Back when I first got into serious bow hunting in the late 70's, early 80's, there was an old pond up on Fort Lewis mountain that I used to hunt around. It had huge white oak trees around it and I always saw deer and bear when hunting around it. It was near an old time home place and was about 100 feet long and 25 feet wide and was fed by two springs. Maybe 3 feet deep. It was one of my favorite hunting spots. In the early 90's we had one of the hurricanes come through with days of heavy rains and it washed out a spot in the dam. After that, the hunting never seemed to be nearly as good in that section of the mountain. I have often thought about that spot over the last 25 years and what a shame that the pond was gone and it was just a big mud flat now. I walked in there last week and had an idea....
I was up on the mountain at 6:30 this morning trying to beat the heat and bugs. Didn't work for either. I dug up and carried about 25 -30 watermelon sized rocks and stacked them in the breach where a little creek has been running for the last couple decades. The breach was about four feet wide and four feet deep. Then I shoveled about two pick up trucks of nasty mud from the edge of the pond into it. Shovel a foot of mud and then stomp in down and into place. Repeat until the breach was filled. I left a little "V" on the side for over flow to run. It will probably take it a couple of weeks to completely fill up from the springs, but I definitely plan on hanging a stand on the side of the pond again this fall!.
And yes, I do know that it is 96 degrees outside today.....
My dam repair....