John- 5� acres is a lot of work! Fortunately, the original family was thoughtful in their land use and left about � the property untouched. As our needs are different than our neighbors (cattle ranchers), we have the luxury of continuing that original plan. We have a lot of cleanup and some selective thinning (removing diseased and dead trees) ahead, though, as it looks like the property was neglected for the past few years. We�ll also be re-digging/cleaning out a couple of small stock tanks (.15 acres, .2 acres) that we discovered on an old satellite picture as they are now shallow depressions (silt runoff?). There is also a � acre tank that the last owner dug that I am not sure what to do with as he dug it mid way on a hillside on the high side of the property. I am not sure what he was thinking as there isn�t much watershed in that area and it looks like something from an unnatural depiction of the lunar landscape. We�ll figure it out, though..
If the cattails get out of control or you decide to go with another plant, would you be open to goats? I�ve used goats for 20+ years to do selective thinning/clearing and have been happy with the results. I don�t know if you�re familiar with them, but they are rugged, quick, able to access areas that are either too steep or too thickly overgrown for conventional methods, and will re-seed and fertilize the area if you add your seed to some grain and feed it to them. The limiting factor is seed size � the seed must be small enough to pass thru rather than being digested). Best of all, they can be trained with a minimal amount of effort to respect a hot net and their manure resembles a juniper berry (no cow pies to worry about). Although I�ve not used them for cattails personally, cattails are on their �candy� list. Just a thought�
Thank you for the pole information � I updated my notes. I am curious to see how your pond evolves. Will you keep us updated? Many thanks!
