Precision Ranch is reborn

[Horton]

Precision Ranch is the new home of BallOfSpray.

The lake has been empty since last summer. We turned on the water last Friday. Below is the "Re-Birth"

[klindy]

Very exciting times!! When's the first tournament? I'll be one of your appointed's. .

[Skoot1123]

Way to go @horton!! Good to see some water flowin!

[Horton]

This is the measuring stick at my dock after about 48 hours. This was yesterday afternoon. I think the middle was a few inches deeper

[popof]

Congratulations John! It's gotta be a great feeling to see that lake filling up! :). Out of curiosity, do you have an estimate of the time it takes to fill your lake? (Days? Weeks? Month? No clue really)

I think in your place I'd be checking it every other hour ! ;).

Enjoy your first ride and don't forget to document all that!

[6balls]

will there be lots of erosion right where the pipe comes in?

[Texas6]

That's pretty impressive for a single day of pumping. When we had our drought down here in Texas a few summers ago, we ran a similar pump non stop for four months and still lost considerable ground to evaporation. That lakes going to ski great John - congrats!

[ctsmith]

I can hear the whine of the electricity meter spinning out of control from here.

[Horton]

@popof‌ theoretically 23 days. realistically 5 or 6 weeks. I am working on a less wild / random estimate

[klindy]

The question is when is it usable. The last foot (to your target fill level) will likely take as long as it takes to get it to a foot or so below the target. However, if the shorelines will take it, you may be able to start skiing it while it tops off.

[Horton]

no. the plan is to not use the lake until the lake is full. we spent way too much money on the dig to screw up the shorelines

[klindy]

I hear you! When we finished the lake in Michigan it was the same scenario. All good things come to those who wait.....

[bishop8950]

@horton its a cool time lapse opportunity, lets see it!?

[xrated]

I to was wondering if there would be a nice hole where the pipe is shooting out the water.

 

[Horton]

Time lapse really? Would be cool. You guys misunderstand how much stuff I have going on at once.

[bishop8950]

I am far better at generating ideas that require efforts from others than I am at getting it done myself. It would be cool, but I get that its just another thing to manage.

[Horton]

@bishop8950‌ amazing how many Ballers are good at trying to find more for me to do.

[Texas6]

Time lapses are awesome

[skibug]

"Time lapse really? Would be cool. You guys misunderstand how much stuff I have going on at once."

 

@Horton, you ain't seen nothin' yet.....wait til the kid gets here!

[TylerR]

@horton when should @webbdawg99‌ and I show up?

[Horton]

@webbdawg99‌ is welcome anytime

[Horton]

@skibug‌ F

[Mateo_Vargas]

Sounds like @Horton needs an assistant that will work for ski rides.

[ral]

@Horton‌, how deep is the well and what is the HP rating of the pump?

[Horton]

@ral I do not remember. Not my deal. All I knew is we think was can get 900 gal per minute

[MattP]

@"Mateo Vargas"‌ that he does...

[markchilcutt]

Exciting stuff!!!!! Congrats again @Horton!!!

[colo_skier]

@Horton Congrats to the starting of getting the lake surface were it needs to be. Once it's ready to go I may just have to celebrate by trying some more of that great Mexican food in town. Oh yeah may need to ski also. Maybe @MS could fly in and get a set in before you and thus be skiing before you this year.

[Horton]

@colo_skier‌ @Mrs_MS‌ would be welcome. Not so sure about @MS‌

[The_MS]

@Mrs_MS wont show up without me.

[Bulldog]

Nice work John!! Before you know it you will be cutting up your own water!!!

[Horton]

The middle of the lake is more like 13 inches deep tonight

[Stevie Boy]

Just for interest, once the pond is up to the required level, is it necessary to pump every day to maintain the level or is that a unknown, if so what wold be the running cost for the pump, or could it be run from solar power.

[Horton]

No solar. Costs? I am new to this lake so I don't know

[bishop8950]

Our lake is a few hours north and we pump every night in the summer. Electric bill is in the range of $15k a year for the property and most of that is the pump. I don't think the solar ROI made sense but never looked at it carefully myself.

