Around the farm, part two...

Hi Everyone!  Yesterday I showed you that the hay ground had been cut and baled into large rectangular bales....well, today I thought I'd show you what we've been waiting all spring and summer to start work on....in fact Dad has been waiting for this to happen for several years...

....the pond and dam are being worked on.  They brought the big equipment on Monday afternoon and began working on it on Tuesday.  My grandpa original dug out this pond and created the dam and it lasted a good many years. 

But my first year here (10 years ago) we had winter kill of the fish because the pond was getting filled in with silt (from run off from the fields and pasture).  Then a few years later we had a couple of years worth of flooding that broke the dam, right where he's working (above photo).

 Not only are they rebuilding the dam, but they are also digging it out and making it deeper.

 There use to be three large cottonwood trees in this group but a couple of years ago we lost one in a big storm.  They used the smaller excavator to move it and pile it up and then started burning it.  It will take a few days to burn it (it was a huge tree!) and then they will bury what remains of it.

 I've taken pictures on my lunch break each day and down by the pond each night because it's so interesting to see the progress they make each day.

 Below is a picture of what the pond looked like when I first moved here.  This is of the pond from the southwest side looking toward the house.  All the other pictures are looking from the house side.

They are also going to be putting in a driveway from the road to the east pasture (south of the barn) but I'll show you that on another day.  So far the weather has been great for this work and looks to stay that way for a while!  So that's what's going on at the farm these days.  What's happening in your neck of the woods?  Thanks for stopping by.