Underway!

[BeckyK]

My husband mowed the area where we want the pond real short so the excavator would know where to dig. The vantage point isn't that great from the dining room window, but it was the best I could get.

After Day 1 we already have some water coming in

Day 2... I only got one picture from the same dining room window as before but my husband has some he took closer up. As soon as he shares those with me I'll post them in another comment. There is still a lot to do, but it's coming along. And there's a couple feet of water now, too which is exciting!

 

[Spanky]

That is going to be amazing. Anxious to see the finished pond.

 

[j.w]

Wow will be a great big one!

 

[BeckyK]

Wow will be a great big one!

If we did the math correctly, it will be well over 300,000 gallons. But i didn't realize how sloped the sides would be. We're used an average depth of 8 feet to get that figure, but I'm thinking that may be a high guess.

It will be Kidney shaped 95 feet wide, 64 feet long at the longest.

 

[BeckyK]

That is going to be amazing. Anxious to see the finished pond.

Me too! Being so late in the season I'm not going to try planting anything till spring. But there will be a couple weeping willows in the background on each side, a few pussy willows along the back edge, some flowering plants, a couple red twig dogwood bushes and probably a couple river birch. And in the foreground but to the sides we want to plant a couple red maples and quaking aspen for contrast.

Eventually our back patio by the house will have a walkway out to a firepit that branches over to the pond. But cost wise I have to spread out the projects across a few seasons.

 

[BeckyK]

I thought my husband took more of the pond than he did. There's only 1 and the rest are of around the house where the dirt is all being moved to

Here's a couple of the house. First one is behind the garage and the second one is the front porch area

 

[addy1]

What a neat project, auto filled pond also!

 

[Tula]

Your home and land are beautiful !!

 

[GBBUDD]

Sweet congrads on breaking ground. You might want to rethink the plantings waiting until spring. The plants this time of year are a 1/3 the cost and as they begin to go dormant it's easier to care for them water them etc cooler temps they won't dry out you need only a tenth the time and water to get the plants established.

 

[GBBUDD]

are you planning to use bentonite in the pond?

 

[BeckyK]

are you planning to use bentonite in the pond?

I hadn't read anything about adding bentonite. What would be the benefits?

Regarding plants, good to know. I thought it would be too late now

 

[BeckyK]

Got quite a bit of rain last night and this morning. I'm thinking it may take a couple days to dry out enough for the work to resume. But the good part is the pond is filling up faster because of it. He's almost done though. The part closest to the house is all that's left to shape.

 

[JRS]

Great project, thanks for the pictures.

 

[j.w]

@BeckyK I found this info on the net to give you an idea of what the Bentonite clay is: https://shop.naturalwaterscapes.com/sodium-bentonite-clay-for-ponds/

 

[BeckyK]

@BeckyK I found this info on the net to give you an idea of what the Bentonite clay is: https://shop.naturalwaterscapes.com/sodium-bentonite-clay-for-ponds/

Thanks for the link. I understand why you asked about it now. But it isn't going to be an option for us due to the size of our pond. The excavator did find sand underneath several feet of clay, but that's at least 12 feet down. And based on the website info for sand bottoms we would need 6 pounds per square foot. We have estimated 4864 square feet so up to 30,000 lbs of bentonite clay needed. I don't even know where we'd source that much.