I would reinforce the bottom bank of your lake, make it wider if you can find the material. You will have a major breach at some stage.

your pond is looking good and so is your plan for storing water for later…and a Happy Birthday to your daughter…stay well..

It seems that your lake has no spillway, where does the excess water go when the dam is full? I think if it starts running over that low point you could have a problem with the whole wall being eroded by the moving water.

Maybe it's time to resort to a small but important engineering project, in agreement with the neighbors. Build a longitudinal gutter along the ground, preferably buried, made of special perforated PVC piping, covered with a geotextile BIDIM-type blanket. Derivations could be directed to the small lake and to the neighbor's land in the background (allowing the water to be used by him as well). Small investment of time and money, but with big results.

Water level – and subscribers – going up, up up! Great week ✅

Really good news about the water. Your well is the same as at La Petite Maison, such incredible building skills. Ours is built up and has a winding bucket on a chain, a bit like a wishing well. In October the water board came and measured the depth and took samples. They were looking to see if the water table had risen and if they could reduce the drought restrictions once they had an overall picture of the area. The lady that lived next door when we bought the house told us in the war, the German soldiers use to take the water from it as they were billeted in the village. I wonder what stories your well could tell? As always, take care, loving your Vlogmas x

Here in Australia we had a similar size dam dug. It has an overflow to one side which is at the lowest point, and takes the excess water safely around the side of the dam and downhill. From the video your low point looks like its in the middle, which would not be good if there is a lot more rain now, despite the extra capacity up the side. There is bentonite clay, or chemical additives to put in the dam to try to stop seepage, but you use it when the dam is low or empty.

and the winter hasn't started yet,lol 🙂

Hi Darren Elaine and Max!
You are really blessed with the rain, all that precious water 🙏
The wall of Lake Pip … I think it is not a bad thing that it is seaping a bit, the clay will waterproof it eventually. I know from living in the Netherlands that dry dikes break faster than wet ones… Hope the seeds will form strong plants on the dike soon. See you in the next one 🇩🇰

Water always wants to go downhill and your dam water has huge weight and pressure. You need to speak to Jaque who constructed the dam. Ive seen some dams with a rock wall on the pressure side to hold the water. Mud walls holding the dam is doubtful. A tank where your cars are would be wonderful so you can have your showers there looking over your garden in peace

The break at the bottom end of the lake is your emergency overflow over off the end of your property to prevent flooding back into your property, washing away the berms above

Enjoying your vlogmas. So nice to see your land coming along and you both seem very happy with the way things are going.

See you tumorow… 🥰🤗

Muy buen

Wonderful update!

Get ducks they will seal the bottom of the pond over time . Look this up.

If you want to stop water traveling through your pond berm, when the water is lower, if you can find some high clay content soil you could dig out the section of the berm where the water is traveling through and replace it with the clay and make sure it is packed down really well. This should fix the leak.

Wow, the pond filled up quickly!

Todays content was particularly interesting. As an Aussie who has experienced the joy and anxiety of watching a new dam fill up it took me back. Sometimes hard to see what Elaine was actually pointing at though, maybe need to have a slightly more distant filming position if sound permits. I hope you get your IBC’s soon, bit worried about that low point. Our design was different so overtopping not a potential issue. Enjoying the vlogmas – thank you both of you.

The blog Point Return in India has information that might interest you.

Thanks for sharing your journey

I hope the pond is holding the pressure of the water. It's so important to have this as a reservoir for the hot summer.

I was a bit worried with you and your land because of the heavy rains. You are absolutely right – we need to take advantage of all the water and store it for the summer and dry weather. Good projects. 👍

Well that didn't take long for your lake to fill up👍. Definitely a good idea to store some of the water from the lake in order to create more space in the lake for when it rains again. Also great that there is now some water in the well. During this first year of growing produce you'll not really know exactly how much water you'll be needing, so I imagine that it's better to have as much water as possible stored before the hot summer comes around.

Your neighbor Jacques did a wonderful job for you all with the forming of your land and the lake. Truly impressed with the results, especially first year after being done. You might check with Jacques to see what he recommends about the low point on the lake edge. Have you considered doing a paved French drain following the natural flow of the water from your neighbor's property to help prevent it eroding its path to create more damage.

I think the berm and correct planting will help retain water and give it chance seep into the land instead of running off. Well done for considering water management!

Ahh how wonderful 😀 Maybe next year you got frogs 🐸

Very nice pond! What a fun project! Merry Christmas!

Pumping from dam into tanks is the best way to save water. You will find the dam will soon dry up once the hot weather comes back. Well done with your progress. 👏👏🦘🦘🦘

I had seen The Dutch Farmer talking about using ducks to seal the pond- called gleying. But having ducks means having more mouths to feed if you don't want to raise them for meat. So I looked up bentonite like another commenter suggested. It seems to be a clay that seals well. On the other hand, the silt may self-seal your pond but that might take a few years.
It's great your well is refilling! Your groundwater seems to be recharging. You are doing great trying to keep water on your property underground.
I hope you can get IBCs delivered for a decent price. I imagine there's a demand for them right now.

you need more dirt on the backside of the pond to make a thicker wall on the back to help the water from breaching.

Greetings garden angel and angel helper……….mieke….uit …Nederland. ..💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙

Great vlog Elaine and Darren, so lovely watching and following your enthusiasm for your land, it’s fascinating, find it very interesting, thank you 😊

How far from your house is your land,…can you walk it?

It was so nice to get a full report on the lake and water levels. Brilliant ICB idea. You both will get some nice exercise walking up and down your land. Have you two noticed an increase in your endurance since you’ve been working the land? Thank you again for sharing…provides a bright spot in my day…I’m healing.

Hope you guys are doing ok👍. Would it be possible to put a water storage tank to collect the water where it pools at the bottom of your land? I guess you can redirect PVC piping where it's most
desirable for you. Just a thought. Love you dearly 😍😍😍 Harriet, Jim and Yuki. Richmond, Va.

🌟👏👍🍀💐 21.03

We're planning to add ducks to help seal our future pond (I'm still in research mode, so I can't personally vouch for this, but a lot of people swear by it!), so if you were considering ducks anyway, it might be worth adding them sooner than later. Your land is coming along so nicely! Thank you for sharing!

It's great to see the pond full. So much water. Portugal really needs the rain, from what I saw on videos this summer, so the more you can retain, the better. Glad to see that even your dry well is no longer dry! All the best with your water management plans.

Great Vlog guys ..!how long has it taken the pond to fill up ?

Sorry I've asked about the well before the end …sorry Nice to know that's getting full

How about your well? Os it also full?

I love your vlogmas! For one thing, it’s so nice to see you every day. You have so much to share. This video of your water management is really fascinating, and it will be interesting to see how it is working and what tweaks you will have to make. Being off grid, I can see, is quite a balancing act between having too much or not enough water, and having enough power to keep going. That is, a balance between rain and sun throughout the seasons. I hope you can get as many IBC’s as you can afford to see you and your land through the summers! Cheers to you both, Judy. By the way, I am a Canadian expat in the US, in Southern California, so I don’t have snow to contend with anymore!! (Not enough water, either.)

Hi guys, I've sent you a FB message re IBC tanks 🙂

We have plants call cattails we plant in the wet lands.

Plants will slow the water flow.

Wow, so much water and so precious!! Jacques really did a great job for you guys. Stay dry and Max was really cute again . Cheers and stay safe.