{"id":1418,"date":"2023-01-11T19:53:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T01:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2023-01-13T18:22:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T00:22:38","slug":"holes-in-the-ground-not-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/11\/holes-in-the-ground-not-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Holes (In the Ground, Not Stories) (update Jan 13)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had originally thought of using a dip in the ground west of Cloud Pavilion (one of our rain-barns)\u00a0 to create a small pond, fed by water from the storage tanks at Cloud.\u00a0 Cloud was so that 4 2500 gallon tanks could be placed in it (under the two upper decks) but on further consideration (and R-‘s discovery of both heart problem & cancer) that big plan was dumped.\u00a0 We have 5000 gallons of storage installed at Cloud (though we did not foresee, silly people we are, that the tanks with water in them would try to sink in the ground every time we had a wet year…the outlet fixture is presently about six inches down.\u00a0 Duh.)\u00a0 When the creek still mostly had at least some puddles in it, we used the water for “drip pans” that served small small animals–reptiles like snakes as well as small mammals, and also some birds.\u00a0 But the creek’s been essentially dry for several years now–time to step up the water service for wildlife.<\/p>\n

I like to create naturalistic (not fully naturalized because that’s expensive and difficult) water features that appeal to birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates, offering a chance to reproduce to some that need a wet spot, or underwater for their nymphs for instance…which also provides another food source for other critters.\u00a0\u00a0 We’ve discovered that wildlife can and will eventually make holes in the toughest pond liners, but it takes them longer with a thick-enough plastic or rubber tub-like thing.\u00a0 Water containers designed for cattle or horses are above ground (so not subject to the chemical attacks of various soils)\u00a0 and usually 1-2 feet deep.\u00a0 Wildlife prefer water lower than that, though some will drink from livestock waterers (black vultures will foul a standard 100-200 gallon water trough by standing on the edge to drink then turning around and pooping in it.\u00a0 Yuck.)\u00a0 Critters that fall into deep water can’t climb out a vertical wall (some can; it’s the ones you find rotting in your water trough that can’t.\u00a0 Very Yuck.)\u00a0 So designing for multi-species use…and their ability to get out safely…places constraints.\u00a0 Critters like armadillos and small rodents want a ground-level access to water–while raccoons can stand up on their high legs and drink from some higher sources, ‘dillo hind legs don’t give them that flexibility.\u00a0 So…ground level access.\u00a0 Deep parts of the system help regulate water temperature, but are dangerous for some so…provide a route out (board, sticks, rocks more climbable than rubber\/plastic walls.)\u00a0 Birds want bathing places as well as drinking places; some birds always arrive in flocks and need more space (flocks of robins, cedar waxwings, and individual large birds like the Cooper’s hawk we had last year.)<\/p>\n

Back to this project.\u00a0 a 40-50 gallon oval tub, to be sunk into the ground as the base pool.\u00a0\u00a0 When this is finished, a solar-powered pump will go in it.\u00a0\u00a0 A shallower, smaller pool to be placed above and pouring into the bigger tub–if too deep, to be filled at least partially with gravel or sand to provide the shallow water small birds need for bathing.\u00a0 Today was placing, and digging the hole for, the lower tub.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn’t have the camera along on the first trip, so had to go back and get it, so there aren’t any pictures of deciding where to put it.\u00a0 Wanted to be able to see wildlife at the water from Cloud, both upper platforms and down in the shade.\u00a0 The first image shows the placement (inside that ring of dirt that came out of the hole) as seen from inside Cloud.<\/p>\n

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\"\"\u00a0 The hole<\/p>\n

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The tub fits into the hole and is just enough above true ground level that runoff from the field to (there’s a slight channel through here) won’t just fill the tub with dirt over time.\u00a0\u00a0 The dirt removed will be carefully backfilled\u00a0 and formed into a low-angle berm that will allow the wildlife to come up to the lip of the tub easily…and they will also have the shallower upper pool if they want.\u00a0 It will be supported on pavers, most likely.\u00a0 We will also plant some attractive food plants nearby (firecracker bushes to attract hummingbirds, elbowbush for deer and birds and–in spring–native bees and other pollen eaters, and water those for the first years.<\/p>\n

