I Finally Get A Pond

I Finally Get A Pond

All the while I was growing up there was two things that I really wanted. One was a go-kart and the other was a pond. Dad kept telling me that when he had time he would help me build a go-kart, so I kept saving old lawn mower engines and tires and anything else I thought might work. Dad said we had to have pneumatic tires and a clutch, neither of which I could come up with. By the time I was old enough to earn money to buy such things, I wanted to save for a saddle, and a real car, and stuff like that. Dad never really had the time, and I don't think he really wanted me to be zooming around the streets of New Harmony, so the go-kart never got built.

Other people had ponds where we could swim and some even had fish, but I never could convince Dad that we really needed one. When I moved back to New Harmony and built our home on the farm, a pond was always back there in the recesses of my mind and I guess I was always looking for a place to build one.

This summer things kind of fell into place. (1)We divided the property so I knew exactly what I had to work with; (2) We installed a new pipeline in the meadow ditch that could provide water; (3) We had a humongous forest fire that increased the desire for water storage; (4) My neighbor Garth ave me some surplus felt under-liner and some rubber pond liner; and (5) We dug a pretty big hole where I wanted my pond built.

While putting in the new meadow pipeline a lot of fill was needed to build the dam and head gate at the Redd Creek diversion, so I offered the rock pile north and west of the old barn. We made a pretty good hole there, so when we were finished with the pipeline I took my skid steer loader and finished shaping the hole into a pond. I banked the downhill side using the rocks and dirt that were removed while shaping. It ended up being about 100 feet wide by 125 feet long and about 10' deep.

Once the shaping was complete I raked all the rocks and smoothed everything the best I could. There was an area where it was really muddy. Ross came over and helped me remove the rocks from that area with his big track hoe as it has a much longer reach than any of my equipment.

Once the raking and smoothing was done I built a spooling device to unroll the material and laid the felt under-layment. This material is quite light even though impregnated with tar. It comes in 15 foot wide rolls, about 300 ' long, and to connect it you overlap it a few inches, then heat it with a torch and the tar melts and forms a bond.

I dug a trench around the perimeter of the pond to lay the edges of the material in. Once it is all in place you fill the trench with dirt and that holds the material in place.

A 50' x 100' roll of rubber pond liner weighs around 1500 pounds. I needed a lot of help to spool it off and pull it across the pond. John Spevak, Dorian Page, Ray Taylor, Richard Jensen and Clair Hansen came and helped me. Even with six of us it was a struggle to get it in place. Once it was laid out we seamed it together with a contact cement and 6" wide rolls of mastic.

I put some pipe supports in place to build a catwalk and we sealed round them the best we could. I'm not sure it is 100% leak proof, but we did the best we could. Once the liner was in place and secured with dirt and rocks in the trench I decided to let some water in. I filled it a little too much and had to drain some back out the next day so I could finish the catwalk.

Once the catwalk was done I finished filling the pond. It took about three days, and the 6" fill pipe was running less than half full. the pipe will fill the pond to within about a foot of being full. Brent turned the upper ditch down so I could finish filling, which took another few days.

The next stage was to erect the windmill. I have always liked windmills, and found that you can aerate quite effectively with them. I ordered this one from a place in Ohio, put it together and after pouring concrete footings, stood it upright. It immediately caught some wind and started pumping air. I installed the pipe and diffusers, and when the wind blows we have pond aeration.

I think I am going to spend a lot of time just looking at this pond. I can go to the front window and just watch it from there, or I can go down and walk around it. Tonight at sunset I took the photos below. I think a pond brings a certain kind of serenity, and I know I am going to be a much more contented person now that I have a pond.

As I watched the sun go down tonight there was a beautiful reflection disturbed only occasionally by something breaking the mirror-like surface. If I didn't know better I would think it was a fish.

I now have plans for a grassy picnic area just south of the windmill, on the south west corner of the pond. I hope to have some trees, a picnic table and a fire ring, where all the family and friends will be welcome to come and share in the peace and beauty, perhaps even let the young ones try to catch a fish or play in the water.