Update on the Pond Project and Site of Pole Barn

We continue to clear brush from around the pond in anticipation of eventually building a small shed, deck and picnic table up there. We also plan on finding a 10 foot skiff for the pond and stocking it with fish  but if you followed earlier posts you remember it was so overgrown you couldnt even see the pond and the pond itself was choked with algae. We have made some progress in fixing all that and I expect we should be able to start stocking fish in April. There are also some pictures of the site of our new pole barn shop. It will be a 24x32 with an 8' wide lean-to on one side to use as an equipment shed and a 5x8 covered patio on the otherside that overlooks the farmhouse for lounging. It will have a concrete floor with drain, two windows, a man door out onto the covered patio, and I think we are going with a roll up door rather than a slider. We will also be doing a rainwater collection system off the roof that will be plumbed to a deep sink that will in turn drain to a grey water leachfield in the pasture. At least thats the plan...we are still waiting for the contractor to give us the estimate so that may get pared down.

We got rid of most of the algae with an organic cleaner that isnt suppoed to harm wildlife though it could kill fish because all the dying plant matter would suck up oxygen but we dont have any fish that survived to my knowledge.

You can see where we cleared brush and limbed up some of the cedars. We decided to leave most of the cedars and just limb them up so we will have shade. The shed and windmill (to aerate the pond) will be to the left in this picture.

Looks a bit better no?

These pictures are taken from the proposed site of the pole barn where the covered patio will be. We moved the building site a bit further back than originally intended to save money on excavating. We took a transit and found this site was fairly level with less than a 12" deviation in elevation at any corner of the proposed building and two corners were within a couple inches....thats a good thing as Martha Stewart would say. In this picture we are looking west.

Looking south, the old building in the next pasture is an old hog barn and the pond is to the left of those cedars.

Looking north we have views of pasture and the cows come up to the fence and stare at you. One of our neighbors owns the land on the side and back of us and like us likes his privacy. His wife is also related to the original owners of this entire old farm (her grandfather built our house) and he said the other day he bought the other property in back of us just to keep anyone from ever getting too close. We like that.

Looking east down our pasture towards our tree lot. We wont be able to see this from the patio of course because the pole barn would be in the way.

And I am posting this picture of the farm wife because I think shes purdy...