Mike, when they were building 1-44 in the 1960's, they needed borrow pits for intersections, crossovers and the few valleys. As you drive along now, you see hundreds of ponds and small lakes along the highway. Most of them are concentrated around the features where the dirt was built up. But, there is one lake that is located along a seemingly flat stretch of highway. It is parallel to the roadbed, long and skinny, just like most of the others that you see. Because there are so many of these lakes before and after it, you might not raise an eyebrow as to why it is there. However, to the practiced eye, you cannot see any place where they used the dirt. Right after the highway was built, the small town located five miles from the farm was needing to build a sewage lagoon and associated roadways into it. The town was over a small hill away from the highway and happened to sit in a hollow that was filled with about 10 feet of topsoil. The contractor for the city came out and struck up a deal with the farmer that he would trade him top soil for the clay that he took out of the pit. The farmer took the deal but stipulated that he wanted the topsoil spread over his fields instead of refilling the borrow pit. The contractor liked that idea because he could haul soil both ways without having to stockpile the top soil for refilling the strip at the end. Once done, he just ran a dozer over the fields and the farmer was ready to plant. A fortunate turn of events was that there was a draught the year they traded dirt.... as a result, the contractor was able to dig the lake deeper than is normally possible, for a borrow pit. Although you would never know it by looking at it... it is almost 30 feet deep! My dad found out about the lake because he was doing bookkeeping for a tire company. The farmer contacted the tire company and wanted to get all of their tractor and larger tires. He was wanting them as breeding nests for Blue Catfish. You see, Blues only thrive if they have access to deep water. At that time, fingerlings were needed to restock the local lakes that had been over fished. The farmer wanted a second income stream! My dad helped broker the deal to deliver several trucks of tires to the farmer. In that deal was fishing rights, when the fish matured. (We could only keep males... but of course, you could catch anything that would bite.) I was about 12 when the fishing trips started. We would finish milking by 7PM or so, load up the pickup and beat it over the state line to fish. We returned home at sunup with a cooler full of catfish, just in time for the morning milking. After church, we would pack the fish in freezer bags and spend the afternoon dozing on the sofa.... while the baseball game was playing on the TV. I probably spent a dozen or so Sundays doing that, over the next couple of years.... I just wish our fishing rights had transferred when the farmer sold the farm. It was some of the best memories that I have of spending time with my dad.... and, we always had catfish in the freezer! I won't disclose the exact location of the lake but will tell you that every time I drive by it I long for the chance to experience just one of those fishing trips with my dad, again. To your point.... farm ponds are awesome. They all serve a purpose... even if it is just to get good topsoil for your fields and raise Blue Cats to sell!

We all know jerry is the REAL dirt perfect

Be very careful picking on Jerry boys, I've known several older equipment operators over the years, they tend to be ornery as all get out. Their upper body strength is nothing to trifle with, and don't try to out drink them, you will lose! They are also some of the best friends I've ever had...they are missed.

Small ponds here are vital for maintaining the mosquito population...

I think your boys need to get them some camelbacks. It’s a water filled pack you have on your back that keeps the water cool to drink from a tube. We used them while deployed in the Middle East. The water was always with then

I’d like to see how it looks five years from now thanks for sharing buddy

👍 Looks like the beginning of a nice little ecosystem once it fills and the mud settles. Thanks for sharing.

That’s a very nice pond build , now that is going to a awesome swimming hole and blue Gill and bass pond. Or raise some supper big catfish . Nice and deep. Great pond. Love it.

The result looks great! 👏

Another fine job completed, looks really nice, And the team working together nicely.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and video. Nice pond build there. I was thinking, if they run short of water at least they have a really nice and safe fire pit. Great seeing the comradery between you and the crew. Wishing you and your family the best.

The odd ball vedio. It has helped me out operating the equipment I operate. So all I can say is well done with your team! Love it ❤️❤️

Another beautiful job. ❤

Pond turned out great looks awesome like to see when full and grass around .boy that Jerry a dozer boss what a great man I bet .the kind you can sit and listen to his wisdom.great video DP .👌😂✌️😎

I for one would like to see the pond when it gets full and grass is back I think it's going to be fantastic

Dirt Perfect really does a great job They know what they are doing!!

Awesome as usual , just keep doing what your doing .

