Building A Pond...

4:50 pm - 47 degrees - foggy, raining...

When we were driving around looking for property 12 years ago, we came upon this near-perfect rural off-grid property... and we were sold!

Our property has a good amount of acreage, gorgeous views, a nice home site, and it’s a nice distance to and from civilization.  It was perfect... except for one small thing – it was missing a visible water feature.  Yes, a river bisects our lot, but we can’t see it from the house.

I have always wanted to live on a lake or have a large pond or some kind of water feature within sight of the house.  It's only taken 12 years, but we finally have a visible water feature – a pond!

A pond offers numerous benefits for landowners: entertainment for the family, water for wildlife, aquaculture, fire protection, erosion control, and aesthetics are but a few. 

And in our case, the pond will also hopefully offer another source of power – hydroelectric power. 

For those of you who don’t know what hydroelectric (or hydropower or hydroenergy) is – it’s a reliable source of renewable energy that runs 24/7 for very little cost.  Power is generated from the movement of water, like waterfalls or streams, water that is stored in dams, as well as flowing in river to create electricity.  The water flows through a turbine to help generate electricity; using the energy of falling or flowing water to turn the blades.  The rotating blades spin a generator that converts the mechanical energy of the spinning turbine into electrical energy that we can use to power our home.

Even though a pond has so much to offer, there are a lot of factors that needed to be considered first.  Factors like:

 - Is the land and soil actually suited for a pond?

 - Can we build the pond ourselves?

 - What size of pond do we want and what size will fit?

 - How much will this project cost?

 - How long will this project take?

While Tony is the researcher, thinker, and planner, I am one to jump in with both feet now.  So when he told me that he was thinking that he could put in a pond and wanted to know what I thought – my response was YES, the bigger the better!

After walking around the designated area he had picked out and visualizing his plan of attack, Tony started digging, and digging, and digging.

The underground springs Tony tapped into, quickly started filling the hole and eventually the big hole started to look like a pond.  Before the pond got too full, he added a 4” pipe that is about 2’ below the water line for our future hydropower source.  

Tony also added an 18” culvert for an overflow.

After getting the edges, top and surrounding area cleaned up, we spread grass seed covered with Turf Mulch.  The Turf Mulch is a naturally organic product that is a ground dressing for the newly seeded area.  It will help the ground retain moisture, form a protective mat over the seed, help the grass seed germinate quicker and help with erosion control until the grass grows in.

And we now have a 10' deep by 40'x50' trout pond!  The water level is currently at the uncapped hydro pipe, which he painted black so it would blend in a little more.  Tony wanted to keep the water at the lower level until the grass starts to grow.  The trout will be coming in about a month or so.  So excited for this project and how it is turning out!  My husband is amazing!!

Graveling The Driveway...

7:24 pm - 38 degrees - calm night...

Ditches are cleaned out, and now it's time for gravel!  

This morning four dump truck loads of gravel was put onto the main driveway.  Tony spent the rest of the day grading it all out.  The driveway is looking really good!

While Tony was down working on the lower section of the main driveway, I was working around the house enjoying the falling snow flakes!  It wasn't cold enough for the snow to stick, but it sure was exciting to see!  Tony's hoping that the snow will hold off for a few more days so he can get the snowblower and snowplow mounted and running.

Clearing Ditches...

4:11 pm - 43 degrees - overcast...

When it comes to maintaining our personal driveway and the main driveway, there are three main objectives – control the flow of water around the road, remove obstacles, and fill in the holes/ruts.

Water in any of its numerous forms – snow, ice, sleet, rain – is our number one enemy when it comes to maintaining the driveway.  Water run-off will always take the line of least resistance and when the ditches are full of debris, that usually means the water is running down the middle or across the driveway somehow.  Also, any low spots that collect water will also collect snow and freeze causing bad slick spots during the winter.

So Tony has been in the excavator all day clearing the ditches out along the main driveway.  He’s hoping to get all the ditches done and a fresh layer of rock on before the weather turns on Thursday (weather reports are calling for snow!).

