Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat It's that time of year...Christmas Trees N-2 Pond?

Ok thanks for the explain. Sounds pretty neat.

I was just curious...do your Christmas trees lose their needles pretty quick once in the water?...I was wondering how long the cedar trees would keep their "leaves" or whatever they are called on the cedar tree branches.

Needles. Depending on their condition upon entry to the water the needles will be gone in a few weeks.

I added 10 Christmas trees to my 1.5 acre pond this past weekend. I scrapped the whole brake rotor idea and picked up 10 cinder blocks.

I placed one under each side of my bridge spanning between the two post in 3-4' of water, used zip ties to hold them to the post. One under each corner of my dock, I drilled a hole in the end of the trunk and zip tied a cinder block to it, then zip tied the top to the corner post just under the water surface so they are leaning at an inward angle.

I took two short ones (6') and drilled through the trunk and zip tied them to each side of one cinder block where they stand up in a V shape. I placed them where the 4' water drops off to 8-10' coming out of the cut to the bridge where just the tip is sticking out the water. I then took the remaining 4 and zip tied a cinder block to the middle of the trunk on each one so they will lay flat and placed them in a line running just above the drop off from the corner of the island to the two that are standing.

I'm not sure if any of that makes any since, but that is what I did.

Had a good day at the pond today before more rain hit.

We sank 5 decent size cedar trees for fish cover.

First we had to get a buddy un-stuck from the mud:


Next it was Texas Chainsaw Massacre time:
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y273/It...zps6f6f8eea.mp4

And then 5 of these puppies w/cinder blocks went into pond.



We'll do more over the next few weeks/months.

Those are big trees. So far I have less than half of mine in.

Eric it was almost comical out there.

We learn each time, but yes the 10 foot jon boat was very taxed...
with two 45 year old plus "teenagers" in the boat and the tree
mostly hanging off the back.

BTW....I think owning a pond and some property might very well end
up finally getting me in decent phyiscal shape which I have sorta lacked for years.
I'm wore out tonight in my recliner sipping on my Southern Comfort & Coke.

Mark, y'all hit the weather right. Temp's dropped 30 degrees since 5, and it's hailing here right now.

You seriously need to let me take pics next time y'all put cedars that big in a 10' Jon boat.

So Davy Jones locker is looking a little bit like Christmas!!

I bet the fish will love it!

Mine are floating tied to posts. A beaver is causing problems.

Al we've had a drought for years & the 2.5 weeks since the guy came down from
Colorado to build our mini-log cabins our propery has been a mudhole!
But it's all good...the rain is very good for the ponds.


Ha Ha...it's really kind of nuts...but what the heck....
you saw the pic from last week?
The trees were larger today..plus they were wet and muddy..HEV-Veeee!

Mark if your building stuff will keep the rain coming, I'll pay for you a shed! It's been great these last few days to actually see some new water hit North TX.

But he has to use wood pegs to assemble the shed!! That should add a week or so.....

He got a quote yesterday from a father/son carpenter team...
$400 per hour!
Yes you are reading that correctly...$400 an hour.
I hope we can do better than that!
Or we may end up instead in a pop-up trailer.
Wow...

For framers, or cabinet guys? Either way that's a tad rich for my blood.

Take it slow with the sub guys, they will take a shot at a perceived city guy. So a month researching subs up front, may save you months and money down the road.

I'm still checking for you Mark.

Sometimes I feel so stupid. Eric I had never even thought about providing beaver forage with Christmas trees before you posted this.

I think I'm down to one Beaver. All the others have been removed. I left this one active hut alone, because I didn't want him moving to somewhere else. Far easier to trap this way.

All the other old huts have been opened from the top, so they'll flood this Spring, and I think I'm getting close to having this problem solved, for now. As potential new beavers come in, I'll be better equipped to jump on them quickly, since I'll know it's new damage.

This hut is right on the end of George's Point, and the small CNBG constantly gang up around it. They seem to love the random, natural nature of the limbs around the hut. There's a lesson in structure placement there for me. Shallow, random, natural.

Beavers don't prefer conifers to eat or chew on, but if a softwood or hardwood pole is used, it's fair game.

If they are eating or chewing on conifers they're really, really hungry.

They really don't eat the wood, they eat the cambium layer of tree bark.

Scott, I caged almost all my oaks because of bark damage, and these crazy beavers started girdling my Pines, Cedars, Willows(Yea!), and Bald Cypress. I'm beginning to think it's a battle of will's, and I'm finally starting to get control.

I was negligent far to long, and I paid the price for it.

Brian wanted a Cliff Notes type primer on traps, so I'm bringing down a sample. 330, 220, 110 and a couple of old style leg hold traps. I don't have any of the new ones with laminated or padded jaws.

Beavers are like other rodents, they have to chew constantly to keep their teeth worn down. My buddy down there had to do the same thing on his larger pond when the water rose 4' a couple of years ago, the beavers were starting to chew on his large Oaks - trees that were 24"+ across. He wasn't happy......

Good idea, and I'll love seeing Brian try to set a 330.

Beaver's are like weeds to me. Weeds are the perfect plants, and can survive places more refined plants would die in. Bare Earth? A weed grows, not St Augustine. Beaver's do the same. They are survivors.

I heard that!!

And you are welcome to watch!!


Perhaps we will video tape the lesson!

Traps are in the car. I'll drop off the dog in the morning, then pack the car and hit the road.

These beavers are nuts. They will chew the line off and drag a tree off to eat. They eat pines (xmas) trees first over all others except gum trees. Water is way up so hard to trap.

Two other helps are tinfoil around the trunk and spray paint. These beaver will stay away from those. They are hard to trap - they stay away from any metal.

Wait a month and get 'em in castor mound sets made on shore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRfvxiUpDg

Good vid. Have not tried that yet. Scent is next or maybe high speed lead.

With that type of set they can't see the steel. You can also make it with a 330, but they can see the steel then.