Sheesh, that's quite an ambitious project. Very cool. How big is it going to be when filled?
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Sheesh, that's quite an ambitious project. Very cool. How big is it going to be when filled?
It started out around 18 acres and grew to around 26 acres. (right now for the boat I have a 2000' straight away with a slight kick and than a 1000' straight away.)
Than I have two coves that are 800' to 1000' I would like to put I two post cable system in one of them in the future.
Defiantly way more work than I imagined but it will be well worth it.
Two of the contractors that priced it is family friends and they said they were glad i didn't except their bid because I cleaned way more silt out than they were planning and they would of charged a lot more money. (on top of that being it was an existing lake no one would give a firm price because of the existing lake.
On the plus Side I been selling all the silt I removed as black dirt and got set up with one company if they take what the claim they need this last year and the next two years the lake will be paid for off the dirt I removed. (this doesn't include my and my brother's labor) but I was expecting not to make much off the dirt anyway.
So awesome
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So awesome to see this all coming together for you! I know its been along time coming.
We got about 3" of rain and it raised the lake level 4 to 5 feet. we got about 10 more feet to go. This gives us about 13' at the dam 10' behind the house and 2' at the far north end.
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this is such an awesome project, thanks for the updates. Keep them coming
Can't wait to see it once it's full and all greened up!
I cannot wait till the lake is full and it is summer time also. I still need to do a lot of work but it is getting close we need 9 to 10 more feet of water.
Here is a shot from the air of our lake one of our friends took a few weeks ago.
The picture is missing the dam and one big cove to the north by the dam.
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Right now i am sitting around $325,000.00 with labor, fuel, and equipment repair. (This does not include my labor or my brother's labor throughout the project.)(also a lot of cheap labor i had 4 Nephew's from the age 14-25 that help and I got away with paying $10 to $15 an hour cash.) and the first summer a lot of friends help for free but that only happen one summer.
Fuel was a big cost and i was way under budget I planned on $4.00 a gallon diesel and i would bet we average around $1.80 a gallon.
We broke the dam August 4th 2016 and we started to key the new Dam August 29 2020 and finished the dam 100% January 1 2021.
Other factors
I spent $200,000 on equipment that if I sale right now with the market I could get more than I paid for it. (so i feel like i am ahead on equipment)
I will sale $50,000 worth of equipment and keep the rest for a few years to clean up around the place more and i also have two more ponds to rework for a friend and a brother that will be paying jobs.
On top of that I got lucky this year and Sold About $100,000 worth of dirt. The company that bought the dirt wants the same amount next year and the following year. (But this will be questionable it going to a existing pipeline)I am hoping everything the government is doing doesn't effect this. They are trucking the dirt further than planed because the dirt is good. But they are worried about fuel prices next year. (This is not guaranteed if this falls through i will sale roughly $15,000 worth of dirt each year the next 20 years.
One of the biggest thing I learned on this project was It is a lot easier and cheaper up front to build a new lake then clean out an old lake. But by stock pilling all the Silt (black dirt) the lake has a potential of being paid for from the sale of the dirt.