He’s trying to prevent washouts that seem to happen every year due to heavy rain and snow melt.  Hopefully this year we won’t have to deal with any of this...

Driveway Repairs...

6:57 pm - 36 degrees - windy...

The lower section of the driveway has been in need of repair for some time.  That section has not had a good ditch line due to all the large rock.  Repairs have been delayed because we needed to get a larger excavator to dig through the rock. 

After the last heavy rains the driveway was almost impassable. 

 

The rain finally stopped and the ground dried up enough where Tony and a neighbor were able to do some repairs to the driveway.

The driveway is looking much better now, but still needs a few loads of rock.

  

Washed Out...

4:25 pm - 41 degrees - scattered clouds...

Over the past couple days, we have received well over 7” of rain.  The heavy rains were trying to wash the road out... and it did a pretty good job of it.  Driveway repair has now been bumped to the top of Tony’s to-do-list.

Today the constant rain stopped.  The howling wind stopped.  It was in the mid 40s (that’s winter t-shirt weather).  It was the perfect day to spend outside.  So I spent the day cleaning up around the house, picking up items that the wind had blown around, and picking up and burning the fallen branches from the heavy rains and wind storms.

  

It turned out to be a very nice, calm, relaxing and productive day on the mountain.

Here Comes The Storm...

10:36 am - 53 degrees - fog, wind (26+ mph) and heavy rain...

There is a big storm on the way (the remnants of a tropical typhoon), and the area we’re in is supposed to see rain fall totals in the double digits.  Since we’ve gotten 3.53 inches of rain in the past 24 hours (even with the wind blowing over the rain gage), I think we’ve got a good chance of seeing that, especially since the largest portion of the storm isn’t scheduled to hit until tomorrow.

 

We've already got a small stream flowing down the driveway

If the rain rolls in as forecasted, our area could set a new all-time record for rainfall in September.  The last time we got over a foot of rain in just a few days, it washed out our driveway and flooded the mountain {click here}. 

 

With this much rain, we’re guaranteed some damage to the driveway, but we’re hoping to keep the damage to a minimum.  So yesterday and today Tony has been on the excavator clearing the ditches and making sure the culverts are clear of debris.

 

 

Can You Please Make Me A Pond...

9:26 am - 38 degrees - overcast and windy...

...“Sure!” says the awesome hubby.

Even though we live on a mountain ridge we have a lot of water up here.  It just amazes me how much ground water and how many natural springs there are.  So to direct the flow of all this water, Tony has put several drainage ditches in.  Now where to direct all this drainage water...why into a pond of course!

Several months ago Tony started clearing a trail to the river {click here}.  The new trail skirts a rather large area that is wet and marshy year round - so this is going to be the location of our new pond.  So the clearing has started...

 

BEFORE

AFTER

The excavator is sitting where the pond is going to go.

Once the pond is done it will have many benefits like water for the wildlife, personal enjoyment, and a water source for wildfire suppression {click here}.

Work Weekend...

46 degrees - 9:50 am - raining...

All the snow is finally gone so it was time to do some spring cleaning outside, with a little bit of landscaping mixed in here and there. 

I spent the weekend working on building some rock retaining walls and a pathway up to the chicken coop.  After transplanting a huge fern that was right in the middle of my pathway (which I broke another shovel on – I think we are now up to three broken shovels), I had Tony use the excavator to move a small boulder.  The rest of my time was spent picking up the debris, doing some basic clean up and maintaining my small burn pile.

The start of the pathway up to the chicken coop -
before the fern and boulder were moved - still a work in process.

We are going to be putting in a foot bridge to go over the drainage ditch.
Tony cut down the pathway a bit so it's not such a steap incline.

I just had to put in a few waterfalls in at the end of
one drainage ditch before it enters the other
drainage ditch.  I love the sound it makes!

Tony spent the weekend putting the track back on the excavator that fell off shortly after he moved my small boulder.  Then he was moving a large pile of stumps further away from the house so they can be burned later, broke a hydraulic hose in the process.  So off to Napa we went to get the hose fixed with a quick side trip to Home Depot to pick up a few more supplies for our next big projects.

