Spent the weekend at the farm. Taught Patty how to use the zero-turn mower, which she had a blast with. I set her up with a small rectangle to mow and she ended up mowing the whole place, about 7 acres of grass in all. She had the noise canceling headphones on and was evidently singing out loud the whole time.
That night we had one heck of a bonfire!
Finally have the contractor engaged and onsite to dredge the pond, install a proper overflow pipe, and repair the dam. It is still slow going as he’s trying to get the pond drained as much as possible so he can get his equipment into the pond without getting stuck. So far he has installed the pipe and riser but has left the ‘tee’ at the bottom open so that water will drain through the pipe instead of continuing to erode the dam. Once he gets a little further we’re going to have a dock installed where the overflow pipe is right off of the dam. Should be a pretty darn nice pond once its all done.
Dam cut before pipe installation
Overflow riser pipe from the side
Overflow riser from the current top of the dam
Trench dug from the stream feeding the pond around the island
Below are pictures from my game camera of the local wildlife.
Mama, Papa and baby geese
Bear
Young bear?
Mr Fox
The Pack on the hunt
Deer on a cold morning
Coyote on the prowl
Bobcat
Bobcat returning with its dinner
Troupe of Turkeys
Turkey
Tom Turkey giving a show
Bullfrog in the barn pond
Buck with antlers just starting to grow
Fawn
Doe and Fawn
Egret poking its head in front of the camera
Two river otters (right side of pic)
Turkey vulture ‘recycling’ groundhog