I feel quite honored that my tortoise partner, who lives in Pennsylvania, is coming to help me dig out my pond in a month or so. He had planned to spend his two-week vacation in South Africa looking for tortoises in the wild, but is now coming to help me! Whoo-hoo!! The pond's problem has been weighing heavily on my mind this past summer.
Originally, when my daughter and her family lived here, my son-in-law had a friend with a back hoe come over and dig out a big hole in the ground. Then my son-in-law pounded some cement-form stakes into the ground all around the edge of the hole, and nailed 2x8's all around, making an edge. This has worked fine for about 15 years, however, the wood is now rotting and some of the boards are free floating. An exposed bank and turtles don't go together well, and my pond is slowly sinking into the sunset!
Here you can see the rotten wood out by the water, and how the bank is eroding in behind the wood.
I've dug it out before, so the digging part of the equation wasn't troubling, but in the past, the banks weren't eroded, and that part was boggling my mind. What was I going to do? How was I going to stabilize the bank?
It took a phone call with my partner, William, to help me see the forest for the trees. He reminded me that I have hundreds of cinder blocks behind the old house on my property. This would be a permanent fix. What a relief! Funny I couldn't see that solution on my own.
Miss Phrynops and Miss pond turtle thinking to get a treat:
In this picture, compare the size of the turtle with the pot next to her. That is a 5 gallon pot. She's a giant! (giantess!!)
Originally, when my daughter and her family lived here, my son-in-law had a friend with a back hoe come over and dig out a big hole in the ground. Then my son-in-law pounded some cement-form stakes into the ground all around the edge of the hole, and nailed 2x8's all around, making an edge. This has worked fine for about 15 years, however, the wood is now rotting and some of the boards are free floating. An exposed bank and turtles don't go together well, and my pond is slowly sinking into the sunset!
Here you can see the rotten wood out by the water, and how the bank is eroding in behind the wood.
I've dug it out before, so the digging part of the equation wasn't troubling, but in the past, the banks weren't eroded, and that part was boggling my mind. What was I going to do? How was I going to stabilize the bank?
It took a phone call with my partner, William, to help me see the forest for the trees. He reminded me that I have hundreds of cinder blocks behind the old house on my property. This would be a permanent fix. What a relief! Funny I couldn't see that solution on my own.
Miss Phrynops and Miss pond turtle thinking to get a treat:
In this picture, compare the size of the turtle with the pot next to her. That is a 5 gallon pot. She's a giant! (giantess!!)
I'm sure it'll turn out great
