Miss Nita had a pond that stopped holding water years ago. The property around it had disappeared under debris from an old growing operation – collapsed greenhouse frames, rotting wood, and piles of trees that had been pushed aside and forgotten. The slope between her cabin and the pond had gotten so steep she didn’t bother going down there anymore.
We excavated the pond and lined it with compacted clay so it holds water again. We hauled out 450 cubic yards of debris, burned what needed burning, and regraded the slope so she can walk down to her pond without grabbing onto something. The property went from abandoned to usable.
Miss Nita’s pond had filled in over the years. Buried trees sat at the bottom, and without proper clay lining, water seeped out faster than it collected.
The pond was decoration at best – it didn’t function.The land around it was worse. An old growing operation had left behindgreenhouse structures, debris piles, and years of accumulated junk. Tree piles had been pushed to the edges of the property and left to rot. The slope from her cabin down to the pond had eroded steep enough that walking it felt risky.
She wanted three things: a pond that actually holds water, a property she isn’t embarrassed to look at, and a way to get down to the pond without worrying about falling. She also had specific trees she wanted us to leave alone.
Before we moved any dirt, we walked the property with Miss Nita. She showed us which trees to keep, where the old greenhouse debris was piled, and what she wanted the property to look like when we finished.
We cleared brush and took down trees, but worked carefully around the ones Miss Nita had marked. Those stayed untouched. Everything else got pushed to the burn area.
The old pond was full of buried trees—some had been there so long they were half-decomposed. We dug them out, cleaned the basin down to solid ground, and shaped the bottom and sides for proper water retention.
A pond without a clay liner is a pond that leaks. We sourced good clay from on-site, pushed it into the basin in 6-inch layers, and compacted each layer with the excavator bucket before adding the next. Layer by layer until the bottom and sides were sealed tight. This is what makes the pond actually hold water instead of draining into the ground.
450 cubic yards of old tree piles, greenhouse debris, and accumulated junk. We loaded the dump truck, hauled it to the burn site, and burned it down over several days. Multiple trips, multiple burns, until the property was clear.
The slope from the cabin to the pond wasn't in the original plan—but we saw it during the walkthrough. Too steep for comfortable walking, especially for someone who wants to check on their pond regularly. We cut it back and regraded it to a gentle slope she can walk without thinking about it.
This wasn’t just overgrown land—this was property that had been used hard and then abandoned. Greenhouse frames, rotted lumber, old equipment, and tree piles that had been accumulating for years. Some of it was buried. Some of it was scattered across the property in piles that had become part of the landscape.
We treated it like a reset. Everything that wasn’t a tree Miss Nita wanted to keep came out. The greenhouse remnants, the old debris, the forgotten piles – all of it loaded, hauled, and burned.
— Miss Nita, Northern Oklahoma
Before we moved any dirt, we walked the property with Miss Nita. She showed us which trees to keep, where the old greenhouse debris was piled, and what she wanted the property to look like when we finished.
— Miss Nita, Northern Oklahoma
We provide pond construction services throughout Northern Oklahoma, including:
If you've got a pond that won't hold water, land buried under years of debris, or a property that needs serious work before anyone can use it—we'll walk it with you and figure out what it takes.
