Major Update on the Pond Expansion – Is It Working?

Hey it's Brock here with Rock Hill Farms And today we're going to do an update on The pond About 18 months ago I decided to do an Expansion and I added all of this part Over here we put in the island the Bridge the windmill another aerator we Extended the bank along the back side Made it wider made it taller And we're setting up to do a second Bridge here I've also added an overflow And I've raised this Bank on this side So I've probably done at least 20 videos Working on this Pond and we just had a Big rainfall that ended a couple hours Ago and I kind of want to come down here And see is it working what parts of the Property around the pond are still Holding water or our drain lines flowing Into the pond what about the swales and Just do a big update because in the next Couple months I'm going to start working On it again and go to the next phase of This and get grass seed planted Everywhere So I guess we'll start where where I'm At and look at the drain line I put in Just right over here I put in like a 200 Foot French drain because basically it Would stay muddy up between the pond and The house which is Less than 100 yards from here is our House and it would stay muddy in between Here so I put in a French drain to pull

Water down to the pond so let's see how That's working See the snake skin at the end of the Drain pipe So we've got a pretty good flow right There if I go Upstream from it where I Dug There's no standing water where I dug This but there is still standing water On each side Not over here actually but on this side Of it it's a little bit lower and it'll Puddle a little bit there but that drain Line is definitely still working All right so Every winter the pond gets really low And it's a little bit depressing but a Lot more so this year because I had the Leaking back Bank And I wanted to know is is what we did Over there working and there's no way to Know I think the water level was even Below where the leak was But that happens every winter And the Fact I made the pond bigger made it even Worse this year So I am excited we've got water Under the bridge for the first time we Though It got so low that the two sides were Separated from each other now we've got Water under the bridge Everything looks good with the bridge so

Far no erosion You can see right here This side is the electric aerator I've Got an install video on how we added an Electric aerator without bringing Electricity down here And that's worked great that's been That's been a year and a half ago that We did that and you can see it's pumping Right there on this side Then the windmill aerates the other side Of the pond So the bridge is holding up good Everything looks good with it To this point we don't have any erosion Next to the bridge yet but it seems like That will eventually happen So I need to get a layer of topsoil Everywhere that there's clay and I've Already got bags of grass seed up in the Shop ready to put down out here and try To get this because having those having That grass and any kind of vegetation Rooting is what's going to keep that Erosion from happening I've got a couple of videos on why I Chose the American Eagle Windmill and The install and everything about it so I'll put all these videos in the Description or at least the pond Playlist Windmill's been fantastic thrilled with That

You see one aeration spot over here And the second one's a little harder to See but out there in the middle we've Got those two aerators run off the Windmill Now here is where we got the auger on The skid loader and we set these Piers They're about Three feet below ground and two feet Above ground with a four foot sauna tube The concrete actually went lower than The sonotube but Those are set and they've already got The the j-bolts in them set in them Ready to set the bridge on it and bolt It down but I have to do prep work on Both sides to have a good spot with Concrete to set the bridge on We set concrete blocks in here We've got Two feet from the from the edge to the Concrete and then long rebar sticking Down right there that's wrapped over the Corner of the bridge Now this is where I dug a Swale again This was about a 200 foot Swale everyone Was concerned in the videos that it was Going to wash out and just keep getting Deeper and but I didn't have that Problem grass has grown across it almost All the way down to the very end This last 10 feet or so we don't have Any grass growing yet need to get some Seed out here

You can see it stopped raining a couple Hours ago and we still have a flow of Water Basically with the Swale I didn't get The end of it shaped exactly the way I Wanted because I did it in stages I did The Swale and then the expansion and Then I reshaped behind the Swale and had To build it up to put the bridge and Then I cut this bank to a different Angle so this Bank came out to where the Water level is and then dropped straight Down it was all the way out and and then A drop off and I cut from there Back and put this slope in all the way Around the pond and the second Swale is Down at this end We're holding a little bit of water Right over here and that was the other Goal is to avoid holding water on the Uphill from the pond so I think I may Come in one more time I think it's Higher I can get the transit out and Find out but I think we're a little Higher right here at the bank than we Are over here and if I knock just a Little bit off right here It would help that water run down But you can already see where that Standing water is Water's running down on its own quite a Bit so I'm not sure if it's downhill or Not you can see all these washouts where It's running down

And then Here's the Swale that I dug before Anything else the first thing I really Did to the pond Was a truck got stuck up here And water was standing in this whole Area up here and now I've got it Draining down this The deer love the pond they're down here Every morning and every night usually in The evening we'll have At least 10 deer down here Now this part I didn't do a whole lot The only thing I did right here Is just cut kind of scoop this out just A little bit more of a gradual slope But the biggest project was down here And I'll quickly tell the story for People who weren't following the channel In the summer this bank over here was About two feet wide And It seemed like this dam was leaking And flooding the neighbor's property and That was a big problem for me that I Didn't want to let continue so Without draining the pond down while it Was still pretty full we started at that End And I can't really describe it you'd Have to watch it but we were digging the Bank out and building it up while we Drove across it with the mini excavator And we took the this from about three

Feet two to three feet to about eight to Ten feet wide we raised it this is about Two feet higher than it was water was Able to run over the back of it this was Completely unpassable I couldn't even Get a mower across it now I can drive The tractor down this back Bank The big question is did all this we Added right here we added all this clay That I dug up from other places we added Hundreds of tons of clay and then we put Bentonite clay on top of that other clay The big question is did we fix this leak And I think so but we won't know until The pond fills up all of this where you See there's no grass and then it turns Into grass I pulled sod off other parts Of the property and laid it down with With the skid loader right here in Sheets This is the neighbor's property where he Said it was so wet he couldn't get back Here it was flooded and he has to get Back here to feed his horses And uh it looks dry from here I'm going To try to get a better look in a minute So right here is where we were flooding From the pond I believe and this is dry Right here So right there that patch right there is One place where I took the sod to put Over here so you can see there's a dirt Strip you can also see water stands Right here

So The lowest corner of the property is Down there but it looks like between There and here we've got it lower here And higher in the middle so I need to Bring in some dirt to fill here and then I think I'm going to take I'm going to Run a drain line from all the way up There all the way down across where I Got the skid loader stuck And out to the road And try to drain the property that way All of this was cut back and widened and Made bigger This is where I need to cut a square Right here And put concrete in for this end of the Bridge to set on There's one end of the pipe There is the other end of the pipe that Serves as our overflow I almost wish I hadn't went around that Way but I wanted to show a 360 degree View of the pond And I made some tracks over there sunk in The mud a little bit but that'll be easy To to fix I'm going to put a layer of Topsoil all the way around that bank and Get it seated The water level right now is probably Normal for this time of year but it was About a foot lower than this At the end of that drought we had this

Summer And it was really looking bad I managed To get rid of it was covered in lily Pads I managed to get rid of all those Lily pads And I'm really happy with the progress the Work's not done so if you have any Suggestions about what you see here I'd Be glad to read them in the comments Otherwise I look forward to making some More content and getting back to work on This Pond I appreciate you taking time To watch the video I'll put links on the Screen to a couple more of our videos And I'll see you next time