Dragging a pond

[jml755]

I agree on the pond/weed issue. I'm thinking of keeping an area at the shallow end "weed-free" for swimming purposes. It's not too "weedy" now. The water is pretty clear and I see a lot of fish (not sure what species, probably bass and bluegills), minnows, frogs, etc. so I don't want to destroy the ecological balance. However, I also don't want a weed-choked pond that you can't row a boat through. (I see some of those that look more like swamps.) I'll check into the "grass carp" idea. I talked to a local company a year or so ago about stocking it with perch, considering the price and availability around here for yellow perch. Sounded like a workable idea but then they went belly-up. I'm not a big fisherman (can't sit still long enough) but figured it would be nice to be able to walk out back, throw a line in and get dinner.

Since we've only owned the property for a few years, I'm not sure what it's natural cycles may be. Ideally, I'd like to have it be maintenance free. You're right, I don't want another "lawn" to mow.

Have to admit, I only skimmed the house thread, mostly looked at the pix (no speed reading necessary, just a high-speed link, LOL) and read some of the "how-we-did-it" stuff. Always interested to see how others do things. Mentioned it to my wife. Her eyebrows raised when I said "3 plus years. I think I'll have to sign a contract with her, promising something less than that (LOL,again).

Curious about the dual water supply. You said in one post that you have a well AND rural supply. Is that common in OK? Why do you need both? Is one of them prone to supply problems? How far do they pipe the water into the countryside? In MI, only "rural" supply I know of is along the coast of Lake Huron where people can't get water from a well and the lakefront population density is substantial. (Strangest thing, there are some homes/cottages with 20% of the world's fresh water lapping at their front door and they've got to truck in potable water, so they're running a water line up the coastline.)

[Pat]

I have never actually calculated or measured the square footage under roof, interior space, or exterior dimensions to much precision. I think there is about 5,000 or more in living space and a few thousand more in shops, garage, mechanical spaces and such. There are just three actual bedrooms (not counting spaces that could be bedrooms and 5 bathrooms only one of which has no tub but it has a shower. It would have been done faster and been smaller if my wife would have gone to her mom's house for an extended visit at the beginning of the construction.

I'm not a rabid survivalist but I like to be a cautious and prudent citizen. The rural water district didn't start their service until just a while before the move in. It is not run by professionals. I had a well about a quarter mile away with a water line within 200 ft of the house so I continued it to the house. The way I have it plumbed you can have either source or but not both supplying water at one time.

In this area (old oil field that had poor practices) wells can go bad without warning so I hedged my bets. As it hasa turned out the rural water supply has been interrupted a few times but not for very long at a time. One of the largest outages just dropped our pressure quite a bit while some neighbors were getting no water. (I think it came to us due to gravity/relative elevations.)

The Citizen Pottawatomie tribe has negotiated to buy the water district and operate it which I see as a good thing as then it will be professionally managed AND will be tied to a big tribal owned RO plant so the two systems will be backups for each other.

It took longer to build my place too because of the master suite being ICF construction and that was still kinda new in these parts. In fact lots of the materials and methods I required were kinda new in these parts.

Pat

[kellenw]

I second the partial drain suggestion. A lot of experienced pond management pros do this to control vegetation when pond owners wish to avoid chemical controls.

This should allow you to keep your fish, yet still clean up any sunken garbage around the edges.