Connecting two ponds

Teased with beautiful sunny and dry days the previous week, Kevin and Martin decided to dig a trench to install concrete pipes between the chicken pond and the big pond. We never understood why the original builder decided not to connect these two ponds. At the moment, we have to catch the fish with a net, put them in buckets and quickly walk down to the big pond and empty the buckets one by one. It's a lot of hard work. Heavy work.

So, now into our fifth season, Kevin thought it would be a good idea to finally connect the two ponds. The new conduit will allow us to open a gate from the chicken pond, and let the fish flow through the pipes into the big pond. Easy... until Kevin and Martin hit rock. We now understand why the original owner left the two ponds separate.

If anyone knows my dear husband, they know he is a tenacious man and not easily deterred: he won't back down from a challenge. He took a few hours to think about how to solve this issue and he came up with a new and improved plan. Kevin is going to build a shallow concrete holding tank before linking it to the pipes. This tank will serve as a selection station (brilliant!!). We will be able to see the fish clearly, see if any should be put back due to being smaller, and guide the other fish down the pipe into the next pond.

Each pipe weighs 220 lb. Kevin used old tires as an intermediate step to help soften the blow when loading and unloading the pipes, minimizing the chance of breakage. It worked like a charm.

The rain held off during the mornings, but it did rain in the afternoons most of the week (the previous week, was indeed a tease). It's been raining hard all weekend, too. Kevin cannot start working on the concrete tank until the rain stops (which should be soon). Until then, everything is pretty muddy and messy.

I'll have more pictures as the project progresses. Stay tuned.

Our first B&B guests arrive on Wednesday. Let's pray for a little sunshine, shall we?