We used an old dozer track hanging off an excavator for smoothing fill slopes on logging roads.

Another awesome job. Thank you for taking your time to share

This will be a great property for a follow up vid once the pond is full.👍

Smartest thing I saw you do D.P. was reconsider the positioning on that one tree you said "I think I can get behind that one", I was thinking good move. Nice job guys, It turned out great!

Looks good Dp thanks to a good dozer operator and mbts

Aaron you are officially in charge of operating the smaller equipment. Mike is a little to dangerous on them. Lol God bless

Mike, I think it is really nice for you to help people like Jerry and Captain. Best to you and your family.

The 3 of you did an awesome job

You guys are going beyond perfect , that’s a beautiful job, keep the videos coming love them

Nice pond. Working together it’s fun to watch. Congratulations on another great project. If I were the homeowner I would be delighted. Stay safe

Great video guys, really enjoy watching. Thank you, nice job.

The pond is looking great. Sone it it will be time to enjoy!🌴🏊‍♂️🏄‍♂️🌞

I must have missed this one.looks great as always Mike

Thanks for sharing Mike!

Nice job guys, home owners must be very happy! DP I’m surprised you don’t have a 5 gallon water cooler of ice and water for the boys on the truck. MBTS is going to turn into a prune 😂 I would love to have a camera on that dozer for Jerry and for me to talk through his strategy has he moves along, lots of skill there to share👍🇺🇸

Good morning Mike, another great video thanks!🙏❤️🇺🇸

I love that little stone house and that was a great video and job. Thumbs up.

Another great video I love the time-lapse it makes it look like you guys actually know what your doing loool keep it up men 👍 👏 😀 👌

Excellent job love the d4 and the John deere tractor by far excellent channel and people keep it going 👍👍👍👍

again nice clean finish product you guys get it done

Mike great video with the ATeam, Jerry is amazing! Thanks for sharing. Kevin

It looks great guys, good job!👌🏼🤙🏻🤙🏻

As good a job as I have seen on KZfaq or anywhere. Congratulations

I purchased a Woods brand grader/planer for my tractor because it had the most weight in its class and I liked the way I could adjust the shoes rather than the blades to adjust the depth of cut. It is nice to see someone else who has one.

from the Netherlands thanks for the video DP

What a great morn finish watching harmless farmer then dirt perfect

Saw you on Letsdig 18 with Chris and enjoyed it very much. Great job on the pond build and look forward to see all your videos!!

Nice watching experienced operators run their equipment, it's amazing what fine detail you can get with a doser and excavator. My heavy equipment contractor sends me the same group of guys every time I do a job, there used to how I like things done and they're used to the type of work that I do so they know exactly what to do and how to read the site plan when they get on site and that makes the job go so much better. My guys try to get within a 1/4 inch of the site plan when they're all done it's amazing how close you can get to that mark with that big equipment. You might have had that little John Deere overloaded with that gigantic box blade on the back, I believe that exceeded manufacturer's guideline by just a hair. Bottom line is it's nice to have a good contractor like you guys that know what you're doing and are willing to take care of the customer.

It would be great to see a finished shot of this place with the barn and water in the pond if that’s a possibility

I like the pond, I do think though its a bit steep for cows to water from as they love to drink water but swimming is not real high on the fun things to do for cows. Deep enough to support a trout of some kind but not lots of fish as they do tend to make water smell bad if not running. Great video... more hair on the tail than me as I rolled over on a tractor someone else drove and I got hurt.

Mike, 💯 5 ⭐ video glad you got to bring little johnny out to play, God bless catch yah on the next one from South Carolina.

Another fine job young man! I've seen a couple of the ponds you built here on youtube and I can say that you do good work. I appreciate the fact that you make a conscientious effort to do honest, high quality work. Nice to see there are contractors out there who will go the extra mile to make the customer happy.

Wish you guys were local I plan on building about a quarter to half acre pond in my woods here in Middle Ga. soon. Hope I can find some guys that know what they are doing. I've seen some ponds that didn't turn out too well. It's scary knowing I may spend thousands and end up with nothing but a mud hole that won't even hold water.

Run the down spouts to the pond. Sheep foot roller has done well since you bought it.

nice job team ...as for the rock spreading "by golly the boy done good"

Looks real good great job

Looks great Thanks for sharing 👍

That's some great sprint car dirt.

