1994: Watching My New Pond Come Alive

     In the fall of 1993, I took a gamble and hired a man with a Caterpillar bulldozer to dig a pond in what was my pasture.  I wanted to create wildlife habitat.  I wasn’t sure how it would all work out, but I was willing to give it a try.  Surprisingly, over that winter the big hole that had been dug in my pasture, slowly filled with water, topped by ice and snow.  By March of 1994, my  pond was fully filled and water had begun to flow out of the overflow.  I anxiously awaited all of its ice to melt.

    Once the ice was gone I was surprised at the turquoise-color of the water, caused by the bare clay at the bottom.  It was a beautiful color, but I urgently wanted to get some aquatic plants growing in the pond.  I gathered local cattails and spread their fluff on the water, hoping that their seeds would grow, and they did.  I also gathered some long water lily tubers that I saw floating at Horseshoe Lake and stuck them under water in he mud, hoping they would grow, and they did.

    All of the caterpillar work on the newly built dam remained bare ground, and so I seeded grass and spread some of my goat manure lightly over the seeds, to hold moisture so the grass seeds would germinate and grow.  

    I eagerly walked around the pond every day to monitor what was happening.  I was overjoyed to see some aquatic insects taking up residence on the pond.  The first ones I saw were boatman bugs with their beetle-like bodies and long rear legs that acted like oars as they paddle along the surface of the water.  Then days later, I saw water striders, spider-like insects with long spindly legs that allowed them to walk and stride across the surface of the water.

    I had no clue where those insects came from or how they arrived, but I was happy to see them take up residence in my newly built pond.  Since this was the beginning of the ponds first year, I wondered what those insects were eating, because nothing was growing in the pond yet.

    What I really wanted to see was some bigger wildlife, and happily, they were soon to come.

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