Hello dear friends, today I wanted to share photos from one of those projects that was not really on our agenda earlier this year but then suddenly was! This is a picture of Lake Ophelia which is not really a lake, but our farm pond. We originally had this pond built about 20 years ago to help drain water from one of the hay fields. At the time the pond about 150 feet long by about 75 feet wide and about 10 feet deep. Over the years our pond has become home to many different frogs as well as the goldfish that we used to keep in our waterfall garden then would relocate to Lake Ophelia each fall. Having a large pond is such an educational experience. The large numbers of frogs that live here mean that our pond is healthy. Birds can be seen visiting regularly. Several years ago our pond was the subject of a research project into water quality being done at the University of Guelph. The goldfish that we would relocate each fall have multiplied and now we have schools of them.
Over the years bull rushes appeared around the edges of the pond. Bull rushes can help to purify water and also provided cover for many of the birds that would come to the farm to drink. Frogs could frequently be found between the stalks of the bull rushes, and we were told that over the winter the stalks that protruded from the ice allowed the fish to receive oxygen by ensuring that the pond did not completely freeze over. In the last few years though these bull rushes have become very established and by this year they had taken over the pond, soaking up the water and obscuring the views. The bull rushes posed another problem which was to provide cover for the coyotes that sometimes prey on our sheep.
So this year we have taken action and hired a contractor that is experienced in building ponds to help fix up this area.
Here is a view of the pond from late summer. The tracks are made by the sheep that like to go to the pond to drink.
In order to prepare, we had to drain the pond which we did with a heavy duty pump. It took 3 days to empty the pond and the water was dispersed over our hay field.
We wanted to save as many of the gold fish as possible. As the water levels dropped eddies formed allowing us to catch the fish. We moved the fish to our waterfall pond until we can move them back to Lake Ophelia again later in the fall.
Before the excavation started we dug up some of our irises so we could transplant them later.
The contractor used an excavator, a bull dozer and a rock truck. About 18 inches of sludge was removed from the bottom of the pond and deposited onto the surrounding hay fields. The bull rushes were dug up and the sides of the pond were dug out and sloped properly. The bull dozer was able to do much of the grading although we had a run of wet weather after the initial excavation so were not able to finish the final grading.
Of course we imagined how much fun it would be to have this kind of equipment here at the farm all the time!
It only took a couple of days for water to start seeping into the newly dug pond.
I was also worried about the frogs. The excavator operator assured us that as he removed each scoop of dirt and silt he could see the frogs hopping off in all directions.
The sheep were a little confused. What happened to their old watering hole? What is is this great big hole?
Now we need to patiently wait for Lake Ophelia to fill up again. We expect it will take until next spring for the water levels to rise above 10 feet. Even though the weather was perfect for the contractors working on this project we have had lots of rain since and haven't been able to finish the grading or seeding the area. Since this construction was done in mid-September we have had rain every week and now the area is saturated. The pond is starting to fill up fairly quickly but the surrounding dirt is now so wet we won't be able to finish the grading until the spring.
I took this photo with my phone and you can barely see the heron in the distance.
For those of you that follow our farm stories you will know that we are easily distracted by new projects! We are so excited about the new and improved Lake Ophelia and cant wait to landscape and finish the area. The irises have been replanted and we will add some other bird and bee friendly plants as well as some native trees. We will be fencing the area off to protect it from the sheep and plan to build a tiny lake house. We have already started working on a dock and will have great fun paddling around in our canoe. When finished this will be an extension of the property we have around the farmhouse.
In the meantime, we enjoy dreaming about this area from our chairs in our grove.
Thank you for visiting our blog! Wishing everyone a safe week.
