Oddly enough I don't say much about the Big Pond. LOL it is actually my biggest point of pride from the 2022 projects. It is also my personal totally private, NOBODY better disturb me here place. I built the big pond and little pond and their dams completely from scratch with the M5660 Kubota Tractor and a 6' junky king Klutter box blade. Yep I chose the hard and least efficient way to build the ponds and their dams. No Dozer or track hoe participated. The lake dam and key just had to have a contractor and big equipment It would have taken me 3 summers working 16 hours June until October when mud season arrives. It took the Dozer and Trackhoe 4 solid weeks to dig the key out and repack it with good clay, build the dam core and slopes and push the top soil off the bed down to hard clay mostly the contractor went all emo flaky on me and walked away before the job was finished. So I spent around 200 hours in the lake bed with box blade pulling around 5 acres of top soil out down to the gold clay. And then went about 2' deeper into the gold clay fixing the bank slopes on the North end and pulling clay to the little ponds key and core. and south side dam slop. The clay in the little pond dam went 12' down before starting to get into sand and sand stone. Some of that clay went to finishing up the dam between Lake and little pond. The rest got pulled up to build the big pond dam between little pond and big pond. LOL was wild rides pulling a box full of clay to the top of the big pond dam towards the end. Worried a couple of times that I was going to manage to flip the tractor backwards topping the dam with the front 3/4ths of the tractor sicking up in the air when I topped the dam. But I didn't and got pretty good at landing the frontof the tractor gently on the top of the damn . The key in the big pond dam is 6' deep, 10' wide and down to and well into the good clay and the 30' wide core sits on top of that Key going 22 feet up in the center of the dam. Dam total is 450 wide at the base and 40' wide at the top and 540 feet long. A tiny dam compared to the lake dam which is 1150 feet long, 700' wide at the base 120' wide at the top and 20 feet in the center base to top. But still a respectable size dam I made a huge oval below the water side of the dam that ended up ranging 16'-18' feet deep in the bowl the bowl is 450 long and 100 feet wide and the clay from the bowl went into building slope the water side. I compacted it all every 12" of clay with the heavy old massey tractor and a 15,000 pound pull behind sheep foot roller. When I pulled all I needed for the dam slope I made a big mound on the east side of the pond where the BX is parked in the video. After filled the spillway and overflow pipes handled a fast 8" downpour well enough leaving 2' of dam top above the water line. At 1' above the water line it would have overflowed through the north end pipe and spillway and the emergency low ends and sown the virgin clay over flows. All four of those together can run out a massive amount of water fast down to the little pond that has the center of dam 36" pipe and a 16' wide 2' deep side spillway that should be able to run out any volume that some over the big pond dam.LOL I never want to see the rainfall that could overload the big ponds two pipe overflows and two side spillways and make the water go over the top of the dam. That would be Time to build a ark and load the livestock up rain Almost a year now since the big pond was started and I am very happy with the end result. All total I put 840 hours on the new tractor last year between July into November and 205 hours on the old Massey compacting everything tight. Not a single leak or wet spot on the back of any of the dams. The water PH is a nice 6.5-6.8 the Dissolved Oxygen level is running 15-17PPM With just the SW wind wave action. The birds and turtles stocked all of the waters heavier than I I expected with bluegill and green sunfish. And kind of surprised to net some white crappie fingerlings hatched this year. They must have brought eggs and little fish right after the ponds and lake started filling after that 5" rain last July. And they brought me at least one Large Mouth Bass that looks to be around 2 pounds. The bass I stocked were only 5-6 inches. I was expecting to find a few bluegill and green sunfish spawns. I was not expecting to find multiple spawn beds with 20-30 nest and pretty good sized fish in them. I might have stocked the bass to light in the big pond to keep the panfish populations in check. 100 LMBs in a 4.5 acre pond is really not very many bass and they won't spawn until next year. I counted 43 bluegill and 52 Green Sunfish nest and no idea how many crappie spawned plus the 250 Red Ear and 500 Bluegill I stocked in the big pond. I am certain that the bass will not be starving to death LOL. I am a little worried that I will get a over population of panfish and not enough predation on them from the bass. It will all balance out over about 3-4 years as the bass spawn and the population goes up might have some stunted bluegill while it is balancing out though. Another one of my extremist videos
