One’s for sure – this place won’t run out of water any time soon. There’s a lake and two wells on the property. The lake is fed from a source further up which is collected in a basin before it runs downstream. There’s also a few other, smaller sources on the property, all heading towards in the lake.
Unfortunately, there’s also a huge amount plants in the wrong place (you may call them weeds) and tree leaves – everywhere. I started tidying up the source basin about two weeks ago. I got myself some waders and in I went to cut off all the overhanging plants. The source basin must have been beautiful at some point, but now it is full of half-rotten plant debris (leaves, nettles, brambles, etc.) – at least a 20cm layer. Whenever I moved my feet, I released the trapped methane and huge bubbles made their way to the surface. Not very ideal for the water but I thought it was important to stop even more plant debris falling in. I did as much as I could, removed a big chunk of the floating pond weed as well, took a much needed break and one day later I saw that there’s fish in there! At least eight!
I still find it very hard to believe. You could hardly see the water underneath all the stray plants. It must have been like living in total darkness for them. How did they survive all these years?
Releasing the methane is obviously very bad news for the fish so that was it with the waders. I have now added a little water pump to add much needed oxygen to the water and am wrecking my brain how best to get all this sludge out without harming the fish and all the other inhabitants of the basin.
I’m also currently wrecking my brain how to run this water pump efficiently. It came with a 50W solar panel but it’s not strong enough so now it’s running off a power bank for a few hours a day but I want to connect it to a car battery + my bigger solar panel so it can run all the time. This electrickery is currently a bit too much for my little head but I shall make it work eventually!
Funnily enough, one of my neighbours on the other side of the road has an aquatic plant business (Les Filles de L’Eau). So I contacted him and he came over to have a look at it. And then I was bombarded with information and new words, all in French, for over an hour. The longest conversation in French I have had for at least 30 years and so many new words – my head hurt big time afterwards!
I think I got most of what he said. Cleaning the basin will be a lot of work as the layer of sludge is so thick but having someone to come and do it will cost me as much as buying a good sludge pump and do it myself. I rather own a good sludge pump, thank you very much.
It also needs more light, which means felling and pruning a few trees nearby.
I showed him the lake as well, he said the water quality is good everywhere, slightly on the acidic side but I can change that with the right water plants (and again – felling a few needle trees further up).
And then we walked past some animals droppings and his face lit up. He had a really close look at it, so close that it wouldn’t have shocked me if he had given it a taste as well (but, sadly, he didn’t). He’s 99% sure that there is an otter around. An OTTER!
I mean, they’re very rare and shy and them being around the lake means that there’s tons of life in the lake. Otters are carnivores so it’s either fish or crayfish or both. I feel very honoured to have him here and I’m hoping to catch a glimpse of him eventually.
And then I remembered that the second or third night after I arrived, there was some commotion going on close to the caravan, some animal going through some rubbish I haven’t cleared yet, making a huge amount of noise, and I shone a super bright torch right at it. It looked seriously shocked and fled the scene in an instant but it looked like some sort of badger, all I’ve really seen is a white speck on the chest and red eyes (from the torch light obviously). I think I might have given the poor otter the shock of his life time. What a shitty way to introduce myself. Sorry, Otter.
Other than the daily maintenance of removing the floating algae, I am also trying to befriend the fish with bread crumps. Ideally, at some point, they’ll get used to the daily treats and wait for me so I can try and catch them and put them somewhere safe before I start pumping out the sludge. Well at least that’s the plan – but just giving them some daily treats is kinda nice as well.
I have also found out that there is a proper drain for the basin so I could just empty it completely and give it a good clean. That sounds great but of course, there’s some issues with it as well. I’d probably kill a lot of pond inhabitants if I just drained it. The second is that it leaks and the water has been coming out of the leak and not where it used to run off which means that the water level used to be higher. And the original run off was a lot nicer as well. The third one is that I cannot see the valve and have no clue where it is. It’s hidden somewhere underneath all that sludge and there’s no way I’ll go in there with my bare hands to go look for it. I’d have no idea what to feel for, I’d release all the trapped methane, muddy up the water so I won’t be able to see a thing and something might bite me. No way, Jose.
(I’ve been bitten once by a dragonfly nymph, I think, it hurt like hell and I don’t want to feel that pain ever again!).
The chief coypu does not seem very amused that I’m removing all the algae as I also remove quite a bit of pond weed with it. And he’s coming very regularly to shove the pond weed into his mouth. Now of course there’s less and less. I think he let me know yesterday that he’s not afraid of me and my shenanigans and that he’s willing to stand his ground:
