I was able to dig 14 ponds and swale out 30 acres in one week

I worked around existing trees to dig ponds that blended in with the landscape

I also put in about 2 miles of roads around the property

Swales on steep sections of the hill were cut into the hill and then the spoils were deposited on the downhill side (mostly clay)

The large shagbark hickory on the left produced hundreds of young trees under it which were all preserved

On the flatter sections, I rolled up about 5-6 feet of topsoil into the swales to plant trees on

In total, I made about 14 ponds, most filled up within a day of digging them

The swales are spaced out about 20-30 feet apart and keep water from running off quickly

The large pond is about 50 feet across and was a natural depression that only required one small wall to be built on the top left

Great views means that everything is going to grow better

The main swimming pond is about 30 feet across and 7 feet deep

Where water collected in the swales I made much larger ‘swale ponds’

Another extremely long swale pond

Access roads

The smaller 20-foot ponds only took about an hour to make

Where it was wet clay the 30,000lb dozer made a big mess

A larger pond above my house

The pond above the bard drains out into a swale, making sure the pond drains out through a keyhole or the swale is important to keep the dam from eroding