This is an old photo. I am down in the bowl of the lakebed. That's the dam looming up on the right. Clearly it was just built for it is as bare as a baby's bottom (i.e., no plant growth). The treadmarks of the dozer are visible in the ice on the bottom of the lakebed. (It was a wet bottom.) This was a sunny but probably cold day in a January a few years ago. From the angle of the shadows, I'd say it was cold January mid-morning a few years ago. It's that white thing on the right that is the subject of this post, though. I haven't seen it in a long while, and that is a good thing. That white drum is the drain at the lowest point of Lake Marguerite. It is a standard 55-gallon drum (made of some sort of plastic) with about a zillion one-inch holes drilled in it. If you look closely, you can see a white pipe leading out of the bottom of the drum on the right. This pipe continues under the dam, is interrupted by a valve at the bottom of another drum partially buried in the other side of the dam, and emerges from the soil to appear in the pecan plantation. This is how I can drain water from the lake if I wish. The holes are large enuf to allow water and collected silt to pass through, but they are small enuf to prevent lunker bass and catfish from getting washed away. (The plan didn't work too well for these fellows.) Why would I want to drain water out of my lake, you ask? Maintenance is the most likely reason. When the shoreline is overcome with cattails, I can draw down the water level until the cats are high and dry. I can then dig them out or simply allow them to dessicate. When we had the follow-up work done on the dam, we drained the little bit of water that was in the lakebed so the dozer could work down in there. Also, if I have a full pool (when I have a full pool!) and I know a serious storm is coming that will drop a load of rain, I could draw down the water in anticipation so that the spillway isn't overcome and washed out. There is also the chance that when we finally know the lake will hold -- because we have sustained a full pool -- we will want to drain out every last drop of it. If we will stock it with free fish from the Conservation Department, we have to guarantee that there are no existing fish in the lake (aside from feeder minnows). As regular readers of this humble blog already know, Lake Marguerite has established two separate populations of fish without our participation. The second of those populations is hunkered down in the bottom right now, waiting out the Ozark winter. (That does seem like a heartless solution to my random fish problem, and maybe I will forego the free fish and simply buy stock from a commercial fish farm.) All Pablo needs to do is go to the partially buried drum on the pecan plantation side of the dam, work the lid off (the settling of the dam has misshapen the drum more than a little), reach into the dark depths (possibly filled with seepage), feel around for the valve handle, and give it a 90-degree turn. Water will come surging out of the business end of the white pipe, pushing rocks out of its way and gouging a fresh trench in the earth. The water, even on the hottest August day, will be icy cold (because it will come from the bottom of the lake). It may be brownish because it may be carrying silt that has accumulated in the lowest part of the lakebed, but it will soon run clear. Pablo can then close the valve when he wishes, and all will be right with Roundrock again.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 1:39 am and is filed under Dam!, Lake & Pond. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.