The Other Story

The other day I mentioned our pond and said that was another story.  Well, here it is.  This is Angel, the same day Herb was making dirt--getting a drink from what's left of our pond.

No, it's not the heat . . .

In Feb. 2009, we had the pond enlarged while digging up dirt for a new dam to replace the old, broken, leaking dam.  This is what the pond looked like in May after plenty of rain.  Just beyond the big green tree at left you can see a log laying along the water's edge.  If you look at the picture above, you can see the log high and dry at the feet of the trees.  Where has all the water gone?

Here's a hint:  I took this picture the same day I took the one of Angel.  It shows most of the grass burned dry in the heat, but a strip of green grass growing lushly.  The green grass is not in the run-off bed from the pond; that's where you see the tall weeds.  The lush grass is growing over an underground stream, and that's where our water is going.  It seeps out the bottom of the oldest part of the pond and goes under the new dam and all the way down the property.  When there's enough water in the pond to overflow into the run-off creek, I've actually seen the fall of water disappear underground, leaving the run-off creek dry!

That's another project, some day:  Rent a Bobcat some time when the old part of the pond is dry and dig down to try to find the leak so we can stop it up.  That's on our Long Term Goal list!