a sunshade. Kayak or canoe out to the island for dinner, relax in the hammock reading or watching a movie on the computer, or even posting to you folks here since the wireless will just about reach out that far if I put the router out on the porch.

What a great day.

 

[geronimojoe85]

Pics?

 

[shibumiseeker]

Pics?

Somehow I KNEW that was going to be the first response.

No pics. I'm lazy. Maybe sometime.

I'll be curious to see how long it takes google earth to register the new addition to my lake.

 

[Woodsman]

Well, it sounds like you accomplished quite a bit then. A good overall day it seems.

What happened to your lake? Is it relatively new?

 

[shibumiseeker]

My lake is about ten years old now. When you build in a karst area you have to be very careful since the water WILL find a way through the rocks...

In this case I had roots from a stump rotting out and they created a conduit through the clay to the bedrock. We first noted it a couple years ago but then the lake level came back up before we could fix it.

So I dug down to the bedrock the backfilled with clay and compacted it. I suspect I'll be doing this again a few times over the next few years in other areas. This was nowhere near the dam, it's about a third of the way up the lake near the one side. Good thing I know a little something about karst hydrology

 

[paddling_man]

I'm impressed. That sounds like a fun project. If I ever move back to the mountains, I want enough land with running water and gradient to build my own rapid and surfing wave.

Pics: Seconded.

 

[360]

Somehow I KNEW that was going to be the first response.

No pics. I'm lazy. Maybe sometime.

I'll be curious to see how long it takes google earth to register the new addition to my lake.

Probably awhile, since the photos of my house are from 2004.

 

[Woodsman]

...Good thing I know a little something about karst hydrology

Based on some of our conversations I was wondering if it was due to this. Would this mean you have to re-seal the entire lake, or do you have enough detail to design a work-around (pond liner like?)?

This would seem to be a potentially recurring issue, unless you don't have anymore stumps!

 

[bwframe]

I'll be curious to see how long it takes google earth to register the new addition to my lake.

Yeah, I'm guessing this will be a while. It's at least five years out where I'm at.

I won't bug you for pics. I'm pretty sure you're not really "lazy."

 

[shibumiseeker]

Based on some of our conversations I was wondering if it was due to this. Would this mean you have to re-seal the entire lake, or do you have enough detail to design a work-around (pond liner like?)?

This would seem to be a potentially recurring issue, unless you don't have anymore stumps!

Spot sealing it is going to be the way I'm going. Even if the entire thing were perfectly sealed I'd still get drought lows since the pool level is a perched aquifer. No matter what I do, we get drought and my lake will be a puddle. The best that I can do is increase the length of time it can hold water between rains. I'm not too worried about filling it up, it is the catchment basin for about 400 acres The spring that drains my property is 15 vertical feet below the current pool level, so the karstic potentiometric surface is probably still ten feet below the pool level.

When I first built it it took about 2 months of sustained no rain to get it to low pool. Now it only takes a month. But it only takes about 3 inches of rain in a day to fill it completely up.

Ironically the problem increased when I got rid of the beavers, they do an amazing job at sealing underwater leaks. They also do an amazing job at killing the trees within fifty feet of the shoreline.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I bet it's also amazing what a .50BMG will do to a beaver...

 

[infidel]

Sounds cool.

How big of a body of water are we talking here?

 

[Woodsman]

...
Ironically the problem increased when I got rid of the beavers, they do an amazing job at sealing underwater leaks. They also do an amazing job at killing the trees within fifty feet of the shoreline.

They are just clearing a defense perimeter.

Based on what you mentioned a 3" rain over 400 acres is more than a little water. That's what about 100 acre-feet of water, if I did the math right in my head? With the ground situation what it is, this will probably be an on-going issue for you then?

I remember something my grandfather said one time about sealing ponds/lakes: put some pigs in there and let them have a go at it. I guess all their rolling around helps to compact and seal it?

Hope I'm not being too curious. This may be a subject I need to learn more about...

