My Progress Gleying a Pond With Pigs

Seth, could you elaborate on this?  Is the dead stake to prevent duck erosion while the willow is getting started?  

"Hey Michael, yes sepp used dead stakes with live plants.  The dead stake to create and keep the hole, as well as, allow moisture into the hole, and to decompose and feed the soil life.  In that same hole he planted what I believe was grapes in one case and willow in another."

Any updates?

Im trying to get the wife to accept my pig hobby, I think the pond will be a good segway to that end goal. I have a good amount of clay in our soil and it is already very compacted, but I currently have no depressions in which to start. My goals are to create a pond fed by a recirculating wet stream and a dry stream bed leading to it from the downspouts on the house and road runoff. The streams, I imagine, would have to be lined with a pond liner, but Im hoping the pond could stay filled with the gleying technique.
Is there a optimum depth of the pond for gleying? Is there a point where it would be too big/wide for 2-3 pigs to create the pond? Once the pond is sealed would it be adviseable to add rocks around the edges and in the pond for erosion protection and fish caves or would this prevent the pond biofilm from being refreshed by falling fish/duck poop and leaf litter?
Currently my plan is to dig the pond first before the rainy season and use swales and the trench for the eventual stream to collect the most water off the lot to feed the pond. For my recirculating pump I was going to dig a side pit and insert 1 or a few IBC totes filled with a large sump tube and gravel to act as a filter before sending water to the top of the lot to begin the stream again. Hopefully this stream will collect enough leaf litter and clay dust to contribute to the pond and maintain it.
I have a bunch of videos on my youtube channel (HomesteadOC) of my lot, but I cant really find a great picture of where the pond will go. I have a tractor that could help with digging, but I only have a front loader and no backhoe and the ground is compacted soil 🙁. Any advice or tips on the project would be much appreciated.

Before i acquired a skid steer, digging with a tractor was doable but took steps. A pto tiller was used to loosen the soil so the front bucket could scoop it. Before i got the tiller, i only had a single plow for the back. Basically the same thing except it took several passes with the plow. It  was one of those things where you figure it out with what you got.

I guess I need a tiller...

Any news about the pond, maybe new pictures?

Awesome thread- didn't even know this was a "thing"

Definitely one of the greats on permies, been following along for a number of years now, first pond definitely raving sucess!
As for second, I definitely think conical shape helped with quick seal, I also seem to remember you had a gallon per minute overflow or something going into their water trough, maybe constant water flow helped, removing larger stones as you mentioned also and I would think tighter fencing may help encourage more concentrated activity
I sometime get wood chips from tree companies that are mostly green leaves, maybe a load like that would help?
Feeding wet food scraps in the area?
Digging a small conical hole in the center (hand dug scale) to jumpstart things?

This is a really amazing thread! Thank you so much for all the time and effort you put in. Any chance we could get an update? It has been a while since the last time you posted and I am curious how things are going.

Is Michael still around and able to give an update? We are planning a pond project and considering using pigs to gley.