Our
old pond was put in by Works Projects Administration (WPA) soon after the
drought in 1936. It was free from the Democrat Roosevelt Administration that’s why our family named it the Roosevelt Pond. The unexpected gift must have been like what
the joyful Chinese farmers in the movie The
Good Earth felt when Japanese planes bombed their fields – instant
ponds. That’s the only government help
we received in the Ozarks and for some reason the pond hasn’t been touched
since. By the time of my retirement, it
was reduced to basically a four foot slop pit for deer, snakes, and snapping
turtles. I thought it would be nice to bring it back,
but unlike the unusual freebies of politics or war, it’s expensive. Word of mouth eventually leads to locals
with decades of experience with loaders.
Their expertise is important because the usual cost around here in the
Ozarks is $110 per hour. I was warned
that 50% of the time, the scooped-out ponds won’t hold. They know how to "better the odds."
The
second picture shows the old pond being drained. A breach was made by a back hoe on the dam at
the point where the water line would be its deepest, not on the spillway where pond
curvature makes for more dirt removal.
The loader digs up old posts and a pipe farmers frequently use to stick in the dam a
little below the waterline to water their cattle when the pond freezes over. The government might have required the
configuration with a fence to prevent cattle from fouling the water and
stomping down the banks. A pump is used
to drain the water. There were several
small fish left in the pond after all those years, but to save them would have
meant they might run into the breach – too dangerous to go after. The Missouri Conservation Department
recommends that everything goes which means a complete clean out. To the right and underneath is an outcropping
of huge limestone rocks the size of bathtubs only flatter. They’re probably the reason the pond never
held water. The hook on the loader
pulled them out. 
This picture shows how the water was pushed into the breach on the dam. They’re working on the pump that had just
quit working. You can see from the grass
on the bank that the pond had always been half full. Gravel is scooped out and put on a slop pile
never to be used except for fill around the farm. It takes about two years for one of these
piles to dry out. What’s left elsewhere was
a seam of clay which was used as a pond sealant. (I’ve heard stories of people using old dry
wall) I doubled pond’s size and had it
dug nine feet deep to allow the stocking of large mouth bass. They can only live in ponds that are at
least eight feet deep, otherwise, they’ll cook during the summer. I lost two pond stockings in another pond
finding that out! Nowadays a laser
transit on the spillway is used to measure depth. It took several hours removing the outcrop
and I had barely enough clay to cover the larger pond area which I figured was about 1/3 of an acre.
The
end result was a $3200 gamble and the digging out and restoration that took
several weeks because of the drying required.
At least I took nothing and made it into something. September, 2013 was many months ago and the
pond leaked until recently. Last spring
I stocked fat head minnows and they’re doing well. A month ago I put in two grass carp. They seem to always do well. The next step, if the pond stills holds, is
Blue Gill which are the main food for bass.
By the time they mature and the bass arrive and are big enough for
catching, I figure each one will be worth about a $100 apiece.