 

[hornadylnl]

I'm wanting to put a pond in eventually. It is already in a depression and held water before the tile got fixed years ago. I need to put an extension on it and see if it will hold water for any length of time. I know there are springs in the area. My house sits about 10' above the bottom of this depression about 7-800 feet away and I have water trickling into a trench at 4' deep by my house. I believe the soil in the depression is like peat moss.

There is a perpetual wet spot about 1000-1500 feet from the depression. I've already talked to the landowner and he said I can run a pipe from it to my future pond. I think if I capped the tile, I could have a 1 acre pond pretty easy. I just want to dig out spots of it before I do.

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

Just make sure to have your permits in order if you're messing with anything that can be considered a wetland. Two farmers in Delaware Co. just recently got in trouble for messing with wetlands without permits. One guy had a rifle in the truck with him, showed it to the inspector (or whatever title she holds), along with the bullets for it. Got him a visit from the DNR.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Just make sure to have your permits in order if you're messing with anything that can be considered a wetland. Two farmers in Delaware Co. just recently got in trouble for messing with wetlands without permits. One guy had a rifle in the truck with him, showed it to the inspector (or whatever title she holds), along with the bullets for it. Got him a visit from the DNR.

Don't ask, don't tell

I went through all this when I started my lake ten years ago, the land didn't fit the definition of wetlands, and if hornadaylnl's has been under cultivation or is pasture his shouldn't either.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I bet it's also amazing what a .50BMG will do to a beaver...

I haven't yet had the opportunity to try it, but it's on the agenda! Beaver were the second reason I got a .22-250, since trying to hit a moving target that presents maybe an inch by 3 inches above the water at anywhere from a few feet to a hundred yards, all while sitting 5 feet above the water level is a fun challenge.

Sounds cool.

How big of a body of water are we talking here?

Right now maybe a hundred feet across by fifty or so with maximum depth of about five feet. When water is going over the spillway, it's about 3-4 acres with maximum depth about 14' It usually stays about 1.5-2 acres for 9-10 months out of the year. That's why during these low times I have been excavating more of the middle.

They are just clearing a defense perimeter.

Based on what you mentioned a 3" rain over 400 acres is more than a little water. That's what about 100 acre-feet of water, if I did the math right in my head? With the ground situation what it is, this will probably be an on-going issue for you then?

I remember something my grandfather said one time about sealing ponds/lakes: put some pigs in there and let them have a go at it. I guess all their rolling around helps to compact and seal it?

Hope I'm not being too curious. This may be a subject I need to learn more about...

The problem with the beaver eating the trees, aside from the fact that they've killed about $2000 worth of stumpage so far, is that what then grows up is the brushy stuff, which is what they like since they eat that too, just not fast enough.

You are correcct in your math. When the ground is saturated as little as a couple of inches of rain can cause my normally dry stream to be a raging torrent. I've seen the entire valley bottom, a hundred feet wide at the constriction upstream the lake, have a foot of moving water.

Not all of it goes into the lake though, probably half gets captured in the karst in the sinkholes and caves and goes under the property to the main spring. When I first bought the property I dye traced a sinking stream on the far end of the property to the main spring 3/4 of a mile away. Transit time was about 2 hours, which is right in line with conduit flow.

 

[hornadylnl]

My prospective pond land has been tilled for the last 20+ years. I remember as a kid, my grandpa going out there to try to get it drained. I remember there being ducks and stuff out there. Since the tile has been fixed, it takes a really massive rain for water to sit there now. With all of the flooding we had there this summer, I had about 4' of standing water. It took several days to get it all drained out through a 4" tile.

It would be more of a return to "wetlands" if I did make a pond there. I'd like to dig it out and make it 1-2 acres. You can see the depression in the lower right corner of the black box.

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

Don't ask, don't tell

I went through all this when I started my lake ten years ago, the land didn't fit the definition of wetlands, and if hornadaylnl's has been under cultivation or is pasture his shouldn't either.

Well, kinda... both guys got turned in by nosy neighbors.

 

[woundedyak]

Pics or didn't happen! J/K. Sounds like a great place and a fun build. I have island envy. So when do we get to play Lost?