[Texas6]

Pretty sure we paid roughly $4-5K per month when we pumped non-stop all summer two years ago.

[xrated]

Holy crap 15k to keep water!!!!!

[Horton]

the bill for all 6 owners for all the pump electricity and all of the maintenance is about 25k per year total. (math done in my head while driving don't quote me)

[Stevie Boy]

Solar, could work out a lot cheaper in the long run ? surely it would not take much to run the pump, possibly homemade even ?

[Texas6]

@Stevie Boy, I don't know enough about solar to comment - but as you can see by the numbers referenced above, those pumps draw A LOT of power! Might take a small solar farm to provide that much power:)

[bigtex2011]

In my past life I sold a ton of panels in Calif. They have tiered elect usage scale. The more you use, the higher the cost per kw. Solar typically won't work for the pump without a battery bank to start the pump. That being said, solar is pretty handy to bank electricity. If your provider allows, during the day your solar would in essence roll the meter backward(banking) and at night when you use the electricity you would use your bank plus some. Over all your plan would be to lower overall kw usage, thus lowering your bill.

 

thank you goodnight

[klindy]

@Horton now is the time to calculate the volume of water coming out of the pump. You can measure the surface area of what's currently wet and time how long it takes to raise it an inch or two. Some simple math and you'll get your pump capacity. Wait too long (maybe it is already) and you'll have to calculate the dogbone ends, turn islands, etc. The growth in the surface area when the lake is low is negligable to the math.

[Horton]

@klindy‌ lake is 13" deep so.... besides I don't really care the exact output

[Horton]

What @rico said

[ntx]

@Horton‌ We test our well output by how long it takes to fill a 55 gal drum. I know that at 900 gal per min. that is only seconds, but I bet you can get close with a stop watch. Never hurts to have a ballpark number. We test ours ever year to make sure that the pump is still at peak performance and to see if we have issues with water supply.

[Zman]

Just for grins, this chart seems to reflect my experience with lake evaporation in the southeast.

Was in Bama during the drought of 2005-2007, and we were losing about 6 inches per month during the warmer months.

If you don't get rain, you can use the numbers below along with your lake surface area to rough calculate the volume of water you will need to pump.

 

For a 10 acre ski lake, using a loss of 6 inches a month, surface area of 435600 square feet, that is a loss of about 1.63 million gallons. With John's pump adding 900 GPM, that's about 30 hours of pumping, or an hour a day every day.

 

Sound about right?

 

Pan Evaporation Data for Georgia

NOAA Technical Report NWS 34, Mean Monthly, Seasonal, and Annual Pan Evaporation for the US, R. K. Farnsworth and E. S. Thompson, Dec. 1982

 

Estimated monthly values for NWS sites (in inches)

Station

J F M A M J J A S O N D Annual

Athens 2.20 2.66 4.16 5.51 6.43 6.64 6.54 6.36 5.06 4.20 2.99 1.17 55.01

Atlanta 2.12 2.73 4.28 5.78 7.03 7.10 7.07 6.70 5.22 4.14 2.89 2.26 57.13

Augusta 2.18 2.75 4.25 5.66 6.27 6.62 6.49 6.31 5.07 4.19 3.00 2.29 55.09

Columbus 2.05 2.66 4.16 5.51 6.76 6.76 6.10 6.16 5.32 4.35 2.77 2.10 54.91

Macon 2.25 2.92 4.64 6.47 7.85 7.67 7.55 7.14 5.83 4.36 3.03 2.45 62.16

Savannah 2.30 2.87 4.76 6.70 7.62 7.51 7.79 6.83 5.67 4.45 3.06 2.60 61.82

 

[Zman]

Sorry the table did not retain the formatting, but you can still see the month to month evaporation rates.

[Horton]

Evaporation Rates? Stop and look at this photo. 17 inches in and 79 to go

[Nick Sullivan]

Very, very cool. Congrats John, what a dream come true.

[Zman]

@Horton Looking awesome!