I have complained that my pond is in terrible shape right now. I started the pond in the 1980's by hand digging a small area along the one spring. I put a log across the stream and hand dig an area maybe 20' X 20' . The water just over flowed across the top of the log which eventually rotted away. I sort of liked the pond and so I had a local fellow with a Dozer and a back hoe come over and make the paths down through the woods and dig out the pond to about 20' X 40'. It was only 3 ft deep and small because my wife hated ponds and was very afraid of them. Her best friend in school lost a 2 year old sister who drowned in a pond when they were all young. She hates ponds to this day. So I have a pond, but it is small and shallow,
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
The spring that feeds the pond comes out from under a rock shelf and has 3 seporate flows that come together at that point. The one was very close to the surface and I had the back hoe follow it up the hill as far as he could and install a holding tank which I piped to the pond and made a gravity flow fountain. Here is the spring that feeds the pond.
The fountain was held up by a 2X4 which I pounded into the pond bottom, that rotted away and fell over last year. I have to get wet to fix it. Some local kids shut the valve off one winter and the main pipe froze and cracked, that needs to be fixed as well, so the fountain is not working at this point. There have been a bunch of trees that have fallen into the pond and made it so that I can not drive my tractor around it to mow. So things are growing up and getting to be a real mess down there. Here are some pics.
I still love the pond, I enjoy seeing the water and it is very quiet to go down there and sit. I need to spend a day or two, maybe 3, lol and cut up the trees that have fallen in there and clean things up a bit. Then I can mow and make it so that it is easy to walk around down there. When I designed the pond I intentionally kept the water out flow high on the breast. My plan was to build a water wheel coming from the pond and run a 12 volt generator to make electric. I planned on spot lights for the pond and fountain as well as music from a car radio all run off the 12 volt battery system what would stay charged by the water wheel. I even designed a string of tail light bulbs that would line the path down to the pond at night. NONE of these things actually happened, lol, but because of the location of the water exit I have no way to drain the pond and it has started to sediment in some over the years. I had stocked it with blue gill gold fish and cat fish, but a local boy thought he knew better than me when I told him no Bass. He throw in 2 Rock Bass which ate everything else in the pond and then died. There is one large fish in there now, I believe it is a cat fish, but it could be a carp. What ever it is he is the Boss of the Pond, lol, maybe 2 ft long. If I ever get around to cutting up those trees and cutting out the brush that has grown up I will send more pictures.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
It is still a good thing for wild life, I see raccoon tracks around a shallow area of the pond all the time, as well as deer tracks etc. Haveing water on the place is very nice. Water is needed by all living things.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.