On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:07:51 EDT, ~ jan wrote:

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:44:06 EDT, "ReelMcKoi" wrote:


"Galen Hekhuis" wrote in message
. ..
If the pond will not move to me, then I guess I'm gonna have to move
to the pond. Well, I'm not going to really move there, I just got a
building put back there and I'm gonna get AC power back there. The
building is going to be air conditioned, and has sliding glass doors
looking over the pond.........

==========================

Why not buy a used inexpensive travel trailer from Craig's list and pull
it back there?... for less than $3000.

Because than he'd attract tornadoes? ;-) Actually reading Galen entries
sounds like he's got the building w/sliding glass door already. For under
$3K he can spiff it up pretty nice I would think. ~ jan

That 3K is getting soaked up by the cost of getting power out there.
It's only $.50 / foot to have the trenching done, but when you figure
there's 800 feet, that's a fair chunk of change. Then there is the
sheer cost of the cable (minimum of 3 wires heavy enough to carry the
load). It looks like it will be darn close to a grand just for the
cable (the weight of the cable makes shipping costs very important).
Then there are the additional circuit boxes, breakers, etc. As a
retired electrical engineer I thought electrical stuff wouldn't be a
major expense, but I'm not a licensed electrician in this state and
there just aren't that many corners to cut, anyway. Oh well, I've
often said that projects take way more time and money than you
estimate, even if you take that into consideration. This is no
exception.

The back pond has a small spring in it somewhere, I am pretty sure of
this because the water level never drops and a tiny "outflow" creek
never dries up, although when it is dry like it is now, the flow isn't
much more than a garden hose on about 1/2 way. I think now, when it
is dry, the outflow is just fed by seepage from the pond. When it
rains and is wetter, the pond actually flows over the western edge
(kind of a natural spillway) into the stream that flows down to the
Suwannee River. I think (hope) it is the mechanical agitation of the
water (when it is wetter) that helps keep the duckweed in check. That
is a big reason for getting power back there. I have hopes that the
agitation of the water by an aerator will inhibit the duckweed. I
have a pond out front which used to be pretty much covered in
duckweed. A few years ago, I got a backhoe to clear out one side. (It
was a rectangle, about 40x120 ft, surrounded by trees and growth, I
had one of the long sides cleared.) Today, while it still has
duckweed, it is 3/4 - 4/5 clear of it. The time lapse camera told me
why. Although the front pond looks entirely still, when you view it
as a movie where the frames are ten seconds apart you can distinctly
see two almost whirlpools of water which pick up a lot of speed in the
wind. At the back pond, I had a solid blanket of duckweed and almost
no water movement. Now that a wide section of it has been cleared, I
can see east-west water movement (especially when the wind blows). I
think I can also see (wishful thinking?) "stress cracks" on the once
unbroken carpet of duckweed. I don't particularly want to eradicate
it, but I'm hoping the water motion (much like the wind blowing across
the water) caused by the aerator will banish the duckweed to the still
backwaters of the pond, leaving most of it clear.