Borrow area in the East field to put pool in the wetland and more water to the East of our blind location:


Cleaned out around natural rock formation in the creek to add concrete for low water crossing. Concrete should have went in today.

Low water crossing poured:






Hopefully the front brought some rain. Clay has gotten too dry to build levees, and we don’t want to haul in water.

Got the other skid blind in the West pool and brushed. Steps and dog ramps added to both blinds.

Contractor wasn’t able to do much dirt work in August due to the high temps and dry conditions. Then other obligations bleed over into our job. Had some equipment break downs as well, but he’s back on it and thinks he should have everything done by the end of the month. We realistically think the middle of October. Would be nice if he’s done by the end of September where we could seed levees and hopefully get some growth before big rains and losing some of the dirt work due to erosion. Also, got all but 2 of our poles set for junction boxes for power to the blinds and VFD for the pump set.

That is wild that you have a wet well. Did you decide to use the wet well because of where you are pumping water from? Also, the creek looks dry. Does it always fill up? Cool plan for sure. I gave corn my best shot this year, pigs murdered it in East Texas. Can't have anything nice around these parts...

Yes wet well was used because of the size of the creek and type of pump used. Depending on the amount of flow in the creek the pump could starve for water at full rate, so it needs a variable frequency controller (VFD) with a float to monitor amount of water in the pit as well as shut off to not over heat the pump. If we were on a major river where amount of water wasn't an issue, we would use an entirely different set up. That comes with it's own set of challenges and problems as well. Your greatest asset is also your greatest liability aka water! Also, if you don't currently have a well drilled into the aquifer and are grandfathered in you aren't going to drill one without big fines from the state. Even then it's regulated for agricultural purposes only again unless you are grandfathered in to a certain acre feet of water rights and want to apply to use the rights levied against agriculture to recreational rights. We applied for and received primary recreational water rights on this creek. Meaning no one else can pump from the creek until we have pumped our entire allotment of water rights.

Cofferdam was constructed to put in the wet well and low water crossing, but this region is currently experiencing a record drought. There is water in the creek, but not enough to turn on the pump and run it. The farmer we use grew up and lives less than 5 miles from this property. He said this is the first time in his life he's ever not seen water flowing in this creek. He's in his 70s.

Thankfully we don't have to deal with pigs.

Electrician got the two disconnects (don’t ask ) and meter set on our electrical pole per the specs of the power company to provide service. That’s had it’s own set of headaches as there’s only one company that provides power in the area and have some pretty ridiculous requirements if you want service to power anything larger than a normal house. We needed 480V service for our pump. Anyway, hopefully that hurdle is behind us. Power company should set transformer and connect service to our meter next week.

Balancing reservoir is the answer, not sure you’re permitted or have the room. But that would solve the low water problems.

Both. Would take one helluva reservoir to hold as much water as well need to pump. We are sorta doing something on a much smaller scale with our low water crossing. It adds 18" of pool over normal elevation just down stream of our pump. Under normal conditions this gives 2X-3X that amount of head pressure to keep our wet well full with the pump running at full capacity.

Cool stuff, good luck. I can tell this has been a well thought out project. I work for a similar entity, with more focus on water quality rather than duck food. A lot of similarities, though.

Kansas guy here. Duck season 1 month away. 2.63 inches in South KC last week. You guys get any rain? Great project, appreciate you documenting it as it's been fun to follow.

Still not see’n the hot tub, guess that’s going in later.

Thanks. Very little. Right at an inch of rain total in the last 3 weeks. Historic drought in our area. It's bad. The dust is so bad from working the ground it's the consistency of chalk. We were seeding the levees that are finished yesterday. I had on tennis shoes with socks. The dust went thru my shoes and socks it's ground so fine.

We did get some work done though. The South levee for the East and West pools are done with the exception of a little work on the spillway and where the dividing levee ties into the south levee. The top soil for the dividing levee has been removed with the core down to clay. All the power lines are in the ground, run the the blinds/pump, and back-filled. We just need to set two more poles and electrical boxes once the contractor is done with the levee to tie everything together. Got the flap gates installed on all the drain pipes and caulked. Installed all of the critter guards except for one we were missing. Fertilized and seeded all of the levees that were completed. About 2/3rds are done. Can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully we get some of this forecasted rain this week on the seeding to start growing some grass to control erosion. Contractor has the dividing levee to complete, two WCS's to install, and some grading work to complete where the clay was borrowed. Everything should be done within the next two weeks if there are no more major breakdowns on his end. I'll go back up when he's done to finish all the electrical work and seed the rest of the levees. At that point all we can do is sit around and hope mother nature provides us some water.

Looks like we are going to end up with one heck of a deep pond on the North end of the West pool from where the contractor borrowed the clay. Will be around 18’ deep. I’m sure our kids will hate having a place to fish as well.




View from inside our skid blind in the West pool.





Wiring in power to the West pool blind.




Power for the pump VFD

Looks great. Do you have issues with the pigs destroying the corn? I cant wait to see the pictures of when it all fills up...

Thankfully no. No pigs in our area. We have a hard enough time keeping the deer and coons from destroying the corn. I bet pigs would come in and totally decimate it. I have a friend that just build some wetlands in NE Texas. He planted corn and milo. I think the pigs have found his corn.

I can't wait to see if full of water either!

Man, looks like a fun time when the ducks get down there. Like the deeper end for fishing too. Well done.

Barney I grew up in Grapevine, how long have you been in Colleyville?

I built a new lake this year but it took awhile because of the rain in our area. Then it was to late for corn. Next year we will do corn but we are in the Pig Capital of Texas. We will have to put of hog panels and a electric fence......

For safeties sake you should have your contractor make the slopes more gentle. You don't want someone wading off into the pond to take an extra step and have water go over there head.

I know how much it’s gonna cost to run 480 to my shop in town, I don’t want to know what it cost to run it to bfe kansas

Bought a house here in 2019, but my wife was born and raised here. She went to the same middle school (CMS in 1992) that my daughter attends now. She graduated from GCISD.




OUCH! I did a quick calculation and just the panels would cost us $15K to put around our corn.



As much as we’ve paid the contractor to move dirt, I’m not paying him a dime more to shape slopes on a borrow pit. Will have to be the school of hard knocks around here if someone steps off the side.



Not too bad when DU pays 1/2!

GHS 1981 so a little before her time, I also went to CMS when it was brand new.

Nice project, looking forward to some water pics !!