LOL I really wish Google Earth would update my picture The Sat passes over us I guess ever 5 years taking pictures. So it should update this year. In the meantime I use my digital crayons The light blue is the Lake and two ponds I built last year. The Dark blue is the one I had planned on spending the summer building this year. That one got pushed to next year. I actually own 160 acre square comprised of four 40 acres tracts. What I call the primary is the South East 40 acre square. I have another 20 acre tract a mile North up the gravel road that is where the cell tower and their leases are and a big gravel lot that I unload semi deliveries at and it makes some hay. The two North 40 tracts are mostly arable ag land that I 2/3 -1/3 Crop Lease. The SW Tract has a 14x24 small hunting cabin that I lease to 3 guys from out of State for the Deer and Turkey hunting on that 40 and mow it for hay once per year. I bought the SW tract about a year ago, I got a first right of refusal fair market valuecontract from the previous owner in exchange for a Electric and water easement. Fair Market value was painful and I am NOT going to buy anymore LAND! That burned me for $6500 per acre. I bought the original SE quarter 40 for $1100 Per acre in 2008, the NE Quarter in 2010 for $2500 per, The NW in 2014 for $4200 per, The 20 up by the State Highway for $800 per in 2007. And the SW 40 in 2022 for $6500 per. Rural land whether wood or arable AG is only going to keep getting more Expensive and at a faster pace! I have made my money back and then some on the two North Tracts and they are both pure income streams now and a nice buffer from having any adjacent neighbors move in. I average 4700bu of corn one year and 1500 bu of beans the next from the crop lease. I made $29,375.68 when I sold last years 1/3 Corn a few weeks ago. IF I simply cash rented the 70 arable acres that would have been $9520 in cash rent. Most people now days cash rent because it is guaranteed and no risk. 2/3-1/3 has risk 1/3 of a failed crop like in 2012 = NOTHING. If crop prices crash and are low so is the income, if crop prices are high...... the income is high. On the running average on my crop lease land I average double what the Cash rent would pay...... But every year has risk. IF I depended on that as income, it would be cash rent all the way, Cash rent as I said is a safe, guaranteed, no risk..... You will get a check every November or December income. I enjoy putting my grain in the grain bank at the elevator and dabbling in the market with it. When I croak the North Tracts turn into a Cash Rent Lease in 50 year time blocks (with the rent increasing as the average cash rent does) Hey it is guaranteed Cash income that will keep the taxes and obligations paid perpetually. My Very strong advice to anyone thinking about buying a piece of land for Prepping, survivalist, homestead or farmstead. BUY NOW and shoot for a 40 acre or more tract with a good mix of wooded and arable, with as much water under or on it that you can get. And as far out of the larger population towns as you can reasonably get. I would also suggest unincorporated counties and land outside of areas annexed by the small towns with no zoning or restrictions. My place the only permits I have to get are a Septic tank permit and inspection from the health Department and well permits from the health department. Been a real trend for every podunk town to annex way out into the Rural County and inflict zoning in the Counties. Always make sure the land you are considering is outside of the City Limits... which now days can be 20+ miles outside of the City itself, exposing you to all of the Towns permits, restrictions and rules. Zoning and Annexation here goes on the ballot every chance the city can get. And us ignorant folks out in the County vote it down every time but every time with shrinking margins. Sooner or later we are not going to win. Mainly due the sheer number of Chicago Shit Birds moving in and rather rapidly changing the demographic. 