There's another pond on the back of the property that was dozed as well. It's about 6 - 7 feet deep now if it ever fills up again. Before the cleanout, It looked like it was about 2 - 3 feet deep when it had water in it, but you couldn't see the bottom due to all the debris in it (i.e. leaves, etc), and algae, moss, etc. The dozer pushed a LOT of clay/mud out down to the rock. It's too far back to fill through our own efforts. So for now the boys have found a way to enjoy the emptiness by riding their dirtbikes down one side, getting some speed, and jumping out of the other side. 🖐 Good times.

It's cool to have a pond.

Two things I'd think about though.

1) Perhaps an overflow pipe would be a good idea...............so if you get massive rains the banks don't wash out.

2) If you have the ability to get electricity down there; think of maybe putting in a pump to spray water (or a fountain) so that you can keep the water aerated and cool in the summer when the rain is slow. A shallow pond like that might heat up in a hurry and kill your fish.

Also............you might be able to avoid what I am dealing with now by planting some type of heavy ground cover all around that will choke out briars.

1. An overflow would probably be a good idea. We don't have that, but there are 2 areas dug out to channel water to the pond as it rolls down the hill. If you look closely, you can see them flowing in from the top left and the top right, behind the trees leading to the top mddle of the pond (where the hose is filling up the pond).

2. Aeration is definitely on the list. Either a fountain, which would look nice, or a bottom aerator. The shallowness around the edges is a concern. It was suggested that we try and dig up the banks and make them steeper. Steeper banks help prevent algae, cattails, etc from growing versus shallow sloping banks where the sun can penetrate easier. Making the banks steeper would be a lot more work since the dozer pretty much scraped all the way to rock. We'll just have to treat the pod periodically with chemicals that are safe for fish and other wildlife. We have some chemicals that we already used in another small pond that was not drained but had a ton of algae and other stringy stuff growing in it.

We'll be picking up a few 50lb bags of rye/fescue to plant around the pond and anywhere that was dug up by the dozer.

We have a nice-sized pond on our property too. It was neglected for years from the look of it because its filled with algae, leaves, tree limbs, etc. Looks really bad (although the dogs LOVE swimming in it :-& ) It already has an overflow pipe and it looks like they were considering putting some electric over there. But right now it looks nasty!

My husband and I never though of bulldozing it to clear it out. I'll have to talk to him. He wants to get something like that to do some other work on the property. Thanks for the pic and the idea Dave.

I have 2 ponds and a sewer lagoon here. One pond is full of catfish and they keep it all muddy. The other has bass in it but its much smaller.

I do need to make my sewer lagoon a bit bigger... It over flows if we get alot of rain.

Nice pond tho.... Dont put that blue crap in it to make it pretty.....

The pond in back looked pretty nasty too, like you describe. Leaves, sticks, limbs, and trees laying (and sort of growing) in it. And once it got hot out the pond scum just flourished over the entire pond. It was hard telling how deep it was due to the leaves, but it probably had about 2 feet of water and about 3 feet or more of muck and mire that the bulldozer pushed out. We watched, and the only living things we saw come out of it were 2 snapping turtles. No telling how old they were. I'd clean your pond out before putting any chemicals in to treat and clear it up. We bought our chemicals from a local fish hatchery that stocks ponds and sells products for small and large pond management/maintenance. The chemicals aren't cheap. We got 3 different types. I forget the brands, but one is to spray on cattails...it's like RoundUp but safe for aquatic animals. Another is that stuff you put in ponds to make it bright blue (you can also get black). I always thought that stuff was simply for looks, but the color actually acts like sunscreen to prevent sunlight from penetrating the water making unwanted plants/weeds/scum to grow. The third chemical was to kill existing algae, scum, etc, and the main ingredient/chemical in that is copper. Copper is used to kill common types of algae, etc in a pond, but depending on what is growing in your pond copper may not be the right chemical.

Huh? 🤔 IF it turns out that there is a leak in the pond, the next step was going to be to put down a layer of bentonite. According to a previous owner of the house/land, the pond was full of water until a slight tremor hit and cracked the rock (somewhere) in the pond. The pond was empty within a few days. This happened a long time ago. We're hoping there is no crack, and if there is, we're hoping the dozer helped seal it somehow...even though he pushed out all the clay.

DOH! (see above reply...wouldn't do it to make it purdy)

Hay? 🤔 You referring to the "hay" up the hill in front of the house? That would be the garden that never grew. LOL You're looking at weeds. However, behind me (from where I'm taking the pic) are about 12 - 14 rolls of hay...not sure how to ship it, but if you're in the area...

Ummmmm I think my little truck could haul 14 bales of hay.......😛

I dunno. I don't have any turtles, but we have a small pond that is loaded with frogs.