what are my options?

[miss_thenorth]

Hi, I have been trying for days to edit and resize an aerial pic of property and I think I finally have it. I'm not so good at the computer stuff...

let's see if it works and then I will give you a run down of what's going on...

[miss_thenorth]

yeah!!! It worked!!!!

ok--the white lines are the fence that we plan on putting up in the spring. the blue is the flooding.

1-(bottom of pic)--ditch (other side of the road)
2-current paddock and area flooded. we will seed that with pasture mix
3-new paddock area
4-small area for meat chickens and pigs
5-pond in another pasture area
6-deep ditch on other side of road
7- drain from our property going under road to ditch
8-old railroad property that is hight than the rest of the land.

the rest of the property, though, does not seem to have any flooding--my thinking is because of the pond, and drain pipe. the pond however, does not have alot of water in it.

Would that pond do? or would you still think of digging another one. And also, if we ran the standing water into the pond--would that water be safe for the horses to drink if they chose to --considering it would contain manure juice (don't know how else to say it?

[jml755]

Hey, good pix and aerial shot. Your property looks like typical farm property here in Michigan - flat. In fact, the paddock looks a lot like the one where we keep our horse. I can tell you what the owner did on her flood-prone riding rings: Hired a bulldozer to re-grade the area to run toward the drainage ditch. Put down 10-12" of gravel, trenched in several rows of drain tile running to the drainage ditch, covered with 12" of sand. Drains real well now.

Regarding your situationif it was my place)

- I'd forego the pond idea. Too much loss of land. Plus, not sure if there is a minimum size parcel to put a pond in your community. Have you checked on that? 3A may be too small.
- First, I'd get a transit and take elevations from the bottom of the ditches back to your flood areas, to see what kind of slopes you've got to work with.
- If you have enough drop, I'd run a ditch along the old RR area at the top of the aerial photo to your existing culvert).
- Or, if you want to keep the area flat where the ditch would run, I would bury PVC pipe with an 1/8" slope and not the black plastic drain tile, if you'll be running over it with heavy tractors and it's not buried deep. I've crushed a lot of it by running over it with my tractor and I've replaced it with PVC. If you do this, I'd put in a catch basin every 50-100', so you can clear any blockages and give the silt a place to collect for emptying. You can buy these at Home Depot or Lowes. They're not cheap (around $20-30 depending on size).
- Or, you can combine ditch with buried PVC pipe along that stretch.
- Talk to your county road commission about a culvert across the road to the opposite side ditch. You can get a permit for this. May not be cheap, but for comparison sake, I put in a 42"x20' corrugated steel pipe culvert to cross a county drain that cost me around $1000, with pipe, fill, gravel and permit (here in Michigan)
Just my thoughts from a first glance at the pix. Where are you in SW Ontario? Near Windsor?

[kellenw]

Any chance you could post a relief (topographic) map of your property? This would help me and others to better understand your drainage situation. A pond MAY be your best solution. I'm a pond fan, so my bias sits there. However, with the amount of land you have, it seems you'd have little left over for pasture. Grading to drainage ditches might be a better solution in terms of land use, but in both cases (pond vs. grading to ditches), watershed comes into play. Again a topo map would help with figuring it all out.

Any chance you can post a topo map?

[Pat]

About a picture being worth a thousand words, how about several thousand?

In the words of a populat song, "I can see clearly now..."

Skip the pond unless you really want a small one and then it can be worked in. Build up the level of the worst low places using dirt from any high spots as it is cheaper to use local dirt than to haul in (or pond excavation dirt.) If you can even out your surface grade with a little fall for drainage toward the drainage ditch that runs parallel to the public road you shoud get good results and not bother any neighbors.

Yuu may need to have some gentle swales around the house to prevent any water accumulation near the foundation.

Pat

[jml755]

I wouldn't worry about a topo map for a 3A parcel. Looking at the pix again, it's pretty flat and I wouldn't characterize it as "flooding". It looks just to be standing water from your property, not coming from other areas. Is any of it coming from the road? Bringing in some fill and regrading to slope of the triangular paddock toward the old RR ROW will let the water accumulate outside of the paddock and flow to the culvert, maybe. Also, if you build up the paddock along the road, you probably can keep any road runoff in the grassy area between the fence and the road.Can you post the dimensions of the sides of the property? The pond you have is pretty small. (Good idea to have one for fire protection.) What are it's dimensions? Also, since you just bought this a few months ago, you haven't seen at least a year of seasonal transitions. Spring (wettest time of year) will tell you a lot about the property hydrology.

I've got an area about 100'x100' that "flooded" similar to what you have. It would get up to a foot deep after several heavy rains. I moved the dirt around and brought in some fill to direct the water to an area where I had put in drain pipe (about 300 ft long) to a creek (actually a County Drain). Did this recently (very dry summer), so I'm anxious to see what it's like come spring.

[miss_thenorth]

Hi, we just moved here from Windsor area (LaSalle). Now we are near Chatham, in a small village called Merlin--about an hour drive to Windsor. I could probably get a topo map, but all it would show you is f-l-a-t- land. And for use of a better descriptive word--standing water is more accurate than flooding. I walked the 3A after it rained last time and none of rest of the land has standing water--wasn't even really soggy. the area where the house is -is elevated--about 2-3 feet higher than the rest of the land. The sump pump was going for about two days, but water near the house is not an issue. I have been and plan on continuing to dump my wheelbarrow loads from cleaning out the stalls --to the flooded area in the paddock. And like someone mentioned, spring will be the time when we are expecting the most amount of standing water. We plan on putting up the rest of the fencing in the spring, and if we have to tile, we would like to do that first, obviously. I just feel bad for my poor horses--they can't even run around--even the area that doesn't ahve water is all muck.

[miss_thenorth]

I can work on getting measurements of the property--don't know off hand.

[kellenw]

Yea, I would say scrap any thoughts of a pond. Tile will probably be the required "fix".

[Cliff_Johns]

Just a thought, but is it possible that there is a hardpan layer below the surface (perhaps a foot or two down) that prevents proper drainage? Perhaps if you had someone come in with a deep chisle plow to break through and break up the striations in the soil, it might drain better.

Cliff