15 years ago when I moved here there were 37 households in my township, today the are 63 with 3/4ths of the new ones being from Chicago and the Suburbs, while they claim to be independent and Conservative folks they sure as hell do not vote that way. Anyway if you are in and built before Zoning and Annexation happens in a area you are Grandfathered and they can't destroy what you have built, VIA Permitting they can stop you from upgrading existing or prevent you from building new. Not to brag but my original SE 40 acres is about as ideal as it can get for homestead/prepper/farmstead land. It has old growth wooded, rolling pasture, flat crop, had deep waterways ideal for building a lake and ponds with great depths and plenty of flat on the edge of the wooded for the buildings. It sits on top of a small aquifer that some would argue is a bad thing, it is a double edged sword, it gets wet faster and dries down slower on the surface but you can dig down 3 feet in August on 3/4th of the land and the hole will fill up with water very quickly. LOL my water meter base by the road is full to the top year round with water. LOL have to feel around laying on the ground to find the on/off valve in the base. And not uncommon to have a snake come flying up and out on your arm if you didn't put the cap back on tight the last time you turned the water off. The orange bellied whip snakes are particularly annoying when they are in your shirt smacking you around On that 40 acres I grew not only enough to feed my family but 240 other families with vegetables, fruits, pork, poultry and beef. I earned between $80,000-$110,000 per year from that 40 acres over 15 years. Not what I had intended, I just wanted to be a hermit living self sufficiently out in the middle of nowhere on a sustenance level little homestead and selling a little of the surplus here and there. I really had no desire to evolve into one of the regional local food big ballers. LOL 3 customers via WOM turned into 20, 20 turned into 70, 70 turned into 180 and 180 turned into 240 and then the next thing you know you are going to 10 farmers markets per week, then own 3 farmers markets and are running 3 market tailer and then 2 food trailers and have every limp wristed leftist marxist vendor and market visitor trashing you because you are not a far left marxist climate cultist and working hard to destroy your life, character and credibility. The best decision I made in all of that was to sell the farmers markets in 2020, shut the food trucks down, stop going to farmers markets, sell off two oddball not adjacent 40 acre tracts, scale everything back to that sustenance level homestead it was intended to be all along and call myself retired and start doing things for me instead of everyone else. And in a sort of identity change Kamp Krap was born. Kamp Krap is so much less stressful, more pleasant and personally satisfying than who I previously was here and every place else. About the only positive thing that came out of the years of being one of the big ballers is that I made a lot of money being one. I was able to sock away a hair over 1 mil dollars over those year that allowed me to retire at 54 instead of the 65 year old initial goal. I have and always will live way below my means. My Annual Cost of living including all taxes and obligations is under $10,000 per year. When I fully shut off the Electric CooP and turn the Water meter off for good it will be under $7500 per year. If we got rid of the Sat TV and other things that cost and provide little value I could probably get to $5000 per year. Phones and wireless internet fortunately are something negotiated with one of the cell tower leases. Point is this land and how I utilized it whether intentionally or not is largely the means by which I was able to retire 11 years earlier than I had planned and why everything I bring in over 10k is gravy on the biscuit. Well that and NEVER using debt to buy anything. With current land and real estate prices I really don't see how very many would be able to but a 10 acre tract without financing unless it is the really cheap rocky arid land that you would struggle to grow weeds on Rural and Ag land prices while high have stabilized a bit. That may last 6 month or even a couple of years but it will at some point surge forward again in price. What it is NOT going to do is go down in price. The original SE 40 that I paid $1100 per acre for in 2008 without taking the water into consideration appraises for $7650 per acre today 15 years later. IF that trend continues even with a slow down in the land inflation in 15 more years land like this in this region will be going for what $14,000 per acre.... Considering everyone now is working harder for less due to the general inflation and cost of living and the wages falling farther and farther behind the inflation. If you start saving now for that piece of land it will just keep getting farther and farther out of reach. I will throw a bone to the young folks that say we can't do it like you old farts did. Nope you they can't the economics of it just don't work out like they did for the Boomers and Degeneration X. Millenials could still pull it off with very low interest financing. Z on the other hand is just screwed and no that is not Boomer and X's fault. It is the Millenials and ZGen Z themselves that have created the conditions that plague them. Although about 3/4ths of X are a bunch of dead ass worthless POS that created the Even more Worthless Millenials that created the nearly totally useless Gen Z where entitlement and FREE is the mentality and way of life and the primary driver in the inflation.