After our not so quick trip to town, it was time to get back to work.  So while I was working on my small burn pile Tony was working on his huge burn pile.  He then decided that a few trees needed to go to let more light into the garden area... so away went a stand of Vine Maple.

Tony just starting his burn pile.  He is standing next to a ginormous stump -
I don't think that thing will ever burn.  Not sure what we are going to do with
it - it's too big for any of the excavators to move.

the end of our work weekend...

The whole area looks much better.  The garden area now looks like an extension of the backyard instead of a random little clearing.  It has really opened things up.  The backyard is really starting to look like a backyard.  I love it!

Washed Out Driveway Update…

38 degrees outside - 12:21 pm - it's not raining!!!

Ton of Rain + Warm Temps + Melting Snow Pack = Flooding

Yes, we are living on top of a mountain ridge.  Therefore, all the rain and melting snow had to go somewhere, down, wiping out several sections of our driveway in the process.  Tony has already spent numerous hours in the excavator repairing the driveway so it is drivable.  There is still a lot of work to do until it can be considered repaired.

It hasn’t rained in the past day and a half and the weather forecast is looking good for the weekend and coming week.  Hopefully everything will dry out enough so we can have a little neighborhood work party sometime this coming week. 

The guys have decided that they would like to add four new culverts along the driveway to hopefully prevent it from washing away again.  We also need to get more gravel, redo the ditch lines and widen the driveway in several spots.  With our neighbor in the bulldozer and Tony in the excavator, hopefully we can get most of the repairs done quickly.

It’s Flooding On The Mountain…

47 degrees outside - 9:00 am - foggy, heavy rain and flooding...

It has been raining almost non-stop since last Wednesday.  In the past four days we have gotten a total of 16.24 inches of rain and it is still coming down hard!  The warmer weather (now in the 40’s) along with the near constant rain has melted all the snow.  Everything is now flooding.  With the snowmelt and the rain together it is too much for the culverts along the driveway and the county road and the water is now running over the road in numerous spots.  Below are pictures of our driveway where the water has taken over.  They are a little blurry because they were taken thru the rain and fog.

The goal for today is for Tony to jump into the excavator and try to save the driveway and keep it passable so we can still get in and out.  We will not be able to completely repair it until it stops raining.

 

{ Update: 8:51 pm }

The parts to repair the snowblower are here, but instead of working on that today Tony was trying to salvage the driveway.  The above pictures don't even compare to how bad the road got before Tony was able to divert the water and make it passable.  It will take about another two days of excavator work before the driveway is 'repaired'.

Lay of the Land...

9:38 pm - 47 degrees outside - nice quiet stary night on the mountain...

Technically we have more than 22 acres.  When surveyors plot out the property borders, it is all drawn out according to longitude and latitude on a flat map.  When you actually go out and look and walk the property, with the canyons, hills, plateaus and valleys, you have considerably more land than you thought. 

 

Our property has those hills and canyons, so a large portion of it is inaccessible.  There is a large five acre plateau (which is where we are building our home) that drops steeply down into the canyon to the river and then back up the other side to another plateau.

When we first went to look at the property it had no view.  You could not see 10 feet in front of you thru the thick Vine Maple, Salmonberries and Alder trees.  There was a little overgrown tail that led down into the lot and you could see the very top of the mountain across the valley and that was the only view to speak of.

Some people have a hard time visualizing the end results.  We must have huge imaginations because we were somehow able to visualize all the wonderful possibilities the property possessed.

After we signed the papers, the first thing we did was review topographical maps and satellite photos of our new property to find out where the best build site would be and that was where we started the clearing.

We concentrated on clearing a few acres and after a year and a half we decided to camp on our property for the summer.  We wanted to see where the best location would be to put our new home and see how the weather affected that location so we could build our home accordingly.

One of the biggest things we discovered was that we had far more drainage issues than we ever imagined for living on top of a mountain.  Now the question was how to use that to our advantage?