cool - a man-cave with pond.... nice.

"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. While it will be just a shed from outside,
inside I plan on making it a bit more comfortable. Air conditioning
and glass door aside, it is also going to have WiFi access,
refrigerator, microwave, etc. The back section is where I'll put my
batteries and inverter. The whole thing (less air conditioner and
refrigerator) will run off of photovoltaic cells on the roof. I put a
big solar cell array on the top of my electric golf (I've never
played) cart and haven't had to plug it in to recharge in almost a
year now.

Right now the 1/4 acre back pond (where I'm going) is covered in
duckweed. I have a theory about duckweed control that I am going to
get to test as soon as I get power back there. Moving water seems to
inhibit duckweed growth, and I have an aerator in the big pond by my
house (now nothing but a weed infested wet depression) that I'm going
to put down at the back pond. I'm also going to have a pump for a
stream that will just flow back into the pond. I know it's moving
water around for no good reason, but if it helps with the duckweed...

On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:03:38 EDT, "JDS" wrote:

cool - a man-cave with pond.... nice.

I guess. Anyway, I went down there and sat much of yesterday late
afternoon and this morning. There isn't any power yet, so I tend to
hide in an air conditioned spot during the heat of the day. I'd seen
an otter in the pond a few weeks ago, and figured it was just a
visitor or something, but there it was again this morning. It swam
along the bank and poked its head up from time to time to check out me
and the building. There is no way it could have missed me. I wasn't
singing or dancing or anything, but I wasn't trying to be quiet or
hide or anything either. The otter was only about 10 yards from me
and looked right at me, probably snickered, and then went back
underwater. It would poke its head up now and again in other parts of
the pond. I haven't the foggiest what it finds to eat. Stocking the
pond with fish sounds a bit too much like "feeding the otter" for me
to get real excited about that right now. The ducks are kind of
miffed at me for getting rid of the fallen tree trunk they used to
hang out on, but the time lapse camera shows them still swimming
around the other side of the pond. This is what I stared at this
morning.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x.../jul223009.jpg
(I screwed up the date on purpose. Yeah, that's the ticket.) I think
the picture shows off the carpet of duckweed rather well. If my
theory is correct, the duckweed should clear up from the agitation of
the aerator I'll toss in when I get power. I wonder what the otter
and the ducks will think of it? I remember the frogs spent almost two
whole days before they got used to it in the middle pond (now a mere
mud puddle).

Impressive pond. I did not realize how big it was.

Jim

On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:19:43 EDT, Jim Hurley
wrote:

Impressive pond. I did not realize how big it was.

Thanks. It is shaped kind of like New Hampshire. You're looking at
the wide part. It continues way up to the right, but it gets narrower
there, not much more than ten feet across.

I was fussing around this weekend and found a photo of the pond taken
about five years ago, before it was covered in duckweed.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/backpond.jpg

Unfortunately, this is what it looks like now.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x.../jul223009.jpg

but it will be pretty again, I promise.

Wow! If that isn't a perfect illustration to show
the proficiency of duckweek I don't know what is!!

kathy :-)