Pond, Day 9

Murphy's team worked a short time yesterday, Sunday morning.  The trackhoe had a part with bearings that went bad.  He came back this morning and pulled the part and it gave me an opportunity to talk to him about the pond layout some.  It appears that it'll end up being a good little pond for me and pretty much meets my expectations.  Ivan thinks he'll be back in a couple days, but it's supposed to storm/rain tomorrow heavily.  We'll see how it goes.

With the lack of action today, I took the opportunity to clear out some of the brush behind the pond and piled it up.  I'm going to chip it up in my chipper to put in the landscaping beds.

Pond, Day 7

Guys were busy again today even though it was a Saturday.  Good job.  Enjoy the pics.

Here's another video of the build:

Pond, Day 6

Today, the guys got some good work done.  Very pleased.  Take a look at the pictures!  I would say take a look at my hole, but seems off-putting, eh?  Well, I guess I said it anyway.

I didn't post progress from yesterday, so I'm going to load yesterday's video.

Garden Started and Pond, Day 4

Let's get the pond out of the way first.  Guys started at about 930 and worked for 2 hours or so then nothing.  It appears that the trackhoe had an issue.  Had some stuff to do during the day and when I got back in the afternoon, they evidently got it running again.  So, no pics to speak of today really 'cause the work was limited.

Now, the garden.  I've started seed indoors for tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers today.  I'm using the Burpee planters from last year, except I'm using home-made soil blocks in the trays instead of the preformed pods.  Supposedly, using soil blocks completely eliminates transplant shock associated with pushing them out of the pods.  I made my own soil block maker from leftover pvc I had lying around.  I'll take some pictures and post later once the seeds sprout.  I also started with 3 types of peas, two of them are shell peas and the third is a pod pea (cook the pod as in Asian types of cooking).

Something you should know about this year's garden.  It's really mostly going to go to waste and that's because Gina and I plant to go to New England and the Canadian Maritimes from June through mid August.  But, I've got a bunch of new ideas and techniques I'd like to try.

Pond, Day 3

It's been two weeks since Ivan was here last working on the pond.  We'll just call it weather and move on.  I'm thrilled with the amount of progress today.  I've taken some pics and even some video on the dig progress all during the day.  Below are some from the end of the day.  The camera does not really give you the the true size of the hole, and of course, this is not the finished product.

Here's a vid of the day:

Fish Habitat

Every pond should include fish habitat of some form or another.  If you Google it, there are many versions used from stumps and cinder blocks to old Christmas trees and more.  Modern versions use PVC or plastics.  The reason I went with it was due the long-lasting nature of plastic and because I could develop them in a way to prevent hooks from snagging most of the time.  So, why include fish habitat?  It's simple, protect the little ones and give them a chance to get bigger so that they can reproduce and sustain the pond year after year.

In a traditional pond here in the south, a pond ecosystem includes Large Mouth Bass (LMB) as the preditor, sun fish as the forage (food), and catfish as the cleaner.  In my pond, I'm including specifically the northern strain of LMB, Bluegill, Red Ear Sunfish, and Channel Catfish.  Pretty standard overall, but I'm also considering Tilapia, specifically the Blue Tilapia.  Yep, the same Tilapia you get at restaurants.  Normally, this is an invasive fish and would take over, but here, they will die out come October or November.  Just prior to that, at a certain water temperature, it'll be harvest time.  My reasoning is that these fish not only taste good, but they also grow extremely fast and can finish in one season to edible proportions.  Additionally, they provide LMB with alternative forage fish because they breed multiple times in one season plus the die out of what I can't get to feeds the catfish.  I hope to pull a few and grow in a fish tank over the winter to produce spawn year after year as well.  That's the goal, subject to modification of course.

Here are some pictures of the two I concocted after much research.  This bigger one is a tree-looking contraption almost identical to another guy's design I like.  I'd give credit if I could find it again!  LMB like to congregate around cover so I'll know specifically where they'll hang out.  It should also provide ambush opportunity for unsuspecting forage fish.  I'll partially fill the buckets with concrete and bury the buckets on the bottom in about 6 foot of water.

This one is for the babies and I hope it'll provide protection from the LMB.  I'll weight it down by tying to cinder blocks and bury in about 3 foot of water.

I expect both to cover with algae for a more uniform and camouflaged appearance after some time. The pond has been delayed for weather for 9 days as of today, but when it's complete, I'll place the habitat structures and take another picture to post.

My New Pond

It's been a long time coming and thanks to diligent saving habits, it's finally here:  My New Pond.  Why do I want a pond?  Well, many reasons really including fishing, property value, aesthetics, garden water, emergency water, swimming, and potentially geothermal contribution to a new house heating and A/C system.  I hope to draw in some ducks, geese, and other wildlife as well.  Murphy's excavation is who I chose to dig the pond.  And this is a "dug" pond.  Most ponds actually do not move much dirt.  They are typically built by pulling dirt to dam up a valley or low area.  My land does not have much slope to it at the pond site and that means digging a big hole.  This means more dirt movement and thus more money.  Ivan Murphy and his helper worked last Monday and Tuesday and then we got several days of rain followed by sleet and even snow.  A week later and still waiting on them to return.  In the mean time, here's snapshots of the first two days:

Day 1 ~

 

 

Day 2 ~