The Chief Digger (I dug some but he did more) surveys his work, then takes a rest:\u00a0 it was in the 80s today.<\/p>\n

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Addition: Friday the 13th of January.\u00a0\u00a0 I went out in the mid-late morning with a heavy metal rake to see if I could level the bottom of the hole (or if it had leveled itself with the tub dropped into the gloppy mud the night before.\u00a0 Pulled the tub out; only one small area on the bottom was wet, and the bottom was still uneven.\u00a0\u00a0 I tried raking int (an oval hole is hard to rake with that rake) and got it level-er.\u00a0 Wet it down a little, raked the still dry bits into the wet glop, tried again.\u00a0 Put the tub in, thumped the bottom…not supported.\u00a0 Rinse and repeat several times.\u00a0 Threw clods in to melt them and help level the bottom.\u00a0 Finally got the bottom so the tub didn’t have large hollows under it (different sound and feel when thumping the tub bottom with the end of the rake handle.)\u00a0\u00a0 I moved quite a big of soil round–fraction of what we dug out, but still it was all hand work, crumbling clods and feeding them into the cracks.\u00a0\u00a0 that’s not all done yet, BTW.<\/p>\n

Water in the tub!\u00a0 Started filling the tub with water to weight it down while I added looser & smaller lumps to the gaps at the sides and “melted” them so they’d go on down.\u00a0 R- appeared from the other chores he’d been doing and said the tub was too low now (he’s sortakinda right, BUT I wanted to see water filling the tub to get an idea of how that would look.\u00a0 Yes, it’s for wildlife but it’s also for me to enjoy the look of.)\u00a0\u00a0 I did not want to lug a partly full tub out of the hole, waste that water, try to fill the hole a little more, and keep fitting and re-fitting right then.\u00a0 Hmmph.\u00a0\u00a0 I had at least a pound of mud stuck to my rubber boots (yes, I had that much sense)\u00a0 and can now state clearly that a hoe that’s been used for mixing concrete is not the best of tools to scrape mud off boots with.\u00a0 Awkward is the kindest thing you can say about it.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 View to the south, across\/through fence at line of creek woods.\u00a0 Two blue chairs are plastic,<\/em><\/p>\n

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This pic is looking north-ish at the dry woods across the West Grass, showing the corner of Cloud, part of its east upper deck and the two storage tanks.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"\"If you’re experienced at following signs of fences, you can see the line of our south fence (and neighbor’s older fence in upper LH corner.\u00a0 There’s a patch of brushy stuff on our side of the fence and Cloud Water is positioned to get afternoon shade in summer from it, while the nearby brush allows birds & others some cover when they come for water.\u00a0 On the other side, but farther away from the water, is a brushpile where birds often shelter.\u00a0 We make brushpiles for shelter whenever we trim things up.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then we both decided (sitting down) that it was beautiful–the sky reflected in it, the trees and bushes around and so on.\u00a0 R- remembered where he had a length of PVC pipe we could put into the tub as an escape route (not ideal, ugly, but they do work…for now.\u00a0\u00a0 So we put that in.\u00a0\u00a0 Anyone who’s had to fish a dead & decomposing critter out of a stock tank or bathtub put out to water horses knows that a float and a ramp are essential…unless you like the smelly and slimy task.\u00a0 When I got back to the house and had had a rest for an hour, I realized I should’ve put out one of the shallow plastic pans we’d used before, that birds could bathe in.\u00a0 So, after haying the horses, I walked back out to Cloud and dipped out some water and there it was.\u00a0 (Didn’t take the camera in late afternoon on that trip.)\u00a0 I am a wee bit tired.<\/p>\n

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I had originally thought of using a dip in the ground west of Cloud Pavilion (one of our rain-barns)\u00a0 to create a small pond, fed by water from the storage tanks at Cloud.\u00a0 Cloud was so that 4 2500 gallon tanks could be placed in it (under the two upper decks) but on further consideration Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,59],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-80-acres","category-life-beynd-writing","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}