Catchin' Up

It has been a crazy time at our house.  We were in charge of the Boy Scout Garage Sale.  It was a great success but we didn’t get anything done around the property.  The ponds aerator is working wonderfully.  We have had some warm weather and we have a lot less algae than I think we would have had without it.  We have about 10 Mallard Ducks, one Snowy Egret, and one Great Blue Heron that are living here. The ducks really are enjoying our cleaner water it is amazing watching them dive.  One morning I spent about 5 minutes watching a heron fishing then I realized it was moss hanging from a tree in the shape of a heron. 

We finally got the solar charger hooked up to the electric fence but it has not been long enough to see how well or even if it works.  We are starting to be able to pet Hope and the steers while they are eating.  She still is skittish but she is getting friendlier. We have plans to put in more fencing: new pastures and finally get the property fenced.  We have an area of the property that is about an acre, it is cut off from the rest of the property by a drainage ditch that becomes a raging creek when it rains.  I think our next big project will be to build a bridge to that area and turn it into a pasture.  

We need to move the sheep’s daytime area but have been too busy and I am not sure where we are going to move them that isn't in a coyote runway that I can set up the temporary fencing around and has a lot of things for them to eat.  We have been letting the sheep roam between the house and the pond when we are home.  The cats have a wonderful time stalking the sheep.  

Installing the Aeration System

Sunday morning Darling Husband fixed the electricity going down to the pond and started hooking everything up to aerate the pond.  The aeration system pumps air into the bottom of the pond and circulates oxygen helping to break down toxins in the water and making a healthier environment for the fish and without so many toxins the hope is we will not have as much for the algae to feed off of.  Some old ponds will have such a bad problem with oxygen depletion that the pond will have the fish die because of lack of oxygen.  This happened to the pond right before we moved here and it is something we work to avoid every summer. 

The pump is plugged in down by the well we have that doesn’t work.  (it is on the to do list somewhere between 140 and 400 – should be happening soon) Then the air line goes down to the pond, 

 When it gets to our bridge it splits into 2 lines so it runs on each side of the island.  Then weighted air hose goes into the pond connecting the air pump to the diffusers and our goal was to put one diffuser at the deepest spots on both sides of the pond.  We didn’t buy enough weighted air hose so ended up using some air line we already had and still do not have the aeration diffusers as far out in the pond as we were hoping.  We will probably switch the air line to PVC pipe, still thinking on it.  Then we can use our existing air line to put the diffusers out further into the pond.  (That job is probably 75 on the list.)

We had the sheep out all day enjoying eating outside of the area that has the electric fence again.  They were much more adventurious than they had been the day before.  They ate between the pond and the house and they decided they love my lawn.  Those lovely sheep spent most of the day fertilizing and mowing my lawn.  UNTIL they became

 THE HUNTED

After a while the kittens decided that grasshoppers were easier prey and gave up their dreams of bringing down a sheep.  

Cleaning the Pond

Last May we rented an Excavator and had a friend use it to dredge out the pond.  We took out so much pond muck we had a dump truck work for 5 hours hauling what was taken out of the pond into one of the pasture areas.  At that point we had not decided to buy sheep or cattle so we didn't need the pasture.  The pond was beautiful for about 2 weeks then the moss started coming back.  In the middle of summer cat tails started popping up around all the shallow areas.  We had been looking into ways of controlling the algae and moss and ick problem.  We tried barley hay and saw no results.  We tried chemical and microbiological treatments still no or little results, dies seemed to slow the growth down but one of the times we put too much die in the pond and turned the pond a beautiful midnight blue we couldn't see the fish anymore and nether could the birds.  So after spending hundreds of dollars we decided to make the big purchase of an aeration system.  We WANTED a windmill aeration system, having a working windmill seems so romantic and ranch like.  But it is too expensive and we worried we might not get enough wind when the system is needed the most – hot still summer days.  We decided on an electric motor. 

This weekend we finally had all the supplies to put the aeration system in the pond.  We started Saturday with pulling out the moss, algae, and cat tails.  We started with trying to get the algae growth from the bottom of the pond using an old guardrail we have had around the property attaching chains to it and pulling it across the pond.  This plan was a huge success.  So much of a success we bent the guardrail in half and lost all the algae we had caught with it.  So we started pulling the algae by hand.  Thankfully Teen Boy had a board friend who came and help.  Thank goodness for this friend he is always happy to help.  The boys pulled 8 boatloads of algae out of the pond. 

  Darling Husband pulled cat tails out of all the edges of the pond we could reach.

  Since we were working outside all weekend we allowed the sheep to just wander and eat were they wanted to.  For most of the day they were content to eat in the areas we all ready had them penned in.  I guess they were comfortable there.  As the afternoon was ending they went into their pen and waited for us to close it up.