Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Updates from WV

It's been a long time since I've been around regularly, so a big hello to all my friends and the regulars from back then and hello and welcome to the newer folks.

I don't really recall what my last posts were but most of you know we had bought a 30 acre farm in North Central WV back in 2009. We've got two ponds that are still providing a ton of fun but also present some very frustrating weed issues, particularly around this time of year when the curly leaf pondweed has emerged and all but chokes off good fishing. But, not to worry, as Greg Grimes and I are working on some solutions, so we may conquer that in the coming seasons.

The biggest change is that we sold our home in town and moved out here two years ago and I couldn't be happier with the change. The kids love it and my wife and I feel like we've finally gotten what we have been looking for in a home since early in our marriage. I plan to die here, Lord willing, though not too soon (Lord willing on that point, too!). While we didn't build it ourselves, here is a shot of the front of the house.



We've been working towards a greater level of self-sufficiency than we've ever had before and are enjoying the learning experience. I've tackled some building projects that have stretched my experience and skills but have learned a lot and am really enjoying spending time on projects and learning more.

One of our big additions was chickens. We've got four leghorns and four Rhode Island Reds that give us no less than 6-8 eggs every day since we've had them. I opted to build the coop myself and then later added an enclosed run for days we don't let them free range. Building those was a challenge for me but having them under my belt has given a lot of confidence that I can tackle most jobs that we'll have arise around here.









And one showing the run.



This year we also expanded our garden. We've got raised beds as the soil here isn't great after the place was strip mined a couple times in the past century. The beds produced really well last year and are doing great this season in the new location. You can see the old enclosure behind the shed in the last photo. We moved the four original beds and added four more this year with a new, more permanent enclosure.



And from the side.



The structure in the center will be a little two shelf "shed" for convenience when picking things and will give us a place to store baskets, small garden tools, etc. I'll likely also add a tall stand for a rain barrel (the black barrel in the first photo).

We've also had some pretty darn good fishing. We never fished the larger pond a lot for a variety of reasons, but in the past few years we started taking a canoe out on it and discovered it had some fantastic LMB. Now we know we can catch nice ones off the dam during the pre-spawn and spawn periods without having to put the boat in. Here are few of the best fish.

Our son with one just a few days ago.



Here's one I caught the same day.



And one our middle daughter caught about a month ago. She refused to hold the fish but said she'd stand behind it! She's an amazingly patient fisherman and will stay at it longer than the rest of us want to. If I could just get her to take her own fish off the hook!



And a nice one I caught last fall.



There are plenty of smaller LMB and BG, too, but these were the highlights for now.

I also worked with a good friend who is an amazing fabricator to take an idea given to me by Catmandoo a few years ago and we developed a pretty neat FEL attachment for getting algae out of the ponds near the pond edge and which also allows me to essentially dredge about 8-10 feet of the pond bottom nearest the edges.



We started with my pallet forks and drilled a 5/8"j hole near the end of each. My buddy fabricated two sleeves that he welded onto the bottom a quick hitch to basically give it feet. The feet were then drilled to match the holes in the forks and the quick hitch slides onto the forks and I pin it in place.

We then took a piece of gas pipe and two couplings to fabricate the top link connecting the hitch to the fork attachment. He made a bracket, welded it to the fork assembly, drilled holes, and then welded the couplings to each end of the pipe. That is then pinned in place to the hitch. Finally, I attached my 7' wide rake to the quick hitch and, voila, the pond bottom dredger is ready to rock.



This has helped not only get rid of a pretty big amount of FA, but also cleared out all the chara and pondweed around a large portion of the small pond's perimeter. The larger pond's banks are too steep and inaccessable to use it there, but it also has much less of an issue with vegetation once the pondweed dies off for the year. I'm hoping to see some long term impact on the small pond along with the other plans Greg Grimes and I are working on, but as has been said here before, effecting real change in a pond takes a while for results, kind of like steering a big ship.

Anyway, that's it for now. Hope you guys enjoy the update. I look forward to posting more often!