Category Archives: Rescued Pond

Tadpoles not safe yet.

I took a look at the Rescued Pond today and was surprised how low the water had dropped. The land bridge between the two sides was almost back again.

Land Bridge

The soon to be gone land bridge.

There was only a small chance of rain today and I didn’t want to run the risk of the sides getting split apart and the old side drying out again. The challenge is that there are tadpoles everywhere, so it is hard to do a lot of digging without disturbing or crushing them. Well, better disturbed then dried out so more digging was in order.

All gone

Murky water where the land bridge was removed.

It is hard being deft with a backhoe, even one as little as mine. Overall I thing I did a decent job of not disturbing too much and getting one side of the bridge removed. I don’t like digging in water because I can’t see what I’m doing and I’m sure it isn’t good for the joints. Still I dug down pretty deep so that it won’t have to be dealt with again later.

I still have more digging to do in the pond, but I’ll do that over time so that I’m not disturbing too much at once. Eventually I’ll have another go at making it a lot bigger, but I’ll probably wait until winter when there is less around to disturb.

Also, now that I’ve given the pond a name (Rescued Pond), I created a category for it so the whole story is easier to find.

Lots of water

So we finally got some rain for a few days. Now that’s its stopped raining, I can report that the new work on the little pond has really helped it collect more water. This first shot is from last Wednesday when it had just started raining. The water and tadpoles are moving freely between the two parts of the pond.

Water across bridge

The water level is high enough so that it is even one both sides of the former divide.

The next shot is from today after more rain on Friday and Saturday. Woohoo! The pond is much deeper now. Of course it rained, but if I had not dug the creek it would not be this deep. I think we have enough water to get us through the summer now without me having to use the pump to try and save it. I probably can get water right from here for the gardens without worry.

Water is so deep now, the former divide is barely visible.

Water is so deep now, the former divide is barely visible.

Well, not exactly without worry. There are all those tadpoles in the pond that must not end up in the watering buckets. At least all the pond critters are fascinating to sit and watch.

The family enjoys looking at all the critters in the newly expanded pond.

The family enjoys looking at all the critters in the newly expanded pond.

I apologize for not posting for a few days. I was having technical difficulties with spam comments. I think I have it under control now.

 

Not much water

Well, I was wrong. The hole I dug yesterday didn’t end up with much water in it after all. I hope we get at least the half inch of rain they are predicting for Friday because we really need it.

Not much water in this hole.

Not much water in this hole.

Rather than spend more time digging this pond bigger when I’m nut sure how well it will fill up yet, this evening I worked on the raised beds. I didn’t take pictures though, so that’s for another day. The good news today was that lot’s of the peas are up already. Of course that’s because I’ve been carrying all that water over to them. 🙂

Operation Tadpole Rescue a Success!

The water on the new side has risen so much it is flowing over the bridge.

The water on the new side has risen so much it is flowing over the bridge.

Woohoo. I am going to call this a success for Operation Tadpole Rescue. I still haven’t removed the land bridge, but as you can see in the picture the water has risen enough on the new side to cross over by itself. There is still a little trickle at the other end of the creek, even though it has not rained for quite some time, so I think this will keep the pond as full as it is now most of the time.

Long shot of pond and new creek to feed it

Long shot of pond and new creek to feed it

That’s good news because the original intent of the pond was to have a close by source of water for the nearby garden beds, and that did not work out before this new creek was dug. Now I have water coming in to the pond and might be able to borrow some from the critters for watering. While I have been able to use the pump and 150 feet of hose to get water over there, this will be much easier and less wear on the battery.

Now that the tadpoles seem to be rescued, I can get back to rescuing all the lost ladybugs that overwintered in the house and can’t figure out how to get back out.

Operation Tadpole Resuce Day 2

The little land bridge between the two ponds

The little land bridge between the two ponds

Good news. The new end of the pond filled up nicely. As you can see in the picture of the two together, the new part with the dirty water is a bit higher than the old part.

The creek filled up nicely

The creek filled up nicely

Also the old part did not lose much water. It looked about the same height as it was after I had added more water yesterday with the pump.

Since the old part was doing well and the new water was still rather dirty, I decided to wait another day before digging out the land bridge between the two. Instead I worked on filling the dump trailer with the dirt I had dug up and taking it back to the house for the new raised garden beds.

We’re so lucky to have this sandy loam available in the places where I want to make little ponds anyway. With some added organic matter, it is great for raised beds. I took three loads over to the house. It is quite a process to do that and a lot of work. Maybe some day I will describe it in detail.

This last picture shows some of the critters being rescued by all this work. You can click on the picture to see the full size version and get a good look at the tadpoles. What are those green things in the egg sacs? I don’t know.

A frog, many tadpoles, and many eggs enjoy the pond

A frog, many tadpoles, and many eggs enjoy the pond

Operation Tadpole Rescue

The small pond that needs a rescue.

The small pond that needs a rescue.

One of the advantages of having only a little mechanical assistance in the form of a small tractor is that I can’t make too big a change to the landscape all at once. So when I dig a hole and it fills with water, things around the hole are not so disturbed that there isn’t plenty of nature to take advantage of the little pond rather quickly.

The problem is when the nature moves in and it wasn’t the best place to move in to. I dug this little pond in the middle of one of our garden areas and because it gets good sun in the early spring the frogs have already deposited lots of eggs and now tadpoles in it. However it doesn’t hold water real well, and so if there is a bit of a dry spell, everything will die. That happened last year, and this year there were even more eggs laid in the pond.

So this evening began Operation Tadpole Rescue. Digging a trench from a wet area over to the pond, and digging deeper next to the pond. Hopefully this will supply more water and give greater depth so that the tadpoles don’t dry up. Meanwhile I am also pumping water from another little pond that has plenty of water using a small 12v pump and battery that is charged from solar panels on the garden shed.

Trench to bring water

Trench to bring water

New deep end for pond

New deep end for pond

It looks like water is already beginning to fill the new end of the pond. If all goes well, tomorrow it will be full and I can dig out the remaining dirt between the two. Those tadpoles will then have a much bigger world to explore.

New end and old pond

New end and old pond