You did well. I've missed the boat in my AO, as even sh*t land (undevelopable wetlands, swamp, deed restricted) is 20k an acre.
I was worried I under stocked the bluegill and the bass would run short on food. Pffft the Bird and Turtle stocking last year and the spawn this year of the green sunfish and the bluegill have MILLIONS of little fish swimming around in the shallows with the bass cruising in schools of 20-40 picking them off the edges. I Can confirm now everything the birds, turtles and muskrats stocked for me. White Crappie, Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Pumpkinseeds, Fathead Minnows and a few Large Mouth bass. Not Confirmed yet but suspected are Rock Bass and Creek Chub. Going to put a few hundred channel cat in next year since the panfish populations are so high. I didn't put much structure in that channel cat will spawn in so not worried about them taking over. But will net and survey to make sure and let people fish them hard if they become a problem, fiddlers are real popular around here. Right now way too many bluegill, green sunfish and white crappie. and not enough predators eating them, Bass I stocked 600 in the lake are growing fast and staying fat on them. LOL I have been fishing a bit with the ultralight spinning rig and having fun catching the green sunfish and little bass. The bass have grown to about 7 1/2 inches long since I stocked them from 5"-6" at stocking and up to around 3/4 pound. Real Good Growth for only a month and a half. I will be real happy if they are 11-12 inches and 1.25 pound by the end of October. If I hold with the local average growth in idea conditions the bass will add about 1 to 1.25 pounds per year. I built everything about the lake for bass to thrive and grow fast in. They will hit sexual maturity next year and start spawning. Water is clear with a good 8-10 feet of visibility so I have been doing some diving and seeing. Have some Good vegetation going in the 3-4 feet deep areas, American Elodea and Coon tail for the most part growing under the water, a little patch of Water Milfoil. May or may not end up putting a few grass carp to graze it if it gets out of hand. Got the Cattails I wanted started in a couple of shallow areas that I made just for cattails. Discovered thousands of aquatic worm colonies during the dives. I really need to get a underwater camera. Was watching some of the bass and bluegill play whack a Mole with them in the 3-4 feet deep water. And a bunch of little snapping turtles digging them out at the bottom of some 6-7 feet deep water. The trees and brush I sank are just full of fish, the white crappie hop from pile to pile I followed them around a bit and looks like the older school consist of around 10-12 that barely reached maturity to spawn this spring. The Birds and Turtles must have started stocking Green Sunfish, Bluegill, Pumpkinseeds, the handful of bass and the Crappie right after that big 8" rain we got last July that filled the big deep bowls up in the lake. They either brought them as eggs or little fish and dropped them off. The Bluegill and Green Sunfish obviously got mature enough to get a late spawn off last year. Only explanation for the hundreds of nest in the shallow cove this year with fish just barely big enough and old enough to breed. Wish the birds and turtles were not helping me stock the lake and ponds lol I would prefer to not have to ID the mystery fish! Don't know why but I can watch aquatic worms doing their thing for way to much time. My diving rig is far from pro level gear, old modified soda syrup canisters that I compress air into with some cheap hose, cheap regulator and a mouth piece with a 1 way exhale valve. I get 9-10 minutes untethered per tank and if I want to stay down a long time A little generator and air compressor on the boat with 50 feet of tube to the mouth piece. Its my old clamming set up when I dove the river as hobby collecting clams for the shells companies and made a little cash while having fun on the bottom the river. LOL you know its not pro gear when you are using a bag of rocks for diving weights Probably not the safest diving tanks in the world but hey they are cheap and they work.
It could be but I just don't allow it. Every deer season all around me sounds like a hot war zone. I figure giving the Deer a little island of sanctuary in a sea of flying lead is not a bad thing
