Implementation Diary

July, 2006

Day 1 Assessed the land and took many, many pictures for a visual starting point. Collected bags and bags of seeds from the garden for the new earth berms to be.

The Gate Pond has grown in over the years and the edges need clearing out.	The future driveway will be behind this little tree. The Rock Pond will be dug in front of the outcropping it grows on.	The old chicken yard gate is inaccessible because of growth of blackberries and grass.

Day 2 Thirty-eight chickens arrived out of the blue, and are housed temporarily in very tight quarters near the house while we take two days to make a chicken yard, and re-constitute the chicken house to accommodate an expected 98 birds.

The old field has been mowed so we can see where the Alder Pond will be dug.	With more mowing, we found the old Chicken Pond beginnings and bullrushes in this thicket.	A path to the chicken house, new nesting boxes, and lots of canary grass bales will revive this Chicken Palace.

August, 2006

Day 4

Completed the "shopping list" of trees and plants and seeds that are needed to make a synergetically good start. Made a list of those that are available for fall planting in several nurseries in the bio-region.

Day 5

Booked a big digger for the 24th, put a call in to the community Copper Kettle group for labourers for the 7th, checked availability of seeds and plug trays of transplants, purchased plastic! chicken wire for finishing the winter chicken yard, completed making 18 nesting boxes, put in posts & gate for new access to market garden space, collected more seed from the gardens. Busy day.

The chickens will make short work of this overgrowth over the winter.	This is the first tree to become a fence to make way for the Plum Pond.	Lots and lots of seeds here.

Day 6/7

Walked the site again to imprint the waterways. Marked all the small trees that need to be removed to make the ponds, waterways and orchard space.

Day 8

Last night in the clear light of an almost-full moon, the rest of the chickens arrived, so this morning we had to complete the last of the fencing before their breakfast (and ours).

Day 9

These tired old fence posts will be saved for bee boxes.	Small copse removed to make room for orchard arboretum.	Plum and old Christmas trees before the "clearcut".

The Copper Kettle community work crew of six arrived to begin our token clearcut! One nearly dead ornamental plum tree, a number of overgrown Christmas trees, and the alders that are growing in our potential spring water were cut for firewood and fence berm.

Day 10

Today the alders and willows around the Gate Pond came down and we found water and a grand view of the water lilies in the cleared space at the north end. The big balsam that had the girth of a 70 year old was only 23 years old when the half-inch rings were counted. The Gate Pond provided the nourishment for that amazing growth.

Day 11/12

Clean-up days.

Five cheerful workers from the Copper Kettle Community Partnership packed and dragged all the brush out.

Day 13 - 14

Resting days for the land and the chickens and us.

Day 15

Marked where holes are to be dug for trees and what plants/trees are to be moved.

Day 19

Digging begins. Terry with his small tractor did some preliminary work to make ready for the waterworks digging next week.

Day 25 - 26

Eureka! We discovered water. See it glistening on the side of Alder Pond?	Plum pond complete with a safe island for the ducks.	Four inches of water over night, and still coming.

Within an hour of starting the first signs of water became a trickle and we discovered we have tapped a water stream rather than a water spring. Alder Pond was finished on the morning of the second day of digging and is slowly filling up. Plum Pond is fully dug waiting for a layer of clay to be applied to the lower side. We'll leave it all for a couple of days now for the land to rest.

Day 27

The flow continues. Four more inches of water overnight resulting in about four feet of water so far.

September, 2006

Day 31

Four new ponds with water appearing in three; only expected in two. Additionally, a fifth pond, the Gate Pond, never more than winter water, now has its own source flowing in, even faster than the other three new ones. The ditches are complete for now. The first trees have been planted. Kerry can dig dirt out of a tea cup! We rest.

Day 45 - 50

The berms will be beautiful next spring! One hundred new daffodils, thirty feet of Chinese lanterns, a hill of cat nip, a native Common Witchazel thicket, a sylphium forest , and lots of deer-proof plants such as rose campion, foxglove, feverfew, rhudbekia, Drucena, and California poppy surround the parking lot saying WELCOME!

Up the driveway and over the top of Alder Pond another hundred or so daffodils, a jungle of deer-proof self-seeding annuals, some lavender, several rhudbekia and sylphium, a choke cherry and another thicket of native red twig dogwood share space with a couple of dozen rhubarb plants. Can you see it?

And just in case the deer decide they like some of the things they have by-passed so far, we have put down a roll of page-wire fencing in front of the berms--flat on the ground--on top of thick straw mulch. When we have an extra moment we will raise this up about six inches on pegs to hold it in place. We hear that deer don't like to walk in obstructions such as this. The fence has been laid out for two days now, and so far there are no deer or sheep foot prints beyond it. What a great solution, and not at all unsightly!