June, July and August of 2010 has been our driest summer yet - only 5.5" of rain fall for the whole summer! Our big pond was about three feet low when this photo was taken in June. The water plants at the edge of the ponds are high and dry. Water lilies roots that were 2-3 feet under the water were exposed - what was going to happen to all our pickerel plants, yellow iris, cattails. and reeds?  The water lilies roots are out of the water. I tried to move them back into the water with a turning fork so they didn't die, but then had to move them out further again as the water level went even lower.   The water contined to lower five to six inches every day without rain.  The dry sun baked soil looks very ungiving yet the pickerel plant bloomed as it should. Nature continues to amaze us. In the next photo I built this bucket seat to fish from. I placed some stepping stones to stand on so we wouldn't slip on the mud. Just in front of the stones is a water lily that I could not move to keep in the water because their roots were too deep. The pickerel plants are to the right of the bucket above the wet mud line and the yellow iris is that clump just off center of the photo in the grasses that starting growing along the exposed pond edges. They were once 2" under the pond water.  Below is a picture of the big pond after nearly 5" of rain in early October - it was so exciting to see the big pond full again. It had been at least 5 feet low and now it was only 1" from the top of the drain. Isn't it wonderful? For every 1" of rain we got about 1 foot of water in our pond!  While the pond was low I used that opportunity to build a minnow cage in August at the waters edge. The minnows could breed and have a safe hiding place from the bass here. I used two pallets covered with snow fencing and weighed down with stones from the brook. When I started this project the water level was covering the rocks under the pallets, but the water just went lower and lower. There was no place for the minnows to hide anywhere.  For another full month the minnow cage was high and dry and most our minnows were eaten because even the plants were out of water and the minnows had no place to hide from the hungry bass or trout. Then the last day of September we got nearly 3" of rain and the water level finally came up! My Minnow cage was finally under water.  |
