I don't post often but wanted to weigh in here. For me it�s like this; I grew up playing at the two ponds that are now part of my 8 acre property. (1/4 acre and 3/4 acre) They are on the west end of what was my grandparents 40 acre farm, and as soon as I was old enough, and knew how to swim well enough for mom and dad to trust I wouldn�t drown, I would spend my spring/summer days, alone or with friends, at the "Back lakes" (the name my mother gave the ponds because they were a few hundred yards behind my parents house). I had told my parents since I was old enough to talk that I would build my house at the Back Lakes, which I did about 16 years ago. I have always had a fascination with bodies of water and as many here have said, that feeling doesn�t go away with age. Every time I pull into my driveway, which winds around the bigger pond, my workday stresses melt away and I�m a kid again.
After 43 years, I still marvel at the sight of a school of minnows darting about in the shallows, or watching a snapping turtle lumber its way from one pond to the other, or hearing the violent splash of a bass grabbing its fleeing dinner. It�s just, along with my wife and kids, a major source of happiness in my life
I�m actually not that much of a fisherman. (My wife, on the other hand is. That�s her thing and why she loves the ponds as much as I, if in a slightly different way). I do enjoy fishing, and fish my ponds quite a bit, but it�s not really a passion. To me it�s more like something to do as I absorb the tranquility of my ponds and enjoy a good meal to boot. (I am blessed with slab bluegill that can fill a skillet after mere minutes of fishing.)
I sometimes will drive by a property that boasts a big beautiful house with a couple brand new cars, plenty of acreage, and a pond-friendly layout and wonder how anyone with enough money and land could choose by their own free will not to have a pond. It�s a foreign concept to me. I guess us Pond Boss folk are just a bit of a different breed. Lucky for us.


Last edited by Ponduke; 05/09/11 04:43 PM.