permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

> On Jan 5, 2012, at 3:08 PM, Cory Brennan wrote:
> 
> Gley the pond with pig or cow manure, it will be watertight. At Pine Ridge, 
> the rancher there puts salt licks in his dams and the cows stay there and 
> poop. It takes a couple of years, but it's watertight.  You can do it in a 
> couple of days with a bobcat.

I'm curious about gleying ponds. We have a big old pond here in Sonoma that 
had a cheap liner that failed due to deer hooves and age, and replacing the 
liner would be expensive and a lot of oil. I've not personally been involved 
in gleying, and would love to hear details from people who have actually done 
it successfully. Many people mention it, but few seem to have actually done 
it. 

The hole for the pond is about 1400 square feet, 10 feet deep, and in a soil 
with silty clay, and shale just below a soil layer. The old liner is still in 
it, with many punctures.

I've done some pond work with bentonite, too, and would appreciate hearing of 
experience with that, as that is another option.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com