Digging pond with backhoe

[jeremy86360]

We had a little mud hole in one pasture. I bought a backhoe as old as me. Old Case 580C. It needs work but I put a new hyd pump on it as fixed a few cylinders and hoses. Still need to make brakes work. But I wanted to get some run time before I put more money into it. After a day of cleaning out it looked pretty good I thought. Well, why not make it a tad bigger?. Ended up re-keywaying the dam right and making it 15ft at the deepest. I figure it will silt in to 15ft from 18ft. It's got deep spots and submerged humps. Just needs some water now. I threw 50lb of winter rye on it yesterday before the rain. Hopefully sprouts up good. I have about 2 weeks of work on it on evenings and weekends. The no brakes part was a little rough on the inclines. But you can really pack a dam with the front tires and a 1 cubic yard bucket heaping with dirt. I'd say you can sculpt pretty well too once you get a feel for things. No idea what I will out in it yet. Prob just perch. Itll be good for frogs and wildlife. May make a wood duck box for it. Hopefully home to a few crawdads before long too.