Great job guys. Looks good.

That's gonna be a deep Lil hole. Idk how much water is in it by now but looks like y'all may get a little bit of rain off hurricane Ida this week. It's supposed to center us here in NW Alabama. Great video! Enjoyed it!

Awesome Job!!

Thanks for video it was very good Mike .

Looks good. Good video.

Enjoyed this video bro. Another skeeter sanctuary and it looks good too. Safe travels

Great team work 👍

As much as I enjoy seeing DP err, I will offer this in his defense. When going clock-wise across the back of the dam, the angle of the land plane blades to the left (downhill) and the weight of the dirt on the lower side of the implement, actually pulled DP off the edge. Don’t ask me how I know.

I enjoyed the process of building this pond. Bet Aaron was a little bit tense riding on the edge 😁

Awesome job guys.

Great job!!

U guys are a trip !!! Nice job

Another ripper video, many thanks 🍺🍺👍👌☺

thank, you for you're video. now that spring is almost here I've been planing all winter long on building a 5 acra pond on my 110 acra farm. I've got sady clay soil type. I've got the Equipment to dig the pond out here on the farm. this pond project to build is going to take me some time plus to stock it to. I've got a natural spring that's going to be feeding the water supply plus the rain water..

One neat piece of work there good job

Nice job on the pound

Nice one! Man that Jerry make it look easy. And love the 955. Good little unit ha

SALUDOS D.P. ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO AS ALWAYS, G.B.Y.A, NICE TO SEE JERRY AND AARON . LOOKING GOOD. POND.

I've just subscribed DP, after lots of good comments from the Captain and seeing you on Letsdig18. Looking forward to catching up on your videos. Cheers Michael (from Scotland)

Skid steer probably been a better machine for the fine grading but the tractor was way more fun to watch lol definitely got interesting

Take care of Jerry mate he is one of a kind

Looks great Mike 🇺🇲

Nice work!

...good one, keep safe and have a great week...

Your suppose to use that bucket. Lol I used the bucket once and crept inch by inch almost 1/4 mile.. love your videos makes me miss operating God bless

A small (cute) pond. I didn’t hear if it’ll be fishing pond with fish to eat all the Mosquitoes people are talking about. LOL. So enjoy how you guys pick on each other.great explanation of what purpose of the pond. Great job again.

You make it look easy!

Goed gedaan top job geweldig 🤩👍👌💪✊ Groetjes uit Holland 🥰👋🏼🌹🌹🌹

Turned out good!

I had to watch in phases do to hurricane preparing but looks awesome.

good job guys.

How about a video on the pole building by the Derby market ? Stuff like what are you going to store inside it? You really needed one.

Very nice, guys.

Please consider a video on the types of earth and how to tell them apart. Laser make/model - I need to read the instructions to follow along better - tks FANTASTIC DAY - great to see all the simultaneous work/equipment/guys like ants in one smallish area. Great video!!!

It turned out bigger than I thought it would. But it looks great!

Need some nice blue clay for a great pond bottom.👍

7.2K+👍's up DP thanks for sharing your great work with us all

You're not stuck until you give up and ask for help getting out. Please be sure to give us a look when you come and finish up with the power rake.

Looks good guys

Little advice, don't run that roller parallel to a fill slope, you will hut a soft spot and end up on your side. It's best to hit the edge at a 45 degree angle till the roller just starts to tip over the edge then work your way along overlapping. It takes a long time but you get a tighter edge and an upright roller. I've witnessed 2 rollers roll down a slope.

You should of tried putting some weight in the bucket to help you steer and counter balance your drag

That’s a deep one . Betcha MBTS had some major pucker factor going that close around the edge of the dam.

Be great if you could do a compilation video where you go back to your projects after about 6 months just to show how things look when all settled

Need to grab a bucket of dirt on the front lo a Der for traction.

We''re at 5600 ft. there's no drilling into aquifers. It's trapped water in the rock structure of the mountain. Available water is all over the map. We're at 340' and get 3 gpm. our neighbor is at 57- and getting a little over 1 gpm. yet 500' from us is a well that's 200' and getting 15 gpm. We figure our well holds around 400 gallons at the static level and it's sufficient for our daily needs. There's no capacity to irrigate and we're in a semi arid climate so it's prairie grass growing natural.