The pond

 We had a  quite a lot of rain last winter and one of the 'to-do' job has been mending the pond. 

Quite a lot of  a side of the pond got washed away . 

 

 

 

 

 

So a few stones and a few (!) barrel-loads of soil and  the pond has a side and  the fence posts are hopefully protected from the soil around them being washed away . The plan  , whne the pond is ow next spring/summer is to put a load more soil on the bank, up to the  existing height. If stuff regrows and the roots stabilise the soil and help prevent it being washed away , it should last a few more year.s

 

But we've had quite a lot of rain in the last 24 hours. 

heres the pond as it currently is 

My nice little stone wall  is at the far side of the pond, under about 3 feet of water.

and, for what its worth is the water flowing into the pond. 

  When the rain stops, and the flow decreases , what remains of the wall may reappear.

 

Renovating the pond part 1

Last summer the pond sprung a leak . a bit of patching didnt fix it , and it really looks a bit pathetic.

So the job over the summer is to do something about it.

The water takes a fairly tortuous route to the pond. It runs across the drive

This appeared sometime in 2014 , because its visible here .
It runs across the drive , and then into a pipe

And it  runs down the garden and under a wall

then under a path

and intothe pond.

So diverting the water is easy .

Just a matter of cutting back some (dead) trees

Before 

After 

And making a channel  for the water

Hopefully the pond will empty gradually and then we can see what needs doing

Something must be done

About the ducks. 

They need access to water and they are incredibly messy eaters.
So put 18 ducks in a pen , and some water and some food and you get this

And its not even winter and  its been dry recently. Attempts to improve drainage by adding hardcore and digging channels have failed. The water needs to be  changed every day .

So they are going to be moved to where they will have access to water , so the filling and carrying of buckets wont be necessary. And the bit of land that is the pen will  need some natural drainage


We have another pond  that they use.
 

But it will need a bit of work.

It need to be made otter-proof, so the inlet and out let will need to be suitably meshed

Outlet

Inlet

And then we will need somewhere to put the duckhouses. There is a bit of flat land which will (hopefully) drain if it gets too wet .

The bush in the foreground will have to go.
And the tree that is leaing at  a jaunty 45 degree angle will have to come out as well.
The slope down to the pond will ( hopefully)   provide the drainage.


So a bit of work to do then,   Before the weather gets bad.

the pond

It has been muddy and it still is muddy in places. Its been cold, wet and miserable , and still is wet and we have had, and still have , quite a bit of mud .


We wonder if the pond not filling/draining properly has something to do with a particularly squelchy bit , so  it tiem to sort it out .
first empty it  - just dig out the retaining wall
 

 once that was done, there was  quite a lot of silt in the  bottom of the pond.   So it would need taking out

 Someone has clearly been here before . I found this pie buried next to the pond . I've no idea where it goes - it didnt seem to be carrying anything  from wherever it originates.

And I found the place where water runs into the pond from the bank,


And there is a lot of drainage in the channel that clearly exists for the run-off from the pond.

But im not digging too much of that out.
So  once the silt has been dug out, a drainage channel cleared, its time to put a dam back and see what happens.

Something has been done

this is what it looks like now . And the picture from a few days ago is here


A trench that drains the water into the existing course and the pond and then onwards has dried up a lot of grass.

  So that is a temporary solution. We will need to do something in the longer term . On te other side of the lawn is a ditch - the opinion is that it was dug  to try and control the flow of water down the hill and divert it into the burn.





And i think it has silted up .  That, with all the rain we have had this winter means the grass isnt draining where it was and instead is finding its own way out.  So i think a summer job will be to dig it out a bit .

Bit like the Somerset Levels really .

Archimedes' Screw

Im going to need to get water into the bit that will eventually be used as an allotment/garden . The burn is adjacent but down a few feet , so i need to raise the water. And I thought an Archimedes screw might be the answer . So its time for some experimentation.




The necessary bits:

• a long hollow tube ( plastic for its lightness) . this is 6" diameter ducting 
• some tubing to transport the water . 1 1/2 " plastic pipe
• Ducktape (you cant make anything without ducktape)

And then taped the tube to the outside of the ducting and took it to the pond 

and rotated the top ( replacing it in the notch in the bench each time . 

And water was lifted out of the pond and deposited in a bucket ! 

So the principle is good.

The outstanding problems are :
getting the thing centred on an axle. Ive got length of 2"x 2" timber but it will be too heavy.

fixing it in the burn. Some sort of cone arrangement fixed to the bank ,that the ducting pipe sits on  so that the water pipe dips into the flow  and the ducting pipe to rotate?

Getting it powered. Something wind powered is the obvious source of energy. Attached to the top? Gearing ? Fail-safe so it stops in 70mph winds ?

This pipe is too heavy , so the next thing to try is a length of downpipe.

Water engineering part 2

 The sun is now high enough to get to the 2nd pond, but its still all very wet and muddy - Somerset isn't the only place that has been getting more rain than usual.

 

  

and the pond is filling and draining  - the overflow is coming over the stones, and then disappearing  in a drainage channel  that runs down under the large rock






and the channel that was dug to try and drainthe muddy bit has filled with a bit of water








but the mud is still there and still as gloopy

So  I wondered if the pond was overflowing somewhere else and the water going straight into the  muddy  bit, but on  exploring round the pond directly above the mud  the soil was relatively dry , so its not filling from there.





 So  I think the next step  is to see whats going where with some methylene blue . Add it at the top and see where it comes out.