The other pond

Weve fenced in a bit more of the pond to  try and discourage the otter(s) , adn the ducks are getting bigger so that is also hopefully a bit of a deterrent.  But we do need a 'Plan B' either if we loose another one or if we get or breed young  ( and small) ducklings .

There is another pond  and there are some pictures from last March of the ornamental pond.

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but on close inspection , all is not well ( ignore the hail - we seem to get a fair bit of hail up here )

 A lot of the timber is rotten and rotting and doesn;t support someones' weight ( how do I know that ?) . So we have decided it is going to come out . The wood, once  its fired out can probably be recycled to the  fire .








But  ducks will need water. We think the pond just fills from run-off from  up the hill a little. Ducks like water and  ideally some that flows. We certainly have a lot of  water at the moment. There is a rivulet   of water that runs  down part of the garden  so the great plan is to divert it into the pond and aid the flow of water into the pond.


Remember days onthe beach building sandcastles and moats and building  walls to channel the water ?

Well it was a bit like that .

 Here's the water  running down the side of the  path .

So about an hour with a spade , and relying on my seaside experience with sandcastles. moats and the tide, the water was diverted

And  over the afternoon the pond filled up a bit more .

But of course water that goes in has ( eventually) to go out.

And it flows over the low point of the pond , on its way to the Bay of Isbister via a  burn or 2  . And round the pond is field. and excess water on the field makes mud  .

So the next job is a runoff for the field  once the drainage channels have been filled in with hardcore and some stones  and the path put back.